Ford Diesel Owners, I got a question??

[dieselgeek]

Re: Ford Diesel Owners, I got a question??

I would argue that in 99 the best performing diesel was the Cummins ISB.

Isn't it true that in '99 the Cummins used the dreaded "53" casting blocks that cracked and leaked coolant? My buddy is kindof a Cummins nut (he currently has a 900hp 12valve '95 Dodge pulling truck) and has owned more that his fair share of 24V Cummins with cracked blocks. He has told me that 99-2002ish were the bad castings, and the only repair method is to replace the block. He currently has a '99 24V cummins laying on his garage floor that a guy gave him for parts after it cracked.

Mine's a "53" block and it's 350,000 miles strong and doing just fine. The internet forums are overloaded with BS about the "cracked block" thing. Bottom line, if you start the truck up in the middle of winter and floor it right away - which, unfortunately, is how many of the "hot rod diesel dummies" drive their trucks, you'll cause the "Turkey Crack." Cummins engineers call it the Turkey Crack because it was discovered by a mining company in turkey, they'd start up their trucks at the bottom of a mine shaft, and immediately run them full throttle uphill. Eventually, the stress on the block would cause a crack.

It happened to about .00001% of the US domestic trucks. but the Ford guys have fun with it :-)

[DanStokes]

Re: Ford Diesel Owners, I got a question??

We lost one on the dyno. I spent a weekend reblocking it so we could get back to testing on Monday morning. Cummins sent us a block that had clearly be re-engineered but they insisted that there was nothing wrong with the old one. BTW - we had a professional welder come on site to try to fix it - no go. The new block was fine and we ran the snot out of it for at least another year. To be fair, we did run them pretty hard but only after a decent warm-up.

Dan

[ford141]

Re: Ford Diesel Owners, I got a question??

I would argue that in 99 the best performing diesel was the Cummins ISB.

Isn't it true that in '99 the Cummins used the dreaded "53" casting blocks that cracked and leaked coolant? My buddy is kindof a Cummins nut (he currently has a 900hp 12valve '95 Dodge pulling truck) and has owned more that his fair share of 24V Cummins with cracked blocks. He has told me that 99-2002ish were the bad castings, and the only repair method is to replace the block. He currently has a '99 24V cummins laying on his garage floor that a guy gave him for parts after it cracked.

Mine's a "53" block and it's 350,000 miles strong and doing just fine. The internet forums are overloaded with BS about the "cracked block" thing. Bottom line, if you start the truck up in the middle of winter and floor it right away - which, unfortunately, is how many of the "hot rod diesel dummies" drive their trucks, you'll cause the "Turkey Crack." Cummins engineers call it the Turkey Crack because it was discovered by a mining company in turkey, they'd start up their trucks at the bottom of a mine shaft, and immediately run them full throttle uphill. Eventually, the stress on the block would cause a crack.

It happened to about .00001% of the US domestic trucks. but the Ford guys have fun with it :-)

Well, even though I am a Ford guy, I am not a Ford DIESEL guy, I'm much more of a Cummins fan than anything. I'm currently helping another friend with a Cummins 12V swap into his 95 F350. It is a pretty low budget setup, but with a few well-placed goodies it should put down 450hp and 800tq when it is done. Can't do that with a Powerstroke for the change that we have in this motor. Like I said, the info on the 53 blocks is not first-hand experience, but that is not internet chatter either. That is experience from a Cummins guy who has owned 15-20 diesel-powered Dodges over his lifetime. Granted, all of the trucks that happened to have not had easy lives (a lot of gas-well service trucks here in PA), but most expect a diesel to take some abuse. Maybe it isn't a big issue, but a lot of the Cummins guys I know look at those trucks as ticking time bombs unless the block has already been replaced. Not hatin' just sayin...