Archived Blown head gasket! New motor?

[BHowayeck]

My mechanic said its better to look for another motor,rather than fix. He said it ran out of oil and threw a rod. Im all stressed out! What would you do?

 

[DCreed]

if it tossed a rod, you need a motor. short block at least, maybe more when you get into it.

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

There's usually one or two on e-bay. Sometimes you don't even need a core. I would look for one of those and rebuld the one you have and sell it down the road for a few grand. Unless your block is toast, I guess. In that case it's a total goner.

 

[HBarlow]

The title of your post says blown head gasket but the text of your post says thrown rod.

A blown head gasket is not normally a reason to buy a complete new engine but, if you ran it out of water and/or oil and threw a rod the block and head are probably severely damaged. A complete engine replacement seems to be in your future.

If it was me I'd look for a complete takeout engine from a wrecked 2001 or 2002 truck where I could see the odometer reading or documentation establishing mileage.

Buying a complete engine on eBay sounds scary to me but you could get lucky. You could also get one that had been highly modified and run hard (like yours) and once you make payment it belongs to you with no recourse.

 

[BHowayeck]

The truck gave very little signs if any of blowing anything. The first thing was my check gauge light came on,showed altenator dead. Two minites later my edge monitor started cherping at me. As soon as I could pull over it was Knocking. I opened the hood and antifreeze and oil. Damn!

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

Mine was alot like that. Got real loud and blew ALL the oil out at freeway speeds. I thought for sure I blew it up. Thank God I was wrong! It blew a hole in the piston and had huge amounts of blowby at 75 mph, pressurized the crankcase hard and fast and roughly the speed of light (or maybe even sound, IDK) and forced all the fuel from a cracked injector into the crankcase. I was not feeling too good but could find no hole in it. After pulling the head I found the problem. Luckily, the diluted oil wasn't ran very long and all the internals were still ok. Crank and all rods were in good shape still. ... ... ... . I should have it put all back together by the end of next week!

Maybe your story will be similar? All you can do is hope and pray.

 

[HBarlow]

The truck gave very little signs if any of blowing anything. The first thing was my check gauge light came on,showed altenator dead. Two minites later my edge monitor started cherping at me. As soon as I could pull over it was Knocking. I opened the hood and antifreeze and oil. Damn!

If the engine was still running and "knocking" as you wrote above I don't think it "threw a rod" as your earlier post stated. You probably wiped out a rod bearing and there's a good chance you scored the crankshaft but this probably doesn't indicate you damaged the engine block. The engine is probably rebuildable although not cheaply.

If it was your mechanic who told you that you threw a rod I'd suggest determining if he is qualified to perform a professional quality engine rebuild.

I've never bought a Cummins factory rebuilt engine but I'm sure they are high quality rebuilds with a warranty similar to a new engine. If the block of your current engine is not damaged you probably have a good core to exchange for a Cummins rebuilt. If your truck is in good shape and you plan to keep it that would be the route I'd consider first.

 

[DCreed]

The truck gave very little signs if any of blowing anything. The first thing was my check gauge light came on,showed altenator dead. Two minites later my edge monitor started cherping at me. As soon as I could pull over it was Knocking. I opened the hood and antifreeze and oil. Damn!

I suspect you lost a serpentine belt, without the belt turning the water pump, the motor will quickly overheat and cause other damage.