The Motor Rebuild

Despite the fact that the motor in my truck has supposedly been rebuilt only 40 thousand miles before I bought it, my truck was having problems. I was getting "check turbocharger" error codes from the computer and had a mysterious coolant leak. The coolant did not seem to be mixing with the oil, but it was definitely going somewhere. I drove the truck around like this for quite some time while I diagnosed the problem and what I would do about it. After consulting with some other turbo owners it was thought that I either had a blown headgasket or cracked head. Now certainly this problem could have been solved with a new headgasket or head, but what fun is that? I decided to dive into a full-on rebuild with stronger, more powerful parts.

The initial disassembly has been done at Mike Fox's house. It seems as though the headgasket was blown, however it was letting coolant out to the atmosphere, not into the cylinder. This is why I didn't see coolant and oil mixing. The leak was behind the exhaust manifold, which is why I could not locate it. The engine was rebuilt at Palmer Automotive with the following parts: