Hey all. So I just bought a 95 CTD for a donor truck for my '90 suburban swap. The od says that there are close to 500k miles on the truck. The motor runs great with little to no blow by, but while the motor is in between trucks it would be a great time to freshen up the motor. What would be the best bang for my buck to make sure that this motor makes it another 500k miles? I'm on a tight budget for this swap so be nice lol

 

Give it a bath.
Replace fuel and oil filters.
Do the KDP fix.
Valve cover gaskets, if it leaks oil.
Replace the rear main seal.
Swap in new frost plugs if they look rusty.
Swap oil pan if it looks really rusty.

 

While you have the engine out it would be a great time to replace the rear main seal, tappet cover gasket, re-seal the vacuum pump, and fix the KDP and re seal the front cover.

 

So nothing to the motor itself? Just fix the KDP and put a gasket set in it? Would it be a bad idea to re-ring it and put new bearings in it, or is that asking for trouble?

 

You used the words "The motor runs great"
Followed by the sentence "I'm on a tight budget"
Just clean it up and throw few gaskets at it that are a pain to do in the truck, and install it.

 

You have been given great advice, my only caveat is it will be easier to do a head gasket out of the truck than in it, but I am not sure I would even do that.

At 500K, unless it has lived a hard life ( and you would expect to see blow-bye ) the honing cross hatch probably isn't all gone.

 

Years ago I pulled the head off a '95 motor with 350,xxx on it as I was sure it needed to be rebuilt with high miles.
The cross hatching on the on the cylinder walls looked great.
After a new head gasket was installed it was buttoned back up, as it was good to go under the hood of another, less rusty old Dodge.
Something I just NEEDED to see myself, but it was basically a waste of time and the price of the head gasket.

 

It wont need rings until over a million miles if that. I Just had a oil analysis done on mine at 275K and everything looked perfect. Much better than my 2013 TDI that's full of aluminum.
Here is my 1995 CTD oil report:



And here is my 2013 VW TDI:

 

I second a head gasket, check the head for strsightness before reinstall, give the valves a look over as well. While it's out it sure would be easy to pull the pan and look over the bottom end, check mains/rods etc. even if only for peace of mind.

Any plans for power on the motor?

 

Thanks for the advice. I have some mild plans for power. I'm thinking a set of DDP 40 hp sticks, governor springs, a fuel plate and maybe a slightly better flowing turbo to keep EGTs down. I don't plan on anything more than 400 hp.

 

Good, simple is better with the 12 valve, too many people go all goofy spending money.

You know you can grind your own fuel plate, right?

 

I have heard that but I am not overly familiar the workings of the P pump my first cummins was a 24 valve.

 

Cool, if you decide to do it yourself, there is a good illustration on here of all the various patterns.