Block warranty & coolant loss

[MikeC]

Input requested.

My Burban has just started consuming coolant at 107K. Mechanic buddy and I have narrowed it to the engine burning it, from where yet to be determined.

Several questions:

How long is the block warranty?

What would you do??
1) Take truck to the dealer and pray for warranty coverage.
2) Put a new 6.5 in it and keep all the goodies, ie. gear drive timing, cooling mods, etc
3) Have Avant build and install an 18:1 300HP unit.
4) Install a 5.9 Cummins 12 valve at 300HP +/-

The idea of a Dmax went away with the wife's new Trailblazer so the Burban will be our camper towing truck for about 5 more years.

I want this truck to gross out at 17.5K and handle the mountains of W.Va. on the way to and from Florida.

Thanks in advance!

Mike

ps - Mechanic buddy is a Cummins Guru and says Cummins sells all adapters/controllers needed to correctly run the 5.9 in GM trucks.

[Dvldog 8793]

Howdy
See my eply in coolant loss. Don't take it to a dealer. Call the GM customer service line and start a file on it first. Then if they make you take to a dealer to verify that your block is cracked you can. I took my own block in and they looked at it in the trunk of my Caprice and said"Yep, It's cracked." That and a GREAT service dept that stood behind me got a check for 30% of a goodwrench long block(Kennedy has good engines also) I think factory warrenty is 100k miles. My rig had 150k. If you call the service dept make sure you tell them you own all kinds of Chevy product so they think you have been a lifelong bowtier. :D
Good luck and have fun!
L8r
Conley

[john8662]

How much coolant loss? If quite a lot, which could be a gallon a week etc. Are you sure that there are no external leaks, hoses, radiator, thermostat crossover, freeze plugs, block-off plates on the back of the heads, etc. ? Then I would proceed to pull the engine apart, start with the pan, thats usually where you'll find the cracks, starting from the center three main caps and up into the cylinder walls. The heads are also prone to cracking on these engines, you could also pull the heads and have a look. At any rate, if you pull the heads and don't find anything, or just "think" you found it, still pull the oil pan and have a look. Could get lucky, I pulled my pan for low oil pressure on my 1995 and didn't have a cracked block. Your 1996 is the same block that is in the 95's its a 599 block, which dont see as many cracks as some of the newer blocks have.

If worse comes to worse, and you are faced with your options layed out, I'd vote for the Avant 6.5, spec'ed out for what you need. Most don't need the 18:1 C.R.

[MikeC]

Leaks have been searched for and not found. The truck just towed 200 miles round trip plus about another 200 miles without the camper. The coolant was down 3 quarts.

If it is warm and is shut off and restarted after about 10 - 15 minutes it will blow a cloud of white smoke and then trail white out the pipe for about 1/4 mile up the road.

About three years ago it got to almost 260* while towing pre mods. I have always feared this would come along and now it finally has.

Mike

added after post - After the initial roughness it runs great. There, however, is a new uneven tone in the exhaust. mc

[ 10-21-2004, 06:40 AM: Message edited by: MikeC ]

[Kennedy]

Whatever you do, don't start tearing down in chassis. I'm sure it will go deeper than that...

[Dvldog 8793]

Howdy
John is 100% right! do not try to do an in-chassis rebuild. It really isn't that tough to pull out the engine and there are MANY things that you can check/replace for little or no money. Also much easier on the knuckles to remove and do it on the stand. I gotta think that GM should stand behind it somewhat with only 107l miles.
L8r
Conley Janssen

[ttpost]

I would get a new odometer with less than 100k miles on it :D :D :D

[MikeC]

:rolleyes: . . . . . . . smile.gif

[Bill Voitel]

Conley, Could you hit me with the ph# that you used for GM customer service. I tried to E/M them asking for the number to no avail.
Thank You
Bill.
BVoitel@cs.com

[MikeC]

Looks like I'm going to go with Jamie Avant at the Diesel Depot. I'll know more soon.

Mike

[Kennedy]

I'd recommend that you start with a new block OR splayed mains if you want to go high dollar/tech/perf.

I've gone to the new block reman engines for simplicity, durability, and quality...

[MikeC]

How's he do it :confused:

John Kennedy emailed me with a 6.5 mechanic he knows in my area, well 70 miles away. After contacting him he wanted to see my truck and do some testing as he was convinced it was a head gasket. He has seen several with head gaskets gone near #7 cylinder.

I went down and looked at my truck on Monday the 15th. The head gasket was the problem, near #7. One head will make a great boat anchor but the other can be rebuilt. The lower end "is fine." The truck will get rebuilt heads with jacketed waterways and new head gaskets. It will also get a new harmonic balancer.

Thanks again for the referral John. :D

Mike

[Keith Richards]

Mike C, sorry to stray from original subject,but your mechanic buddy who knows alot about cummins,does he do,or would he do a swap?Any idea how much he would charge?I would seriously consider swapping a cummins into my classic chevy 4x4 if the price was right.This wont be for a while ,but I'm looking ahead ,thank you friend.

[Keith Richards]

Arent head gasket repairs covered under warranty as well? yOUR ONLY AT 7000 miles over.When I took my truck in for warranteed inj. pump,they supposedly replaced head gasket free of charge as well.I've always been skeptical of this as my truck was running just fine,before I got the new pump.It was as if they just faked it to get the warranty work from chevrolet because I could see no evidence of work done!I didnt ask alot of questions because I just wanted my truck back,and it all only cost me a hundred bucks,for the deductible.Truck had 97,000 miles I beleive.

[MikeC]

Keith,

I can ask my buddy about a swap. That's what he wanted to do with my Burban but I didn't want to try to sell the thing in 4 or 5 years and need to find someone ho wnated a specific vehicle. After all, no matter how good the job, it still is not a production vehicle with the Cummins and buyer would need to be looking for that GM/Cummins mix.

As far as the dealer, I wasn't sure about the warranty and the mechanic that has my truck is not concerned by my mods. Don't get me wrong, I like the guys at the local dealership service dept, but I was afraid that if I had to push to get the repair that the factory rep would question the intercooler, FSD cooler, big exhaust, Dmax fan, Turbo master etc etc.

I figured the end of the story would be me paying dealer rate for the repair and even my offset timing getting set back within spec. :(

Mike