What's Best For Our 53's?

[Mopar1973Man]

There is a lot of ranches I've worked on up here in Idaho that are still without power. That being said go up and spent the night at one of them in a old cabin and wood fire stove and get up to minus weather and foot of fresh snow on the truck. No way to plug in but cycle the grid heaters twice and light it up. Let the high idle kick in and no time the glass is thawing out.

[rancherman]

I'm chiming in a little late here but after seeing a couple 53 blocks cracked in Dodges, one of which came out of a fedex truck that had over 300,000 miles on it, I have come to the conclusion that it is actually the location of the engine mounts that causes the blocks to crack. The fedex trucks and almost every other medium duty truck that uses the 5.9 has mounts on the flywheel housing or bellhousing and on the very front of the engine. Dodge uses side engine mounts, which combined with a thinner than should be casting and power adding devices causes the side of the block to flex to much and eventually crack. Since there were some 53's made that weren't too thin they are able to handle the flex from the engine mounts loction. This is only my opinion on the reason that I came up with from the few I have seen, wish I had the correct equipment and the engines to test my theory.

I'd agree with your hypothesis too! Dodge is pretty much the only application that uses the side mounting bosses of cummins blocks. When that motor torques over on acceleration or downshifting, all the counteractive force is in the center of the block.... whereas a rear mounted block would allow it to spread it's rotational torque stresses across the full length of the block. And don't forget the all important side to side vibration a mid mounted block will incur as opposed to a front/rear located one. Throw in normal road bumps, a couple hundred thousand miles.. and it's not too hard to see a mid mounted block not nearly as well-supported as a front/rear one would be. Now, on the other hand, most front/rear mounted engines will have their transmissions hanging totally free at the back end. (no trans crossmember) the trans just hangs off the clutch housing. most mid size trucks that DID use the 53 block were spec'd with a different casting... possibly cast in Columbus, not 'south of the border'. let me back up and say the rotational forces should be limited pretty much at the mounting ears of the rear mount. That SAE #3 adapter that contains the flywheel and includes the mounting ears is one TOUGH SOB piece of iron!

[joecool911]

When you shut off the rig, seems like the rattling of the motor would be hard on the mounts/mount to block attachment. So possibly shut down when the motor has not reached operating temps may be hard on it? I usually idle mine while in the post office, etc. while warming up. Now I've not even looked to see if mine is a #53 or not.sont wish to hijack this thread, but what about turbo cool down? Kind of an opposite situation than warm up.

[Texas CTD]

When you shut off the rig, seems like the rattling of the motor would be hard on the mounts/mount to block attachment. So possibly shut down when the motor has not reached operating temps may be hard on it? I usually idle mine while in the post office, etc. while warming up. Now I've not even looked to see if mine is a #53 or not. sont wish to hijack this thread, but what about turbo cool down? Kind of an opposite situation than warm up.

I'll shut down when the EGT's are below 400*, but I like to let them get down around 300* before shutting down. Is that what you were asking?

[joecool911]

Well, thanks for that, but I don't have an EGT gauge yet.

[fire176969]

Well, thanks for that, but I don't have an EGT gauge yet.

I have a hotrod vp and an edge comp maxed out with the baby hy35 turbo and it takes mine about 3-4 minutes idling to get to 300 degrees Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[fire176969]

I'd agree with your hypothesis too! Dodge is pretty much the only application that uses the side mounting bosses of cummins blocks. When that motor torques over on acceleration or downshifting, all the counteractive force is in the center of the block.... whereas a rear mounted block would allow it to spread it's rotational torque stresses across the full length of the block. And don't forget the all important side to side vibration a mid mounted block will incur as opposed to a front/rear located one. Throw in normal road bumps, a couple hundred thousand miles.. and it's not too hard to see a mid mounted block not nearly as well-supported as a front/rear one would be. Now, on the other hand, most front/rear mounted engines will have their transmissions hanging totally free at the back end. (no trans crossmember) the trans just hangs off the clutch housing. most mid size trucks that DID use the 53 block were spec'd with a different casting... possibly cast in Columbus, not 'south of the border'. let me back up and say the rotational forces should be limited pretty much at the mounting ears of the rear mount. That SAE #3 adapter that contains the flywheel and includes the mounting ears is one TOUGH SOB piece of iron!

I did see a 53 block from a FedEx truck put in a dodge and was cracked within 2 weeks. Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[Mopar1973Man]

Interesting...

[fire176969]

It had close to 200,000 on it in the fed ex truck when it was rear ended.Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[rancherman]

When you shut off the rig, seems like the rattling of the motor would be hard on the mounts/mount to block attachment. So possibly shut down when the motor has not reached operating temps may be hard on it? I usually idle mine while in the post office, etc. while warming up. Now I've not even looked to see if mine is a #53 or not. sont wish to hijack this thread, but what about turbo cool down? Kind of an opposite situation than warm up.

neat observation... I've wondered in my 4wd tractor with the 903 v8 cummins, there is a sticker on the dash that says I should push the clutch in while the engine is shutting down. This configuration is a 150 lb flywheel, with non-clutched driveshaft bolted to that, (always spins with motor). The 'real' clutch is inside the transmission, with another 130 lb flywheel, 16 inch wet clutch. Pushing in the clutch shouldn't reduce the flywheel effect... but it does seem to be a smoother shutdown. Especially the very last 1 or 2 revolutions. There is a ton of spinning gears which could add a bunch of backlash on shutdown..

[dennhop]

That is why I said it is better than nothing somewhere other than Texas, but in Texas it's not like you have icicles hanging out of your nose so you might as well just get in and lightly drive it. If you have a foot of snow on the windshield and ice under that and it's 0F out then that "better than nothing" becomes a lot better than nothing, especially better than the 6cyl high idle. You are correct you just read what I said the wrong way or I said it the wrong way. Even you still came to the conclusion that it isn't worth it in Texas so you are basically seeing the same point of view. IMHO I would just plug it in. I know it's easier to just flip a 3cyl high idle switch to heat it up but going out of your way to get a receptacle in front of your truck at your house has 10fold benefits in my opinion. Diesel is like gold, electricity is cheap. Starting a warm truck also cuts a lot of wear and tear. Even though you have 3cyl high idle, you still wear everything every time you start it at 0F.

Sorry for the late reply...between work, and my internet giving me issues, I've been able to see the replies, just haven't been able to get on to post till now... My mistake on the post-I did misread yours, thinking that you meant the 3 cyl high idle wasn't worth it outside of TX...not that you were saying in TX, it wouldn't be worth much...guess that's what I get for trying to post responses with a million things going on in the background!

[flagmanruss]

I don't know anything about the 53 blocks beyond what I've read. However, all engines must go through hot/cold cycles. It just makes sense to me to gradually heart & cool the motors. I start my 55 block / 24 valve and busy myself with other things like seatbelts until I see the oil pressure stop climbing. Depending on the outside temperature... like extreme cold... I might wait another minute. Most of the time, I'm running empty. I treat the Cummins as I did gas engines in recent years, after I read that prolonged idling was bad for the engine. So what I do is drive easy until operating temp is reached. On shut down, I give a few minutes of idling for the turbo to wind down before shut down...Unless I'm towing. In that case I do warm up & cool down more. There is no way to escape hot/cold cycles except to park the truck & what fun is that?

[Texas CTD]

Also, on the note of motor mount locations causing the crack, that makes even more sense, because some people say their 53 was fine, then they added some mods and it cracked. Well that makes sense because more torque would mean more stress on that motor mount? Correct?

[Mopar1973Man]

I would bet money you guys are right about the torque and crack problem it really does make sense of engine mount location and how the the cracks form and where.

[Texas CTD]

Bump. There's some good info in here.

[CSM]

So basically we would need to go to the FedEx style of mounts or go straight to an elephant ear mount like on a race car? Anybody have photos of the FedEx style mounts? I don't have a 53, but I am curious.