Rebuilt exchange may or may not be worth looking into. As for Chinese parts not all are bad. In fact if you go out and buy a new truck like yours it will have lots of them involved in the build.


Or I would look for a rebuilder that has the best modern machine equipment and is large enough to get a decent price on parts they use. Hopefully passing some of the cost savings on to you.

I will second what air&road said, find a good machine shop. I have found a couple in my town that redo engines, and they do very good work. I usually strip the stuff to small pieces and drop off the engine in pieces and I get good workmanship back.

Depending on my mood and equipment I assemble it myself or have them do it. Two engines I had them redo were "quality replacements" from high name crate engine suppliers.

One machine shop I frequent has a mechanics shop attached to it so its a one window solution for most people.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I'll second Tom W.'s choice of Jasper. I used them when I was doing maintenance for a fleet of delivery trucks and never had a problem. Probably installed ten or twelve engines and four or five transmissions with zero failures. Did have one with a cracked oil pan but that could have occurred during shipping or my installation. They fast-shipped me a replacement pan, no hassle.

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Especially if he wants to minimize downtime.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

As long as it isn't showing symptoms of being worn out, I would just keep driving it.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

I came back to this thread to discover that it sounds as if there are no specific symptoms leading to the need for an overhaul. I would like to know more. Have you done a compression and/or a leakdown test? Does it have low oil pressure? Is it consuming a large volume of oil? Today's fuel injected engines of all makes are capable of many hundred thousand of miles when properly maintained and not driven abusively, especially if they primarily see freeway/highway use. If there is a symptom that warrants it, tear down, measurement/inspection and overhaul is the best way to go.

In this process you take care of the problem rather than paying for parts and machine work that are unnecessary. For example, if the crankshaft mic's out okay, tit isabsolutely not necessary to turn it. If the bores are only slightly worn, fresh rings are MUCH LESS expensive than boring to oversize and replacing Pistons. In fact you might be taking out much better Pistons than the Chinese junk you put back in.

One last thought. General Aviation, piston engine aircraft statistically have fewer catastrophic failures with very high time engines than the first few hundred hours after overhaul. The overhaul event just presents the possibility for things to go wrong. Aircraft engines have different specified Time Between Overhaul(TBO) reccomendation, depending on engine model. With Lycoming and Continental engines, there are many particular model engines that very commonly double TBO when properly monitored and maintained. Many variables play into engine life and it can vary widely.

Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Thanks, Larry. That is good advice all around.

But the problem may have fixed itself. Yesterday I had the windshield replaced since it had taken one rock too many. And the rust around the windshield 'frame' was extensive. I was told that without a rather high dollar body shop fix it was just a matter of time, like two years, before the windshield part of the body would not hold the glass.

The glass guy glued it in rather well, but he said it was not easy. And he did a lot of grinding work on the rust before he bonded in the windshield but he couldn't get it all. Otherwise there would be nothing to bond to.

So it looks like this is going to be a case of just drive it, and drive it in town, until something dies.

Because of the rust.

I have fought rust before in early Porsche's. I have always lost.

But I'm glad I started this thread. I can't be the last person to ask this question and now there is a lot of good advice for the next person faced with this.

There are some really smart people on this board.