so should I just tow it home and deal with it myself?

it is a stick, not an auto.

This guy is the only shop in town that would even look at the diesel and said that he and is guys drive them and have seen this before..

But still, I know that I have always gotten good advice here and I really don't like having my truck in someone else's hands no matter who they are.

I asked him how much if I just bring him another engine and have him put it in and he said with replacing the heater core all rubber lines and the radiator and r and r the engine, $2500. Seems a bit high to me! after all, it is a pickup with a 6 cylnder engine. I can't see it taking that many hours to replace.

Would the oil cooler blowout get coolant in the oil as well? He said that the oil blowing all over the place out of the overflow bottle is being pushed by crankcase pressure from having the cylinder lining blown.

argh!

trust me though, I WANT to believe it is just an oil cooler! and I trust you guys a lot more than a shop who has me over a barrell.

 

Were are you exactly and is there any one close to there that can rec a good shop!


flash.

 

The truck is in Anacortes, WA. I am sitting by the phone and internet on Lopez Island nearby.

 

Hmmm first the pressure that is pushing the oil out of the over flow is from you eng, oil pump! not from the crank case.

IF there really is coolant in the oil(have them show that to ya) them you may have a bad head gasket!

As far as i now you can't get coolant into the crank case from a bad oil cooler(I'm almost dead positive of that.).............then again if it was a big enough hole the coolant could push it's way thru the cooler in to the oil system and end up in the crank................ok just typing out loud


Yes it could get in the oil pan with a bad oil cooler!

 

I just can remeber for sure ..........but it seam like there was coolant in my oil also.....I now i change my oil after my oil cooler probem ,just not positive that there was coolent in there or not!



flash.

 

hate to see this. civitation is a powerstroke problem and the guy at the shop is full of it. i would pay him for the trouble and worry that he has already caused and get him out of your life. i looked up the only thing i know is somewhat near and that is Piers Diesel. you can look on there site, they are only about an hour and a half from where you said the truck is. if nothing else they probably know all of the reputable shops in the area. a call to them would probably be well worth the time spent. have you seen what it would cost to just get a tow home? or is there a friend that would be able to help you out for a HUGE "i owe you one"? as far as replacing heater core and all of that i don't believe it is needed. i could be wrong but i thought there was a process to clean all that out through flushing the system and letting the engine heat cycles clean it all out maybe some soap involved or something.

again, i would get the truck out of that guys hands. if you don't let him do the work he's gonna want to charge all sorts of storage fees and stuff like that. worst case if no one can help you get the truck home, find a friend that you can leave the truck with and find a bus ticket home or something. trying to fix something in a rush ends up costing very big $$$ i know from plently of experience. it could be a head gasket, but you should be sure before tearing in. and as far as civitationa and a hole in the "liner" tell him to go back to the v8 trash he's used to working on (after you get your truck back!) i'm far away but will do what i can to help. let me know if i can do anything!

 

Try call Dynomite Diesel Performance in monroe WA. They work on trucks all day and have a shop. Tell them what's going on they might know. Let us know what the outcome is. Good Luck

Dana

 

hey i jsut checked and a freind of mine moved out to WA a while back and is in Lynden. We haven't talked in a little while but he is very mechanically inclined and a great guy. been looking for an excuse to call him and catch up so let me know if you are running out of options. i don't know his current vehicle situation but he used to have a tow dolly that saved my butt on many ocasions. check your pm's

 

OK, well here's the plan right now. I am going to get a ride to my parents' place 100 miles away and borrow their 1 ton chevy, rent an equipment trailer and get my truck home.

The only reason to have had anyone else work in it would have been to solve the problem quickly and that is obviously not going to happen here. I appreciate the shop recommendations but I can't afford to keep towing it around and like I said, if it has to take more than a day or two to deal with, I might as well take it home. I can pull that cooler out of there in no time and tell right off whether I need to pull the head too.

I sure do appreciate all the advice and help I get here. You guys have saved me a pile of dough and grief just by letting me know that this guy is barking up the wrong tree. I don't know whether he is dishonest or just ignorant, but when he told me it was either a cracked head or a cavitated liner, I knew he was not the guy to deal with this. After all, there are multiple other things that could have happened adn he just picked the most expensive to tell me about.

Which is funny, because just by looking at my truck with the ratty interior, and the paint falling off and the logging tools and chains and stuff on the back, he should have been able to guess that I wasn't going to just throw 5000-7000 at it on a whim..

 

glad to hear you have a plan to get it home. towing is not cheap. after my last fiasco i went with the AAA gold member package. 100miles towing on a breakdown. for the number of long trips i take it's worth it for the peace of mind. i trust these trucks but things happen. and there isn't always a cummins place local. as you've found every local mech can't handle it. i know it's too late now but look into it for the future. and our trucks will fit on a 17ft rollback.

 

with the amount of tows I've had to buy, I would have been ahead to buy MYSELF a 17' rollback!

this truck has had to be towed home twice, both times I was pulling a trailer, so I got hit extra for that too. And my old M880 had to get towed once too, also towing a trailer.

This would have been at least a $500-600 tow IF I could have found someone willing to do it. That's what has really irked me about this mess. I couldn;t even get a cab last night to get to the ferry, I had to hitchhike. no one wanted to work on the truck except for this guy, who is trying to take me to the cleaners. I don't think I could have dealt with trying to find a tow truck that could take me home.

The last time I got towed home (in December!) the guy showed up with his truck and started whining about how heavy my truck was and how heavy my trailer was going to be (light car hauler with a VW jetta on it) and how it was going to be hard on his truck and then he raised the price on me right then and there!

Sheesh! it's either scammers or lazy people!

 

just bite the bullet and get you and your truck home then you can think about how to diagnose this problem without the clock ticking. wish i was closer to give you a hand . i haven't been to lopez island since 1970. bet its' changed abit. by the way this is what holes in liners look like in a jd 152cu in tractor. again no liners in any B series cummins from my understanding. i have seen cavitation in a early 6.9 ford motor my cousin had and he bored it and sleeved it and drove it.

 

where is Skamokawa? never heard of it. if i didnt HAVE to work, i would tow you home. sorry pal.

 

Thanks again for everyone's kind offers! My brother is coming to meet me at the ferry in anacortes and driving me to the parents' place in Olympia. I'll be back up here with a trailer tomorrow and will have the truck safe and sound in MY own driveway by tomorrow night.

Lopez has gotten a bit more expensive since 1970 for sure, but it has retained its rural character more than the other islands through good zoning and land use regulation, so the number of mcmansions and what not is minimal for such a nice place. I wish I was made if $ so I could live here, but not in this lifetime I'm afraid!

Skamokawa is about 40 miles west of Longview, WA on SR 4, along the Columbia River. About 255 miles from where my truck broke...

 

i just checked the map, now i see you. taking i5 on down after the ferry ride? they are gonna get you for that ferry fare with a trailer, sorry.