I recently realized out I have a blown head gasket in my 93 6.5TD Sierra truck. It has probably been gurgling air into the coolant overflow tank for a few weeks. Only once did I notice the temp gage go up, and I stopped, the temp was only up by the red for a couple minutes at most. I watch gages carefully. It has 330,000 miles, mostly highway, and was running well, no oil leaks to speak of, only a little smoke at startup, none after that. I don't know if the heads will be warped or not.

My question is, should I pay the ~$2000 for the local shop to replace head gaskets, or should I look for a re-man engine to put in?
I found a site with remans for $2500 in NY, "International Diesel Ltd" and another place with military 6.5s from humvees for $1400, that is Ted's Trucks in AL. Anyone have suggestions or experience with those guys? Or other places?
Thanks!

search the forum on "International Diesel", There is plenty of feedback

A good reman is $4500 to $7000

If you know for sure it's head gaskets, why not try replacing the head gaskets yourself? With a manual and basic mechanical tools and basic skills, you can do it for about $200 in parts, including head gaskets, manifold gaskets and new bolts. If you can narrow it down to only one side, by doing a leak down test, then you can cut this by roughly half. Plus if it's the driver's side, it's really much easier. I can't see spending $2K to fix a motor with over 300K miles on it. However, I agree that a good rebuilt motor is $5K plus. You don't know what your getting with the cheaper ones. Check out this pic of a $2999 short block, with the pistons installed backwards!!

http://dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=194645

That's why I decided to build my own motor. I'm pretty sure that the Humvee motor would need different heads, with the 90 degree intake bolt holes, to work with the side mounted turbos in the trucks.

Thanks for the replies. I have considered doing it myself but am very busy trying to get a roof on a building before more snow flies!
I will do some more searching on this site for details on part suppliers and installation procedures. If I buy a manual, what is the recommended one?
Thanks,

put a cummins in it. Juuust kidding. But really, can you live without the truck until you can replace it yourself? I think your right about considering a new motor if it's gonna cost you half of that price just to fix the one you have. But, if you do it yourself, its not that big of a deal financially.

I recently realized out I have a blown head gasket in my 93 6.5TD Sierra truck. It has probably been gurgling air into the coolant overflow tank for a few weeks. Only once did I notice the temp gage go up, and I stopped, the temp was only up by the red for a couple minutes at most. I watch gages carefully. It has 330,000 miles, mostly highway, and was running well, no oil leaks to speak of, only a little smoke at startup, none after that. I don't know if the heads will be warped or not.

My question is, should I pay the ~$2000 for the local shop to replace head gaskets, or should I look for a re-man engine to put in?
I found a site with remans for $2500 in NY, "International Diesel Ltd" and another place with military 6.5s from humvees for $1400, that is Ted's Trucks in AL. Anyone have suggestions or experience with those guys? Or other places?
Thanks!

$2000 to put in head gaskets????

Holy Fleecing Batman!!!!

I haven't priced this operation around my area (thankfully I haven't had to), but that seems REALLY STEEP. I would think that $1000 ought to cover R and R of both heads and parts....? Do the heads need replaced or reman'd?

I would think that a good shop could do this is a day (8 hours) for a total of ~$720 in labor plus $250 for new gaskets, bolts, and shop supplies. Where am I way off here?

Thanks,

The shop I got an estimate from said 16 hours X $80/hr = $1280, $300 for parts, and I figured that miscellaneous things would need replacing at the same time, oil & filters, etc, so I rounded up to $2000. That's for both heads. I have no idea if I will need heads machined or replaced... I guess that will add substantially to the cost.
I am going to get another quote or two before I do anything. If I can get it done for $1000, I would be happy!
I'm trying to balance my time, scraped knuckles, sore back, frozen fingers, etc, with the cost of a shop doing the R&R. Plus I've never removed heads before, and would need a few new tools I think for that job...
Thanks

Let's see book time is 18 hours for headgaskets. 18 X $74.95 here=$1349.1 plus parts,fluids,etc. 2k isn't that far away.

Done in 1 day???? I would like to meet that guy! He would have gorilla arms after all of the triple pass torquing LOL

Let's see book time is 18 hours ...

:eek:

When I look at that job, it just really doesn't seem like it ought to take 18 hours (and $2000). Now, if you were talking about labor for replacing a crankshaft then I could understand as you would have to pull the engine. If head gaskets are going to run $2000, depending on your mileage you may be better off with buying a "budget" reman engine and replacing the whole she-bang!

~2.5 days to replace head gaskets...that "book" must be quoting for a one-arm, one-eyed lame chimp doing the work.:D

I would definitely get other quotes for that work.

Regards,