Have you ever worn out an engine?

I wore out a Jeep Liberty 3.6L V6 engine and tranny at 100,000 miles. The engine had all synthetic oil changes done personally by me. By 100k it was burning and blowing oil out the exhaust and had hardly any power. Also the tranny was slipping badly and would try and fail to downshift on the expressway. That was a 2005 model...a real POS...power windows kept breaking on it due to the plastic carrier.

Was weary of the Ram trucks because of this. My fears were eleviated quickly when I looked the truck over.

usmohls2@yahoo.com wrote:

Lessmore wrote:

ib516 wrote:
No, because I look after mine. But I have seen plenty of them worn out by neglect and abuse. Very few worn out by proper use.

When my dad had the GM dealership, we had a pair of brothers (customers) that used Astro vans to deliver the city newspaper around to the surrounding small towns 6 days/week. We did their maintenence. I did an oil change on one van that had 600,000 or 700,000 Km on it and it still ran fine. They'd be in for an oil change every week or two. They did manage to wear out the front wheel bearings though :)

Moral of the story is, modern engines (other than a few flawed designs) generally will outlast the rest of the vehicle if looked after IMO.

When I first got my Astro with it's 4300 Vortec V6, I asked one of the mechanics at the small country Chevy dealer I used, how these engines lasted. He said that it was a popular engine in farmer's pickups and he had a couple where he changed the oil...original engines had 450,000 kms on them. Still running fine, no major services needed.

The 4300 vortec V6 has the same bore & stroke as a small block chevy. Was told once, It was a 350 CI with the front 2 cylinders cut off.

It is. Only gripe: early (pre-87) 4.3's tended to shake at idle. (The 4.3 is an odd-fire V6.) 87+ got a balance shaft...they ran smooth and forever! (Note: the early ones were just as tough...they just shook while doing it!)

carringb wrote:
2003 F650 5.9L 24-valve cummins. Originally 240 HP but had 60 HP injectors added. First piston had to come out at ~290,000 for broken rings. At 330,000 several more broken rings could be heard, and it had very excessive blow-by. Engine was pulled at 350k and sent to Portland Engine Rebuilders for full reman.

The engine spend much of its life idling, and that particular truck was geared very low. 75 MPH would put the engine at redline, so it spent most of its miles at a much higher RPM than most Cummins run at. After the rebuild, the ECU was re-programmed to include a 55 MPH governor. This is expected to allow a much longer service life. Also, the company changed to a no-idle policy whenever the hydraulics are not needed.

Also, dry weight of that truck was 16,000 pounds. Typical weight was 20-26,000 pounds and for a few runs I've been over 40,000 pounds.

Oil was changed every 7500 miles. Being the MDT version of the 5.9L, it held about 5 gallons of oil, so I don't think more frequent oil changes would have helped. Oil was Delo 15w40.

Running on the governor is common for a Cummins 5.9 in commercial use. 2400RPM at 65 isn't unusual...ditto for the 6.7 ISB. I looked at a couple of buses with 5.9's...most were geared to run ~23-2500 at 65. In commercial use, a MDT diesel will USUALLY redline around 75.

4x4ord wrote:
I read recommendations made about the value in changing oil. I have been operating roughly 20 diesel engines at a time over the last 30 years. Some are 40 years old and still running. I have a Cat C15 that is approaching 1 million miles that has never been touched and runs like new. Some of these engines go years without getting an oil change. Over the years I have had one GM 6.5 Turbo diesel fail on account of the poor design which did not allow for proper cooling to the heads which in turn caused the heads to crack and pistons to melt; one Cummins 14 liter fail due to a valve dropping into a cylinder and destroying the entire engine; a second Cummins 14 liter fail when a coolant line broke and it overheated. But I have never seen an engine wear out. Is there anyone on here who has actually owned a diesel engine long enough to wear it out? If so, do you really think more frequent oil changes would have have prolonged its life?

The 7.2 Cat in my work truck is pretty much worn out...it has 15psi oil pressure at idle, ~35 at 2000RPM, and has lost a bunch of compression. (It has ~180,000 miles.) Seen a couple 7.3 PSD's lose compression...still ran fine, but were a bear to start cold. Most had 175-250K miles and 18-20,000 hours. (One had 29,000+ hours!)

Saw a 6BT Cummins that was worn out...but that was in an FL60 box truck with over 500,000 hard miles. It still ran, but wouldn't start below ~50 degrees and smoked under any load.

Taco wrote:

mowermech wrote:
When I was an industrial equipment mechanic, we had a lot of 53 Series Detroit Diesel engines (2-53 and 4-53) in the plant. It was an aluminum reduction plant, so it was an extremely dusty (aluminum oxide) environment. We tried every air filter imaginable on those trucks, even had an oil analysis program for a while, until it became obvious it was a waste of time and money. the oil was changed in these trucks weekly, and the first analysis after overhaul ALWAYS showed a high level of aluminum oxide. The 2-53 engines were filled with oil by pumping the fresh oil through a 5 micron oil filter.
As I recall, no engine lasted more than 6 months before overhaul.
But, that was a VERY extreme environment, and the engines ran, on average, 12 to 18 hours per day, every day.

Wouldn't an electric motor have been the obvious answer?

We had electric forklifts for some jobs. Some were 36 volt, some were 72 volt. The batteries were huge and expensive, and had to be changed every shift. Some older units had been retro-fitted with motor/generator units, 6 cylinder Continental engines turning 36 volt DC generators. For dispensing ore on the reduction cells, or transporting molten metal from the "potrooms" to the casting furnaces, the electric units did not travel fast enough.
The aluminum oxide also accelerated the wear on commutators and brushes.

So would you consider an engine "worn-out" when the EGR cracks and dumps coolant into the cylinders or an injector fails dumping fuel, both cases hydro-locking the motor but the since the head bolt are weaker than the starter, the starter just lifts the head right up so you get to replace the head gaskets? That of course is assuming you don't keep limping home with it getting coolant into the oil and taking out the bottom end too. If that falls under the definition of "worn-out" than there's a lot of 6.0 PSD owners in that club...

kennethwooster wrote:
Had a 3/4 ton Silverado, 4 wheel drive and 350 gutless engine. It was used on the farm, but very well maintained. Regular oil changes, and washed. That 350 was one of the worst engines I've ever had. At around 90thousand, we had to overhaul the engine. We designed it to get some more power out of it, and it was successful. About 20,000 miles ready we parked it at barn and went to town. Got a call that it was on fire. When we got there the fire dept. had it out, but it was gutted. Last GM product I've ever owned. I tried 2 of their 6.4 diesels, and they were really sorry. Now that I'm running Ford's I've got away from Chev's problems. They lost a very loyal GM customer.

I had a Chevy 350 V8 in a '76 Impala. Wonderful engine. One problem. The float stuck in the carb. Once. Spent $ 3 on carb cleaner....never had another issue with it. The car lasted for 21 years, before rust killed it. The engine was taken out of the Impala at that time and is now in a hot rod...still running.

Your experience with the Chevy 350 is uncommon. More Chevy small block V8's have been built than any other V8. Most common engine in hot rodding....many installed in Fords.

I've had two Ford 302's. Timing chain woes an issue in the 1970's. One a '76 Granada , the other a '74 Ford E 300 van.

Our '76 Ford Granada 302 and the E 300...302...were so troublesome we got rid of them in the early '80's and I've never had another Ford 302 V8 since.

Although a friend has had a Ford Mustang 302 since '89 and it's still going good.

However I've also had long experience with a '76 Ford E 350- 460 V8 (385 engine series) and the Ford 300 inline six. They were great engines...right up there with our Chevy 350's. Very reliable, powerful, hard working engines.

What I'm saying is that generally the big three...GM, Ford and Chrysler make good engines and have for years.

There is an occasional lemon engine...sometimes an occasional lemon engine design from them....but that's rare. Most American engines are well designed, durable and reliable in my long experience.

1976 Nova with a 305, poor thing got run into the ground. Have to say the TH350 was as tight as the day Dad bought it new tough. She did have 130K+ when the rod let go and that was some very hard miles.

Don

Had a 3/4 ton Silverado, 4 wheel drive and 350 gutless engine. It was used on the farm, but very well maintained. Regular oil changes, and washed. That 350 was one of the worst engines I've ever had. At around 90thousand, we had to overhaul the engine. We designed it to get some more power out of it, and it was successful. About 20,000 miles ready we parked it at barn and went to town. Got a call that it was on fire. When we got there the fire dept. had it out, but it was gutted. Last GM product I've ever owned. I tried 2 of their 6.4 diesels, and they were really sorry. Now that I'm running Ford's I've got away from Chev's problems. They lost a very loyal GM customer.

Two of them. I blew up a 2.8 V6 in a firebird and a 350 in a 2000 express van.

I tend to drive Fords and Kia's

(Gassers)

Thanks!

Jeremiah