I have a Cast #53 block in my 1999 CTD. From what I can tell, the truck has never been used to haul heavy. I do plan on towing with it, but nothing heavy by CTD-standards - only about 5000lb or so which is hardly anything. So I'm not really too worried about the crack developing in my rig. I'm much more concerned about the automatic tranny holding up over the long-term, but that's another subject entirely.

Anyway, I was curious if there's any kind of preventative maintenance that can be done to head-off the dreaded cracked block? More frequent cooling system flushes jump immediately to mind. From what I've mostly read, the crack is caused by both the high water pressure that's inherant to towing heavy and also from corrosion from the inside out. Any evidence to backup this theory of more frequent coolant flushes? How about cooling system additives? Or using various brands of coolant? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

 

one of our members"haulin in dixie" posted a while back about defective t-stats not opening and causing high temps in the block, he said the new stats (most current ones) remedied the problem. Don;t know the whole story, he will probably chime in, he replaced his motor not to long back. As for the 53 block, not towing heavy is definitely a plus, their are guys w/ tons of miles that tow all the time w/ no prob's and guys w/ 60k miles that have cracked em'. i've got one and push 30+ Lbs. of boost daily and so far so good. Don't make yourself sick over it, enjoy your truck their is a better chance you will not have a problem the way you use it.

 

Ask Haulin in Dixie about his problems. Then ask BigBlackDodge about his. Haulin has gone through 2 #53 blocks. BBD has 414k+ on his #53 block and he tows I think around 15k a day everyday.

 

I am new to this site but am getting concerned about this #53 block. How would I go about finding out if my truck has one of these questionalble blocks.

 

No the thermostat had nothing to do with the block cracking, was a totally different problem.