2000 24v engine into a 2001 Dodge
 

I have the dreaded 53 casting cracked block. My truck is a 2001. I found a 2000 24v engine for a good price but wondering what I would have to change for the swap. My understanding is that the 2001 ISB has different electronics?

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

here's my sig....

Should be a direct swap. Keep your computer, and you may have to swap a few sensors from your engine to the other.

Will need the cam sensor for sure

And a couple other sensors that have different plug ends on them

Map sensor is different but just swap the correct one from the 53 head

Sent with a Droid RAZR in one hand and 14,000 volts in the other.

Thanks for the info.... The guy just checked the engine and it's actually a 1998. Does this change things? Thanks guys.

If its the 98.5 24v then no. Just swap what you need from your old engine onto the 98.5 block an you should be fine. Is yours a manual or automatic. If its manual then you need the High output cummins they made in 98.5 to 2002. They didn't announce it being a h/o motor untill 99 or 2000 I believe. But it only came in standard trans.

I have a Manuel.....

Another q... I can't tell that my block is cracking more.... It was cracked when I bought it and 3000 miles later it's the same. It was JB welded so it's not leaking coolant... What do you guys think??? Thanks for the help.

Keep runnin' her the way she is IF she's not leaking. Why change the engine if you don't need to? (You may want to buy a good replacement and store it for a rainy day though.)

I had a 1999 with a cracked block. The crack was 8" long. I only changed my engine because it leaked like a son-of-a-beatch, once warmed up. Couldn't travel more than 100 miles on the expressway before it would unload all of the coolant and start to overheat. Kept water in it and kept using it for 3 months during the summer. Of course, the damned crack got bigger. Leaked all the coolant out within 10 miles or so. Worked fine since I was driving between 3 farms that were about 10 miles apart. Drove to one, filled her up with water. Used her for picking up hay in the lot and towing wagons out. Filled her up before running down the road. Got to destination, filled her up again. I kept (2) 5 gallon gas cans full of water in the truck with me all the time. It was a royal pain in the arse... not to mention, straight water rusts the inside of the cooling system like crazy! :argh:

I bought mine cracked as well, yet unknowingly. :dang: I got SCREWED by the guy I bought it from, because he didn't tell me that it was cracked or leaking. He had attempted a JB weld repair as well, which didn't work. (No surprise, it was like he stuck some damned chewing gum over it and just expected it to withstand the expansion and contraction cycles of the engine - stupid!)

Anyhow, I put a 2000 24V 5.9L CTD "Sport" engine in my 1999 "SLT". Both ran automatic trannys. It was basically a direct fit, except for one wierd thing... For some reason, the "new" engine didn't like the 1999's Chrysler PCM (the one on the firewall). It kept making my transmission overheat, or at least it made the warning light come on and the tranny kept going into "fail-safe" mode. After determining that there was nothing wrong with my tranny (which I already knew), I changed the PCM's and viola! Problem went away. Beats me as to why. (My 1999 Chrysler PCM had been updated to the most current version just months before, when I was trying to find a lack of power problem, which ended up being the MAP sensor.)

Oh, one other thing, I had to swap the fuel filter housings. As I recall, they were slightly different as well, and it was much easier to put the 1999 one on the 2000 engine so that the fuel lines hooked up the same from the truck.

It's funny you mentioned the '01 CTD's being different. They are. I have a 2001 24V 5.9L H.O. that is awaiting a transplant into my 1997 V-10 5spd truck. :tu: Should be fun - NOT - LOL! I can tell you that many of the '01 engine's sensors and main wiring harness plugs are different than the earlier model year trucks.

As long as the 1998.5 24V engine you are looking at is not a 53 block, and you can buy it reasonably cheap enough, I'd say buy it, and park it in your garage on a pallet for a rainy day. Sooner or later, you're likely to need it if/when the JB weld on your crack finally gives up. Since your truck is an 2001, if you end up using the 1998.5 engine, just be sure that you swap all of the necessary sensors and such so that everything plugs into your newer truck's wiring harness connectors. You will also want to use the Cummins ECU from your '01 on the 1998.5 engine. Always keep your ECU and PCM together, because if you don't, I can guarantee you will have problems that will arise. I believe that computer re-flashing can fix those issues of different year software revisions, but why would you want to go through that hassle and expense if you don't need to?

BTW, I was fortunate to have found and purchased a used bare block (non-53) to enable me to revive my cracked "53" engine. Found it from a guy on eBay that parts Dodge diesels out. Now I just gotta go through the hassle of changing all the parts over, and will throw a new set of rings and bearings at her, which will make her almost like new again.

I wish I had the time to do the engine work sooner, as then I wouldn't have had to go buy a complete one that was ready to go. But, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get your truck up and running again.

Best of luck with what you decide to do. :humm:

Thanks so much for the help turbodiesel. It barely leaks at all. Never leaves enough coolant to be visible. I heard if a 53 block doesn't crack after 150k. My truck has 210k. I can't imagine it cracked that long ago. Is it possible that it will not crack anymore than it already did? Still plan in on the rainy day thing either way though.

It's possible that it won't crack any more, but it's also possible that it will. Mine cracked and then continued to get worse and worse over then next few months until I couldn't drive the truck more than about 10 miles before it lost too much coolant to keep driving it without risking overheating the truck. That's when I stopped using the truck until I could get the engine changed out.

Truth is, if you have the time and money, there is a place in California that can successfully fix cracked engine blocks. I forget the name of the place, but I found it online, so I'm sure you could as well. I almost went that route, but since I'm in NY, from a financial standpoint, it made more sense for me to just replace my engine. Shipping my bare engine block out to them and then back was the main factor in why I couldn't justify the expense. Otherwise, I would have just had my original engine repaired, as there was nothing else wrong with it besides the great big crack in the long coolant port in the side of the block.

Not sure what mileage my Cummins 53 block cracked at. When I bought the truck with 206K, it had already been JB weld puttied up - and poorly - I might add. The former owner was a real douchbag for doing that to me.

Oh, and one more thing... If you plan on doing any modifications to upgrade the performance of the engine, be aware that coolant pressure gets more intense as you turn these Cummins engines up. The extra pressure and flow is likely to cause you even more grief if you have a cracked/patched block. I know that the rear soft plug (aka: freeze plug) at the back of the block is known for rotting away and blowing out under the higher pressures that are created with turning up the engine.

I also know that the rearmost soft plug (a tiny 3/8" one) that is on the corner of the cylinder head just behind the #6 exhaust port is also known for rotting away and leaking. I fixed mine by drilling out the old plug with a very short 3/8" drill bit and a right angle drill... Then tapped the hole with a 7/16" SAE (fine thread) tap and installed a 7/16" SAE cap screw (bolt) with some red threadlocker (loctite) and a copper sealing (crush) washer at the head of the bolt. It worked mint and sure beat removing the cylinder head or trying to drive in a new POS dinky 3/8" soft plug. I'm sure that I'll eventually have to do the same thing to more of them, as there is a 3/8" soft plug found at every cylinder near the cylinder head's exhaust ports.

Finally, the soft plugs that are UNDER the valve cover can also pop out, leading to coolant getting directly into the crankcase and will quickly wipe out your engine by mixing coolant with your engine oil. There are good repair kits to be found online to address this problem, that come with the appropriate pipe tap and pipe plugs to put in place of the POS soft plugs that can fail. There is also a coolant pressure by-pass kit that can be added. Another good kit to install.
I have yet to install either of these 2 kits into my truck, as it's still in stock form and I don't push it that hard. However, it's on my list of "To-Do's" when I get some extra money and time.