ive got a 53 block thats craked and has the sign on the side of block where coolant has oozed out , noticed alot of rush on replacing these motors.. my block has been craked for the last 50000 miles, its stock 3500 and i pull cow trailer and drive all over town, never has left me stranded, it will empty the cooling resevoir in a 8000 mile oil change, i believe you can get by with these blocks if you dont pull the mountain and take the banks,edge,,and godzillas off , ??? just trying to encourage myself. old blue has 234,000, she's still plugging along. just had to give her a new vp and new fuel pressure guage[, ready for another 200,000

 

mine is cracked from the back of the block to the front... 1 gallon of water per 40 miles.

 

either of you looked into lock-n-stitch?

 

yeppers mine been lock n stitched. and it cracked again above the stitching.

 

doh! That stinks.

 

Thats what i thought to. i got a 12valve block that i am going to swap over the 24v stuff into. i just carry my gallon jug and fill it up every mourning to go to work. but gotta get it fixed b4 winter. i aint dumping anitfreeze in that much.

 

Cummins said lock n stitch would eventually fail.

Mine started leaking slow then after while got to around 30 gallons+ per day. I found a used block from a burned truck - great now.

 

how do you know if you have the 53 block? and if you do is it going to crack eventually?

 

A 53 block has the numbers 53 cast into it in several places. The main place is on the IP side, just above the pan, visible from under the truck.

You don't know if it will crack. There are way many more out there not cracked than there are cracked. Remember that this forum represents a very small amount of owners, and only the owners with issues post complaints. I know alot of guys around where I live and they have several million miles between them, one 99 in particular does have over a million miles and is used to pull a backhoe for a plumbing company 6 days a week since the first day it rolled off the lot and has only had the water pump replaced. None of these guys have ever had any Lift Pump, VP44, APPS, Trans, 53 cracks, death wobble, or any of the other issues that folks claim they have. They all do seem to have cracked dashes.

My 99 had about 149,000 miles on it when I traded it and never cracked. The dash fell to pieces and the ac evap leaked. I did change the LP just because of alot of talk. That was it.

 

We used some Belzona super metal #4 on the side of a block. Been a year and the guy says it's still not leaking.

 

That is very good stuff - we used to use it on a lot of stuff in the power plant, including patching coal pipes.

 

Yep. We have a customer with a truck that we did a p pump conversion on with a 53 block. Makes 800 on fuel and runs it to work and back. So far he has has no issues, but time will tell. He knew it going into the conversion.

 

?? What is the IP side. Want to check mine to see if I have a 53 block

 

IP = Injector Pump = drivers side


The #53 can be on either side or both (like mine):

http://www.stamey.info/Truck/Cummins53BlockFAQ.htm

 

had a cracked 53 on a twin turbo 24 valve, replaced it with a 2003 12 valve bus block but reused the internals (crank, rods, pistons) p.pumped it and actually was very happy with the power it made, when it cracked as well on the usual spot but big time front to rear from one moment to the next going 145 miles on the autubahn for around 40 miles with absolutely healthy numbers EGT, Coolant etc. it was turning 2800 rpm (I have a gear vendor) I thik that the reason might be as well as the weak block the lack of balancing on the brasilian 53 blocks. That leads to problems by reusng the same components in a new block without proper balancing. anybody heard of a similar story? I´ll do the rebuilt with professionaly balanced components only