New Truck or New Engine

Grit dog wrote:
But think about it this way. The thing that leaves you on the side of the road at midnight in the middle of no where as you put it, is not catastrophic engine failure. It’s about 95% likely it’s something else. Either something that also should be wore out by now, something that has had some symptoms but was “still fine”, or something newer or old that randomly stops working.

100% agree here. I sold my 2001 2500 Suburban this spring with 180k miles on the 8.1L big block. Motor was never opened, not even the valve covers, just oil/filter every 3k miles. Ran as strong as the day I bought it.

However, everything that bolted to the motor was replaced over time, and stuff usually failed on a road trip pulling the trailer.

When the truck was fairly new in 2005, the a/c compressor grenaded and took out BOTH front and rear a/c systems. Since it was VA Beach in August, the trailer spent the week at the CG, the truck spent the week at the dealer, and we spent the week in a rented Matrix.

Alternator, power steering, radiator, water pump, brake lines, fuel pumps (8.1 burbs had 2), exhaust (twice), transmission (twice), etc etc.

The transmission quit on a camping trip and left me stranded in a CG for 2 weeks while a Jasper was secured and installed. The Jasper rebuild was defective, and although covered under Jasper warranty, left me stuck in another CG after only 10k miles on the unit.

So my point is that Grit Dog is 100% on this one...if you decide to replace the motor, you need to replace all of the peripherals and accessories to get "new truck" reliability....and even then there's no guarantee you won't break down.

Good that you are thinking about alternatives and planning ahead but IMO it's too early to dump any major money into that truck. Spend the $1k your mechanic recommends and go from there.