Brock's 08 Pete 389 engine swap(Yellow to Red?)

[Brock]

Well its finally time to tackle my Pete. Since 2009 I've owned 8 trucks and ran many drivers at a time but was never actually making any money, many many times I had to struggle to find the money for a tire replacement. Over the last 2 years I have sold all but 2 and am about to ditch the Western Star once my Peterbilts rebuilt.


I've made some big mistakes in business and learned some hard lessons, I've always been a top performer at my jobs, there was a 6 month period where every month I was congratulated on being the top grossing truck in the entire fleet (and that includes semi vacs that billed out $250cad a hour). Where did that get me? I made 1 million dollars gross but had a net loss of $80,000!!! I had a 33% maintenance cost!!!

The moment I started making money again was the day I parked my trucks and stopped hiring drivers, I was actually paying off debt while making 3 truck payments all last year. So here we are, debt free finally and ready to go down to just 1 truck!

Those who dont know, I rebuilt my 2008 Peterbilt 389 with a Cat C15 SDP engine a year and a bit ago, we spared no expense and did everything minus the turbos..... and I mean everything! I replaced all wiring, ecm, fuel pump and primer and all regulators, every single sensor is new, front and read structures, injectors etc etc. We even removed all the unnecessary crap....... boy did she look pretty and was fun to drive.



The problem, the mechanic didnt cut the deck or counter bores even though he was paid to do so..... he didnt do it because he didnt have the tool, I told him to drive someone out there and make sure it was done and I'd pay whatever it cost. I made the mistake of going on vacation so I didnt know he didnt do it until the head gasket blew 2 weeks later.

He put a new gasket on blaming a bad gasket. 2 weeks later it blew again so my wife and I tore it down to find the grooves were 10x Cats allowable wear!!!



So we let it sit opened up for a year till we paid off debt and saved enough money. Today is the day were starting, the motor is being yanked out as I type this. Unfortunately my injectors got surface rust built up on them so I sent them away for testing.... that's a expensive mistake.

I am waiting to see how the injectors and turbos test back, if they are good then I will be keeping this Cat engine because I could not justify swapping another motor when absolutely everything is new on this one, I already bought new cylinder packs and spacer plate and bearings and rings and a gasket set last year. However, If the injectors and turbos come back bad and itll add an extra $23,000cad to the bill, I'll throw a ISX in here in a heartbeat as that would be my preferred engine anyways.

If I do the Cat, the block is going for the work over, crankshaft to measure straightness, rods checked out, head cleaned up and worked over etc.

If I do a ISX I will buy 1 of 2 good used ones I have available and I will swap everything on the outside before install so all the nickle and dime craps done, then when the time comes I will just need a inframe.

[Brock]

Getting ready to pull the beast...

[Rawze]

it sucks, and is very costly when people don't do the job you hired them to do properly.

[tree98]

Not to pour salt in the wound but did you ever confront this "mechanic " about not cutting the counterbores? Tell him what it ends up costing financially and mentally? If so what was his response?

[Brock]

(10-29-2019 )tree98 Wrote:  Not to pour salt in the wound but did you ever confront this "mechanic " about not cutting the counterbores? Tell him what it ends up costing financially and mentally? If so what was his response?

The last time I spoke to him was when I found out what the issue was. He said "oh you must have dropped a liner, must be from those tall gears you got"

He said to come back and he would fix it, I told him enough of his crap, hes a god damn thief and I told him to lose my number and my name from his vocabulary.

[flatbed94kid]

We learn from seeing things like this from you.

[Brock]

(10-30-2019 )flatbed94kid Wrote:  We learn from seeing things like this from you.

That's why I post this story/ info. I get no joy out of coming on a public forum and letting everyone know what a idiot I've been and publically shaming myself but I hope by people reading this, maybe someone will think twice before making the mistakes I have.

[Brock]

And were off!!! Man I really should have washed all the mud off before doing a motor tear down.....

Might have to run a pressure washer over it now that the motors out.

[Hammerhead]

You doin this yourself Brock?
Or are you having another shop do this for ya?