well i just got my 97 cummins out of the shop after i had some performance work done to it. Well as the mechanic was talking to me about it he told me if i plan on doing ANY thing else to it i will need to go ahead and get it rebuilt. he said the hard life its had and the excessive about of blow by indicates that.
know for your alls input.
the truck is a 97 12valve with 186,xxx miles on it it has been used as a farm truck its hole life its common for it to haul 16-18 6x6 hayrolls on my gooseneck or haul cattle so yes it has had a hard working life but it only has 186k on i figured it shouldnt need it yet. but anywho its getting retired as a farm truck and transformed to a 2.6 puller so far it has minor upgrades on it and it handles it fine but i just orders a new helix cam, shied injectors, and some other odds and ends for it. it still drives and pulls great but i want to know if i should go ahead and do a COMPLETE rebuild when i put these parts in?? also what does your general rebuild cost? and whats the main parts i need to look at?

Thanks in advance
Andrew

 

do you trust your mechanic and do you think its gotta lot of blowby and just what do you want to do to it.

 

look man, mines got 300k on it an it has been rode pretty hard i just dont see you having to rebuild it that soon... sounds like you gotta money hungry mechanic.. only way that thing would needa rebuild is if you aint taken care of it, oil changes fule filters...etcc


mine has minimal blow by!!!

 

Excessive blow-by could be a sign of bad rings and a sign that the engine needs a rebuild.

Alternately, it could be a sign of a bad turbo seal.

There's something else I'm spacing on that can cause excessive blow-by too.


It'd be highly unusual to need to rebuild that young of an engine. Leak-down test before rebuild.

 

Read through this thread, it's another guy that thought he needed a rebuild but found out different. It also has a quick test to see if Blow by really is a problem. https://www.dieselbombers.com/24-val...uild-kits.html