Just lost my 1st 96 12 valve to some A-hole from holland who couldnt negotiate a left turn... go figure... so I figured I would go and pick up another truck , so I found this other 96 12 valve and holy crap am I in over my head... I took it to the local diesel shop yesterday to repair what I thought was a pretty serious but simple oil leak form the pan or something, the mechanic pops the hood and within 3 seconds he tells me it is KDP and $1600 to fix ... The thing that gets me is the truck runs and drives supreme, I know I should buckle down and take the time to get to the timing case and check all those bolts and probabily pull it to check if the pin is in or out but i live at an apartment complex and am not allowed to work on my vehicle to that extent .... I guess my question is would the truck run fine is the pin went through while it was running which i know is the worst case scenario? I have read too many horror stories of mr piston meeting mr valve and it being far worse off than mine , if that is in fact the case. any help would be greatly appreciated and this is also my first post under this name for my new truck... guess i should have named myself private pile... thanks again everyone!

And never trust anyone when buying a vehicle... i learned the hard way...

 

Welcome to the site. Sorry for your bad luck but to answer your question, I have seen and repaired several trucks with a broken gear housing caused by the KDP. As far as I can remember, all of them drove to the shop under their own power, running perfectly except for the oil pouring out the bottom.

In rare cases the pin will break the camshaft and cause huge damage, but only a very low percentage of the failures will do that.

I should add that $1600 sounds like a pretty good deal to repair that if it's being done properly.

 

$1600 seems good to me too but I am 23 and do not have that kind of $$$, lets say i pull the timing case cover and its the worst case, how much if I got the parts to do the job at home? thanks for the reply!

 

If it still runs it's not worst case.
By this time the pin has passed into the oil pan and the only damage besides the case could be a gear with a missing or chipped tooth which may not need to be replaced.

 

the thing that gets me the most is the guy said he just had the timing case seal redone about 1 year ago, in my head it would be simple enough to take care of tabbing the KDP whiile that was going on... somehow he does not have proof of that purchase though... so I will feel a lot better knowing if its a leaky seal, a loose bolt on the case cover or a kdp for sure. will update when I get to the timing case. does anybody know if you can drop the oil pan without pulling the motor? figure while im under there might as well change/ reseal what I can

 

is there a hole in the case anywhere? so the seal was redone and the kdp wasnt fixed man people need to figure these things out.

 

The guy may be confused about what was done before. It may have simply been a front crank seal that was changed, and if it was just some little neighborhood garage, they may not be familiar enough with that engine to be aware of the KDP issue.

Anyway, it's not hard to check. Simply remove the fan belt, the fan and its mount from the front of the engine. The part of the housing that always breaks is right below the fan mount.

 

Hey, maybe I could lend a hand. I am right down the street and I have a driveway...?
Oh, by the way, smoking96_12v (Russ) is my son. Yes, he went and looked (and bought) the truck when I was at work. Not sure I would have seen anything besides the oil leak anyway... For $1600 I think we can find the time and space to pull it apart.

 

Same here, let me know if I can help, I'm in Sacramento as well and have some space and tools. I just finished up building my 1972 power wagon crew so the garage is free for now...

 

Chalk it up to experience and don't kick yourself too much. We all learn by these circumstances. I don't know about anybody else, but I always miss something when looking at a used vehicle. It pays to look 3 or 4 times, and have someone with you.
You aren't the only one who has missed something important, but at least it is still running, and something you can handle yourself.

 

...and the diesel community is incredibly helpful and friendly!
Pape, we may take you up on some help. Sounds like you've been into these before and have the tools/knowledge/skills!

 

Wow, thanks papeCAT that is a hell of an offer, maybe we can set something up, you have no idea how cool that is, thank you! I think I would have got the truck anyways knowing whats wrong with it but an adjusting on the price would sure have been nice! As you guys can see my dad has been a diesel nut for the better part of 10 years now so I guess the nut does not fall far from the tree after all! thanks again everybody for all the help and I will be posting updates on this mess!

 

just spent an hour under the truck with a roll of paper towels and I know for sure the timing case and the oil pan gasket are leaky... if this thing was really re-done a year ago then whoever did it must not have been familiar with these machines... and the oil pan gasket is chewed and freshly wet with oil... looks like the pan is designed to mcome off without lifting the motor out, Can anyone confirm that???

 

You have to lift the motor a couple inches to get the pan to clear the trans(atleast on manuals, I don't know about autos)

 

There you go, its a brotherhood.....