so i looked under my truck to see if i had a 53 block. shure enough with my luck i do. ive read up on them. but i would like your guys opinion. just how bad are they?? my truck has 200xxxkm about 130 miles. i have plans to do upgrades. was looking to eventually be around 500hp- 700hp with the truck. is that safe? with this block. any response is greatly apreciated. thanks guys

 

I had one in the 400hp range , and never had an issue. The long and short of it is some crack , others may never.

 

Don't be afraid to mod it,there's plenty of people running big power on 53 blocks.I have one in my ride and don't worry about it now or when i'm gonna mod it after upgraded trans.

 

only 100k of the blocks were bad.... but if u mod it it might crack

 

If it hasn't cracked yet, I wouldn't worry about it. It would have done it before now normally. Just keep truckin!

 

i wouldnt be afraid to mod your truck. i have a 53 block with 180k on it and no cracks and i have some decent mods to it. it all depends ive seen some crack at 100k and some at 200k. it would start as a hairline crack on the passenger side of the block where the water jacket is. you will notice white streaks coming from the crack which is coolant leaking. and yes the truck is still driveable but it will get to the point where you will have to be adding coolant once a week just to keep it from overheating, long story short, all the 53's can crack but i would not worry about that. just go ahead and mod the truck the way you want and if your the un lucky one with the block that cracks you can always find a 5.9l block from a 12 valve and swap it.

 

i had one in mine and it cracked with 98k miles on it, worst case scenario is it cracks or beast case it doesn't but why let the block in your truck thats might never crack scare you away from any plans you have for it? if it breaks build a helluva motor