Hey guys,
Truck is an 02 2500HD 6.6L LB7 with 315k. I picked it up last year from my FIL and he gave me a great deal on it. It’s in amazing condition.
Yesterday on my way home it started blowing an insane amount of white smoke. The engine cut and I made it to the side of the road. Thought it might be some water in the fuel as it had been idling awhile for my wife outside the in laws. I primed the filter, and it restarted fine. As I started to move it I got white smoke again. Luckily I was less than a 1/10 of a mile from my mechanic. My FIL thinks it’s a bad injector issue. He replaced them at around 150k. It was $8k to replace the injectors back in 2010 or so. It could be water in the fuel with that last cold snap as it was outside, blown head gasket, or bad injectors. My mechanic buddy said it could be north of 10k to replace the injectors on the LB7 because you have to basically tear apart the engine to get to them.
I’ve rebuilt several gasser engines, and done full year downs, but have never worked on a diesel.
I can get a full 6.6L rebuild kit for around $4.5k. It’s a tow truck for my trailers and isn’t super needed until the spring. I wouldn’t be doing any performance mods. Just straight stock rebuild.
How realistic is it to rebuild an LB7 diesel engine in a garage? I can do pretty much anything, and would rather save the money and get a full rebuild rather than just the injectors. Watching videos and reading about it, seems like it could be done, but I’ve learned my lesson about that many times. I have all the tools to rebuild a small block Chevy and Windsors, but am I going to need some kind of crazy diesel engine tools? If I break even on the job but end up with a ton of experience and new tools I’d do it. On the other hand if I need to spend $5-6k just in tools and still need a mechanic to finish it.
Need more experienced advice on this. YouTube makes everything look so easy. Lol
Truck is an 02 2500HD 6.6L LB7 with 315k. I picked it up last year from my FIL and he gave me a great deal on it. It’s in amazing condition.
Yesterday on my way home it started blowing an insane amount of white smoke. The engine cut and I made it to the side of the road. Thought it might be some water in the fuel as it had been idling awhile for my wife outside the in laws. I primed the filter, and it restarted fine. As I started to move it I got white smoke again. Luckily I was less than a 1/10 of a mile from my mechanic. My FIL thinks it’s a bad injector issue. He replaced them at around 150k. It was $8k to replace the injectors back in 2010 or so. It could be water in the fuel with that last cold snap as it was outside, blown head gasket, or bad injectors. My mechanic buddy said it could be north of 10k to replace the injectors on the LB7 because you have to basically tear apart the engine to get to them.
I’ve rebuilt several gasser engines, and done full year downs, but have never worked on a diesel.
I can get a full 6.6L rebuild kit for around $4.5k. It’s a tow truck for my trailers and isn’t super needed until the spring. I wouldn’t be doing any performance mods. Just straight stock rebuild.
How realistic is it to rebuild an LB7 diesel engine in a garage? I can do pretty much anything, and would rather save the money and get a full rebuild rather than just the injectors. Watching videos and reading about it, seems like it could be done, but I’ve learned my lesson about that many times. I have all the tools to rebuild a small block Chevy and Windsors, but am I going to need some kind of crazy diesel engine tools? If I break even on the job but end up with a ton of experience and new tools I’d do it. On the other hand if I need to spend $5-6k just in tools and still need a mechanic to finish it.
Need more experienced advice on this. YouTube makes everything look so easy. Lol