Helping JimT out with an inframe ...

[tree98]

Anything going on ??

[Volvo8873]

I am guessing the beer got to them...

[marek4792]

Probably watching a movie with a couple white russians

[Rawze]

Yesterday I don't think anything much got done on JimT's truck. I think he said he was taking a break or something.

Today (the 14'th) I went out there and helped him pull the head off it. - He took several photos of things. Maybe he will post a couple pics.

I helped him also pull a liner out of it... He has 152mm liners.

Now at least he knows which overhaul kit to order. I will take him to Mr. hags in the morning so that he can start ordering parts.

His liners were gonzo -- polished right out, worn to the bone. After seeing that intake so sooted up and other things,.. this engine has suffered severe neglect and carbon packing. It has a million+ miles of wear in it for only the miles it had on it.


it also looks like someone at some recent point before he purchased it replaced all the cam bearings in the head. They were new ... but the cam was wiped out. -- odd if you ask me. -- It is also obvious that someone was in there messing around, as one of the bolts head was damaged for the spring-loaded scissor gears. Looks like it was over-torqed.

[Chamberpains]

Well I guess that starts to tell the story of this engine. Something has bothered me since the 1st couple tear down pics were posted. Mr Hagg said the head looked like it was replaced. You can see the exhaust side is all rusted and all the paint is gone except in the freeze plugs. Thats usually an indication of cheap nonoriginal paint being used or the it being cooked by a lot of abuse and heat. I also noticed what looked like paint runs on the valve cover.     that is usually from some over ambitious lazy person trying to cover up shenanigans or a lazy attempt to make things look good. It could just be the flash and the angle though.

Combine that with new cam bearings and a wiped out cam at 570,000 miles.... this all starts to point to someone Frankensteining an engine together. Maybe a reman'd original head with reused cams? Was this truck demandated when purchased? Is it possible someone screwed with the actual mileage to sell it?

Not that any of this matters, if true. Its getting taken care of the right way now and should prove to be a great money maker afterwards. I just like to ponder and play a bit of a detective.

[Waterloo]

The old scissor gear... That sucks, a new solid, NON-scissor gear is not cheap, around $500 wasn't it? I remember my jaw hitting the deck when I found out how much! We never priced a scissor gear, I probably would have had a stroke... LOL!

Maybe call around to some junk yards and or maybe Mr Hagg has one from a bad motor lying around? Not another scissor gear, but a solid one like we replaced mine with.

I talked to Rawze the other day, they are not sure if my donor cam will work... No wonder JimT took the day off... Trust me, this can get expensive real quick.

[Rawze]

(08-14-2020 )Chamberpains Wrote:  Well I guess that starts to tell the story of this engine. Something has bothered me since the 1st couple tear down pics were posted. Mr Hagg said the head looked like it was replaced. You can see the exhaust side is all rusted and all the paint is gone except in the freeze plugs. Thats usually an indication of cheap nonoriginal paint being used or the it being cooked by a lot of abuse and heat. I also noticed what looked like paint runs on the valve cover. that is usually from some over ambitious lazy person trying to cover up shenanigans or a lazy attempt to make things look good. It could just be the flash and the angle though.

Combine that with new cam bearings and a wiped out cam at 570,000 miles.... this all starts to point to someone Frankensteining an engine together. Maybe a reman'd original head with reused cams? Was this truck demandated when purchased? Is it possible someone screwed with the actual mileage to sell it?

Not that any of this matters, if true. Its getting taken care of the right way now and should prove to be a great money maker afterwards. I just like to ponder and play a bit of a detective.

Actually, the head date stamping matches the engine. It is the original head. It just was not painted as well as it should have been on the passenger side.

(speculation) it likely didn't get a good coating on it went thru the paint booth during manufacture?. I could tell the head had never been off it when we pulled it too. -- Just the bearings and other things were messed with.

There are also subtle signs that maybe ceramic from the fuel pump went thru the engine at one point.

(more speculation) ...
My only guess is that it got sold by Useless-Express,.. next owner had it for a short time and got a ceramic plunger of death diag.. so someone cleand it up, new bearings (cam looks original or used) in head, and sold it again after the last guy failed his lease over it.

[dhirocz]

So out of curiosity, what parts are upgraded through Cummins during these inframes? I know of the cam retainer plate, the oil bypass, piston cooling nozzles and I guess the valve cam gear is what you guys are referring to...

I ask because I'm hoarding parts for mine at the moment.

[JimT]

Ok, sorry I've been a bit quiet the last few days.

Corrections: code 559 low rail pressure first appeared in Dec. of 2018, about 6 months after I got the truck. Roughly 440,000-450,000 mi. Shops I consulted dismissed it and it wasn't until my own searches led me here in June of 2019 that I found and repaired the pump head. At that point 3/4 of one ceramic plunger was gone. My speculations is that big fleet long oil drain intervals and EGR/DPF issues led to the first cam being wiped out somewhere around 1st/2nd owner. 2nd owner had it less then a year before I bought it from a small dealer.

As far as the cam goes, only one lobe is damaged, the rest looks ok. I'm speculating that it was from the fuel pump, but at this point it's only a guess. Waterloo's cam was a slightly different part number, his last digit was 6, mine was 9. Probably the change from narrow lobes to wider lobes? Another reason I think the cam might have been replaced once before.

Rawze was off with the date slightly, the 12th I took the morning to square away the monthly finances and paperwork, then we had some strong T-Storms roll through in the afternoon. We didn't see much rain here but Mr. Hagg had some good sized hail. Finally pulled the head off first thing Wednesday the 13th. Dropped it off at Mr. Haggs and came back and pulled piston and liner #2. Worked late yesterday breaking all the bolts loose on the rest of the pistons and prepping them for removal before more T-Storms rolled through.

Another trip to Mr. Haggs this morning (the 14th) to order parts. Came back and pulled the rest of the pistons. Another rain shower rolled through while I was working. Going back out to disassemble the wrist pins and work on the liners next.

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I'm not the expert here, but from things Rawze has said the head still looked in good shape. But the piston heads had plenty of buildup, rings were worn and liners were shot. I don't see any major visible damage, most likely years of carbon buildup, fleet maintenance and bad driving habits(?). Don't appear to have any dropped liners (wasn't consuming coolant). Otherwise, I'll let the pictures speak for themelves...

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Too many pictures to keep posting them all here. So here's a gallery everyone can check out:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Nmzav1DWydFRFUMq8

I'll add more there as time goes on.

Many photo's have a comment in the bottom left corner identifying which position they are from. Some photo's are for reference during reassembly and some are just to show my wife :)

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I'll post a parts and price list once I get everything, but I'm just shy of $20k in parts so far. Of course, make sure you get the correct parts for YOUR engine.