Oil pooling in top of cylinder head.

[Nostalgic]

I thanked both Rawze's post, and your reply. Little conflicting, but both sides have merit, depending on what lens you look through.

From a shop owner standpoint, my approach would be a lot different. Who is going to honor warranty, and who is going to reimburse labor. From an individual who doesn't have an unlimited budget, I'm willing to "risk" a few unprovens for $15k savings. In fact, I've bought a lot of parts (with no warranty) off of ebay.

Rawze mentioned criticals, and I tend to sway towards his camp. Rods were available new aftermarket or reman from cummins, and despite the fact that I have low opinion on cummins quality control (or any reman for that matter - ask me how much I despise A1-Cardone), it was less risk to me than buying a rod that I could not verify any feedback on. Now, that said, I have NO issues with using IPD bearings with them at a savings of close to 65%.

It's a big drawback in the heavy industry. For auto, I can just call my vendor and ask the rate of returns on x vs y brand part, but in this industry, for some reason, vendors seem to want to protect the image of both x AND y brand, and will sing praises for both. Doesn't make sense lol.

Injectors would be another issue. Unless I have a solid history with a reman shop (which I do not), there's no way I would buy a set of injectors off of ebay. The risk vs reward is not in my favor. Does it mean I sing praises on Cummins reman injectors? Nope, but at least I feel that I have better odds.