Well, she bit the dust, In Frame this week...

[Waterloo]

2008 Prostar, 600 hp ISX, 18 spd, steerable drop-axle, wet kit, TriPac APU, third owner... 900,000 miles and a bad head gasket, west coast truck... I am probably being raped, but I feel good in my decision to do this, the truck is paid for, and still valued at $65,000... And trust me, I have a hell of allot more in this thing. If I could do it over, I would have bought an old Pete with an old Detroit Series 60 under the hood.... But, it is what it is.

They dropped the tranny, the clutch looks really good, clean as the ace of spades and very little wear, no idea how old it is, looked new to me other than slight pad wear... Put a new one in and be done with it... Bell housing seal has been replaced, not a fun job from what I heard, fly wheel was sent out and looked fantastic... New pilot, input going in, replace it all and I know what I have.

Going to crack the head tomorrow, but they did find the Jake Brake solenoids were shot, they were already on the list thanks to Unilevers... I am expecting some cam wear, which I suspect is where I have gotten the higher copper readings on the oil analysis...

They dropped the pan yesterday, looks clean as a whistle in there, no signs of wear or abuse visually, but my oil pressure has been dropping, it is time. I have the regular rod/bearings, not the cross hatched ones... But still good to hear that it looked clean in there.

Honestly, so far so good, finding some crap parts, new radiator is already toast, I will reply on that after I see it, new OEM radiator going in to replace it. Fan blade is bad, two cracks, one tiny one I knew of, one I didn't, it was kind of on my list... Replace the fan and be done with it... AC Idler Pulley, the one you crank on to loosen the belts was toast, I twirled it and it seemed fine the other day when I replaced a pulley, but told it was bad too... But, that may explain why my pulley failed that I just replaced, I'll look at it tomorrow...

I told them to take their time, do it right. They are warrantying this rebuild, so I expect it to be done right the first time. So far so good... Looking at thirty grand when all is said and done... I just dropped them a $10,000 check yesterday...

This is insane...