v8440

Hi all,

Here to pester you with yet another question. I've pretty much struck a deal with for a '99 2wd five speed dually. The truck has 254,000 miles on it, pulling around 20k pounds. This includes through the mountains-everywhere in the continental US. As I understand it, this is the sort of duty that generally will crack a 53 block if it's gonna crack. I'm not sure if the engine has been replaced in this truck, so my line of thinking is this: Either the engine has been replaced, or IF it's a 53 block, it probably won't crack since it has had the hell worked out of it for over 250,000 miles. Is my thinking correct here?

displacedtexan

I'm not the authority on this subject, but as an educated guess, I would have to agree with you.

Did you check to see if it was a 53?

v8440

No, I have not actually seen the truck. That's why I'm trying to deduce whether or not it's likely to have the 53 block, and if so, whether it's likely to cause a problem after all these hard miles.

99 cummins

There is alot of these 53 blocks on the road with only a small amount of them being a problem. It's one more thing to consider in making your choice but I wouldn't base your opinion on just that. Even it becomes a problems there are several options for repairing them now that work, so it's not that big a deal anymore. Every truck out there seems to have there own list of flaws, this is just one for these years of truck. By the way, I have one of them and have never thought twice about it.

coiler33

I think everyone over states the 53 block. I have one and just turned 325k miles no problems and I haul 18,000 plus 4 days a week. If it has hauled like you say I would not worry. Just like the weak tranny which I replaced at about 250k and that was because I needed a business rite-off. Just my .02

v8440

Well, I just ended up getting a different truck-a '98 12v quadcab 2wd dually. It apparently does NOT have the 53 block. Here's why: Yesterday I got the truck up on a lift at a muffler shop and took a good look under there with a light. I looked at both sides of the front of the block, and found a fairly large (about 3/4" tall) number "5". There was no 3 after the 5. There were some smaller numbers I could not make out nearby, I think above the 5. I remember on the driver's side, there was a small square or rectangular area of the block that was indented (i.e. a little "dish" in the side of the block" about 1" by 1". There was no letter or number in that.

Dr. Evil

Good point, BUT I have been told that a 24V #53 is NOT the same as a 12V #53. The engine harmonics are comletely different and the 12V blocks do not crack anywhere near as often as the 24V's. My 2 cents.

v8440, I think youre much better off with the 12V rather than the 24V. Its hard to find anything better than a 98 12V.

v8440

Ah, I never heard about the difference in 12v blocks cracking vs 24v blocks. Makes sense though-I guess the vibrations would be somewhat different, at least from the valvetrain.

BoostdCTD

Granted a 53 block 12V is a lot more rare than the 53 24V, but I agree. My truck actually is a 53, BFD.