My buddy called me a couple nights ago, said he broke the serpentine belt on his truck. He asked me how far he should drive. I told him to the side of the road. Silence on his end... Then well I'm about 15 more minutes from home. Told him to pull over and not drive anymore and we could fix it in the morning - probably just a bad alternator or waterpump etc. He had it towed and I took a look -- the bearing on the tensioner pulley was froze up. Literally a two minute job to fix. Then I looked a little closer. No antifreeze left in the bottle...
Anyways I got the complete story in the morning-- (this is a 6.5 diesel one ton chip truck) He was towing a trailer and had a full load of maple in the bed. Instead of pulling over on the highway when he noticed no power steering he kept driving, until the engine overheated and then 5 more miles before he called me. Once we got the belt back on and filled the antifreeze things looked ok for 5 - 10 minutes. Figured he had dodged a bullet. But as he went for a test drive the white smoke started. And there is a slight knocking sound.
I'm not sure what he is going to do with the truck. Its got 170k on the clock and has no frame rot or rust on the cab (it was a florida truck) At the very least it's going to need new head gaskets and probably new heads. And I'm not sure what the knocking sound is. If he had just pulled over immediately he would have been out $18 for a pulley and $30 for a belt. Could have had it fixed in an hour on the side of the road. At this point it's a little beyond my abilities to fix for him so he is going to get some quotes. If it was my own truck I'd probably tackle the job.
Sounds like about $7k not counting labor for a new engine. Any coolant in the oil? wouldn't be worth new heads & labor if so. Or it becomes a gas burner for half that price
The oil looked fine so the blocks probably fine. Worst comes to worst he has a friend with a truck that has been totaled but the 6.5 diesel is fine.
Too bad my uncle sold off my grandfathers 92 k3500 SRW w/6.5 it had ~38k on the clock but rusted to yard truck status - could have hooked you up with one in southern ME
That would have been a nice find His is a 96, I believe there were some changes in the later models but not sure what.
Turbocharger was introduced in '94 I think..... I don't know if there were changes in the long block between the early 6.5s and '96 however.
The 6.5 TD was introduced alongside the non turbo 6.2 in 92 and then everything went electronic 6.5TD in 94. Neither will win any pulling contests but the early 6.5TD's could get some mileage (17-18) for their day
Before you get to far into it you might want to check the harmonic balancer. That could give you a knock and a 3 piece crank! Been there done that! Gary
He took the truck to diesel mechanic, said it looks like a cracked head -- 500 to tear into and find out what it needs exactly + another 2k or so to repair. He found a takeout with 140k (former town fleet truck) -- $15o0 + labor to install in his truck.
The only reservation I would have with an engine like that is that it's likely to have spent a lot of time idling. Price is right tho.
6.5 were famous for bad pump drivers, fuel lift pumps and probably a lot of things I don't want to remember! What ever route he goes make sure the check/replace the glow plugs, or at least take them out and anti-seize them. They are a pain in the arse when they break off when the engine is in in the truck. Gary
