To start with does anyone have any idea how much I should ask for a 454 engine with High performance Heads and Steel crank. We also have a 400 Auto Transmission. The Engine was rebuilt in 93, used for a very short time and has pretty much been sitting on a pallet in our garage for the last 10 years.

The next question is in regard to our 6.5 - our head gasket went this weekend (our thoughts are we most likely weakened it a great deal last fall when we hauled our trailer when our truck was not running properly down to VA and got her quite warm a couple times to the point that we actually pulled over to let her cool down) We were able to get her home without the trailer and had to go back down and get the horse and trailer. But we figured since we have her torn down we might as well do the cooling upgrade (water pump) and the injectors. What we want to know do any of you have any suggestions (different head etc) on what we can do to the head gaskets to make them hold up better. Also any suggestions on where I should get my injectors from.

Thank you

I would get your injectors tested at a local fuel injection shop and repair as needed.

As for your head gaskets, they often fail after the engine has been over heated due to head bolts loosing their clamping force. Get a set of felpro head gaskets and new bolts(northern auto parts has been a good internet source for me) Be prepared to find cracks between the valves on your heads and unless there is obvious signs of coolant leaking at the cracks, IGNORE them. The first cooling system upgrad I would suggest would be to upgrade your fan clutch with one of Kennedy's units, next would be the dual themostat kit and high output water pump. :grd:

We already have the fan clutch and the severe duty 21" fan from Heath we are going to be ordering the dual thermostat Balance flow water system from Heath. The injectors have 119,000 miles on them already and they had been acting up (hard starting) so we are planning on replacing them since we have the engine torn down. We plan on getting the heads (or whatever it is) resurfaced at a local machine shop. Some one else suggested the Fel Pro Gasket which I found at Rockauto, we just didn't know if there were any additional things we can do (beside keeping her cooler) to have the heads last longer.

Does anybody know what's included with Heath's crossover cooling system upgrade? Is the crossover manifold the same as the one from ss diesel supply?

Does anybody understand the difference between the two kits(besides one comes with a water pump and the other doesn't?:cool:

Square or Oval port on the 454 heads?

Is the crank STD. or cut?

3/8 or 7/16 rods?

2 or 4 bolt block? Overbore? How much?

What intake?

Compression ratio?


Everything factors in...

unless your looking for higher flow-rate injectors, i would find shop to have them poptested and overhauled if needed. easier on $, talk to tech and sometimes can adjust pop pressure, we used to raise pop pressure on larger marine engines. just for instance purchase of injectors was $1,500-2,500 or $40-100 for new nozzle and $100 to change out if i sent them out. what about head studs?
best to ya

Keeping the heat in check is the best thing that you can do to safeguard the head gaskets. Limiting boost to about 12 psi and keeping the egt's below 1200 will also help. Head studs could be a good upgrade, since ARP makes quality fasteners, but, if your engine is being repaired in the truck, head studs probably won't be your friend, since I don't think there is room to install/remove heads with the studs while in the vehicle.;)

The motor was pulled out of the truck but it doesn't much matter anyways now - the #7 cylinder is scored along with the crank so now we need to find a new motor because this thing needs to get rebuilt. Of course upon our tearing it down we figured out that it has already been torn down before I bought it. So who knows what was wrong with seeing how it has 119,000 miles on it and I bought it when it had 69,000 miles one it. So it seems that maybe this truck had problems before but I didn't know. I bought it in 2002 so from 95 to 2001 it only had 69000 miles put on it and it was mostly moved from dealer to dealer. It was a sad sad sad day yesterday.