Where is the best place to get an overhaul kit?

Reuse head bolts or get new? 

367,000 miles

Oh boy....

Your truck must not have had a good life? That’s not much miles. 

I recently bought 26 stock headbolts, Cummins was the cheapest place to go for bolts. 

 

As for rebuilt kit, I'd assume cummins also but could be wrong. Been known to be.

Edited November 30, 20186 yr by Towrigdually

Head gasket went south. May as well do it right?

I went with ARP 425's, Best to have your head and valves ported while its off. The exhaust side is quite restrictive, and O ringing the head if your pushing massive boost.

I woulds go with Cummins, or I think @dieselautopower may also sell them, they have allot of stuff.

ARP for head studs, and Cummins for gasket kits. 

 

If you're pulling it apart I would consider having the rotating assembly balanced. I don't recall it being expensive and WOW!!!

12 minutes ago, Jack Owen said:

Head gasket went south. May as well do it right?

I would see how inside looks like before I'd commit to do the whole thing. 

But yeah I'd go with studs. 

If you got time and money I guess you could go through the whole engine. That was my tactic back in the day, if I knew I was doing head gaskets I just did the whole thing. These were just sbc and sbf in older trucks, pretty easy to get done. I personally don't think you need overhaul especially if it was taken care of, like good oil and coolant. You’ll know more when you get the head off.

I'm more inclined to be in the "might as well" camp. 

 

I'd hate to do a HG and then in a few months start getting more blowby, or have a bearing issue. 

 

You won't know all of the engine condition just taking the head off. 

 

367K miles is nothing to complain about. These are pickups and not OTR trucks, very different load cycles for most of us. 

Edited November 30, 20186 yr by AH64ID

280,000 or so miles were on WVO. Heads off. Drop the pan. Easy peasy from there. New head bolts?

I know this isn't what everybody will agree with, but I reused my head bolt 3 times, my rational was that the local Cummins, as well as Freightliner dealer didn't stock them, parts routinely needing replaced would be in stock, right? In fact you can get a stretch gage to measure bolts, I personally never had a problem until this last rebuild, Bolts are torqued in sequence 3 times, you will feel a bolt stretch, (if you zoom on pic you will notice the stretch), but then again I don't put out the HP some other guy's trucks do, I did this time buy some new Cummins NOS bolts because 1 bolt stretched. Bought my rebuilt kit from CCP diesel, whole kit with Mahle pistons was under 1K. Also if valve guides are sloppy, you can get inserts from Highway and Heavy parts

Sorry my bad, I got valve guides from AGkits, If you need them I'm sure I can find part #'s  but my head had a lot more miles than yours does, might not need them.

Edited December 1, 20186 yr by Blueox01

9 hours ago, Jack Owen said:

New head bolts?

 

It would be worth it just to put studs in and not worry anymore. 

 

21 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

It would be worth it just to put studs in and not worry anymore. 

 

 

24 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

It would be worth it just to put studs in and not worry anymore. 

 

Not too start a big disagreement , $ 425+ Vs $125 Studs Vs Bolts depends on what you want out of your engine, 500+ HP or reliable 300+ Hp truck, goes along the line of putting big wheels on a truck for show or a truck setup too pull.  some people have unlimited funds for toy's, but sometimes practical is more sense, First "53 block lasted 450K, tried to have it welded(bad choice) New block from Cummins never had a head gasket blow or leak on either engine using same head bolts. But then again I don't have a 500 HP engine. But I know I tore up 3 NV5600's even though I did everything I could to baby them, there is always a weak link in the drive line. matching to what your need or use the truck for, and budget sometimes comes into play.

2 hours ago, Blueox01 said:

 

Not too start a big disagreement , $ 425+ Vs $125 Studs Vs Bolts depends on what you want out of your engine, 500+ HP or reliable 300+ Hp truck, goes along the line of putting big wheels on a truck for show or a truck setup too pull.  some people have unlimited funds for toy's, but sometimes practical is more sense, First "53 block lasted 450K, tried to have it welded(bad choice) New block from Cummins never had a head gasket blow or leak on either engine using same head bolts. But then again I don't have a 500 HP engine. But I know I tore up 3 NV5600's even though I did everything I could to baby them, there is always a weak link in the drive line. matching to what your need or use the truck for, and budget sometimes comes into play.

Well i am sitting on the fence with this with a HG replacement coming up. Would like to have quad one day maybe ibut cant see going over 350 may 400 hp. The studs really add to the cost. Just how much can the bolts hold up to safley? My oe ones anyway. As long as they are in spec any way.

 

14 hours ago, Jack Owen said:

Head gasket went south. May as well do it right?

I would just do the head gasket and freshen up the head. No sense in rebuilding an engine that isn't even half life unless it's been neglected most of it's life or damage found in cylinders  after head removal dictates a overhaul is needed.

 

Just my $0.02 though. I don't believe in fixing anything that ain't broke.

5 hours ago, 04Mach1 said:

I would just do the head gasket and freshen up the head. No sense in rebuilding an engine that isn't even half life unless it's been neglected most of it's life or damage found in cylinders  after head removal dictates a overhaul is needed.

 

Just my $0.02 though. I don't believe in fixing anything that ain't broke.

 

I agree. The engine appears to be stock so it should be good for another 350k. 

 

Jack Owen, what went south on the head gasket? Just an exterior  coolant leak, like the right front corner? Mine had a leak there at 258k, I changed gasket, reused the head bolts, torqued them the old fashioned way, 120# and shut the hood. That was 70k ago. 

If you rebuild I wouldn’t use mahle parts. Dad’s rebuild got mahle wrist pin bushings... let’s just say that it now has Cummins parts. Mahle didn’t make it 20K miles before it was knocking. 

 

The builder quit using them compleatly. 

Edited December 1, 20186 yr by AH64ID

46 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

If you rebuild I wouldn’t use mahle parts. Dad’s rebuild got mahle wrist pin bushings... let’s just say that it now has Cummins parts. Mahle didn’t make it 20K miles before it was knocking. 

 

The builder quit using them compleatly. 

Wow that's not encouraging, I think my whole kit was mahle.  But only needed 1 wrist pin bushing for #6 rod, that I did get from Cummins.

Edited December 1, 20186 yr by Blueox01

I want to correct my post these bolts were not head bolts but main cap bolts, was just to show bolt stretch, the point was you will feel a bolt stretching.

1 hour ago, Blueox01 said:

I want to correct my post these bolts were not head bolts but main cap bolts, was just to show bolt stretch, the point was you will feel a bolt stretching.

The bolt on the top is definitely out of spec, you can visually see the stretch about half way down the threaded portion. I would say OEM head bolts are good for atleast a one time reuse as long as the bolts do not exceed Cummins specs for max length. I built quite a few 6BT and ISB engines that were still in stock form reusing head bolts with zero warranty comebacks. It's all in the air and fuel mods on the engine and future plans that will determine whether head studs or OEM head bolts should be used.

 

For my personal truck I would probably go for head studs even though I never plan on the mods that would benefit from them. Of course it would all depend on the budget I had at the time of repair.

2 hours ago, 04Mach1 said:

The bolt on the top is definitely out of spec, you can visually see the stretch about half way down the threaded portion. I would say OEM head bolts are good for atleast a one time reuse as long as the bolts do not exceed Cummins specs for max length. I built quite a few 6BT and ISB engines that were still in stock form reusing head bolts with zero warranty comebacks. It's all in the air and fuel mods on the engine and future plans that will determine whether head studs or OEM head bolts should be used.

 

For my personal truck I would probably go for head studs even though I never plan on the mods that would benefit from them. Of course it would all depend on the budget I had at the time of repair.

 

2 hours ago, 04Mach1 said:

The bolt on the top is definitely out of spec, you can visually see the stretch about half way down the threaded portion. I would say OEM head bolts are good for atleast a one time reuse as long as the bolts do not exceed Cummins specs for max length. I built quite a few 6BT and ISB engines that were still in stock form reusing head bolts with zero warranty comebacks. It's all in the air and fuel mods on the engine and future plans that will determine whether head studs or OEM head bolts should be used.

 

For my personal truck I would probably go for head studs even though I never plan on the mods that would benefit from them. Of course it would all depend on the budget I had at the time of repair.

Well I can only go by my experience with my truck, but I would concede that the "book" says  to to replace head bolts whenever pulling the head, but I only have 857K (453K on first block, "53" block cracked tried to repair so head was of 3 times) on my engine and just this time put new Cummins head bolts (never a leak, or blown gasket), as well as the main cap bolts this rebuild, only because I felt the bolt stretch, My point was you should be able too feel it stretch when torquing if you pay attention. Not by any means a High HP engine re builder, just pay attention to details, like chasing all bolt holes, to make sure torque is true

Edited December 1, 20186 yr by Blueox01