Robert Rausch

Has anyone had their engine rebuilt? Mine is fine at 367,000 miles but I was talking to my mechanic who had just rebuilt a Dodge Cummins and he said it would be about $7,000.

AlpineRAM

Did mine myself (OK it's a 24V), after a blown out head gasket, burnt up piston and scored cylinder wall.

Went with just 1 oversize piston and fresh rings on all 6, new bearings etc.
Since there wasn't too much damage the parts were around 2k US$ including the ARP studs.
I did a good bit of machining on the head and had the pistons coated.

It took me about 60 hours, but I did not have some tools on site so the block and the head had to go to other shops for the machining.

Robert Rausch

Sounds interesting. What were the pistons coated with?

AlpineRAM

The piston flanges were coated with temper-flon by Kexel in Germany.

temper-flon is a friction reducer and dry run protector with a bit of thermal insulation.

What I would do if I did this now:

Do a thermal barrier coating for the piston crown and the head.
Did this on a 5.9 B in an excavator (Rebuild caused by broken oil cooler line) and that ceramic heat barrier stuff is incredible if it's done right.

The results are a lot better cold starts, virtually no white smoke when cold, and much lower oil and coolant temperatures at the same load and outside temps.

We did the pistons with much tighter clearance than stock, this was recommended by the coating guys.

For the head the coating of the exhaust ports reduces heat transfer from the exhaust gas to the coolant, and wince we also did this coating on the inside of the exhaust manifold the turbo spools noticeably quicker, and the engine compartement temperature is lower.