Sintorion,
The thing is, joe isn't the only one saying it's an issue. He's just saying he's got a different take on the solution for an apparent problem reported by people than what others have come up with.
What are your thoughts on the
kits offered by Predator for $850? Or the
Flash Off-Road kit for $345?
Not sure why you're expecting any sort of manufacturer/dealer level support on a piece of military surplus. AMG doesn't like dealing with non-government sales and has never been supportive of HMMWVs in private hands and, GM pretty much only wanted the Hummer brand for it's popularity and killed that off a while ago. TSB, recall, whatever... It isn't coming from AMG, GM, or anyone in any way shape or form for a truck discontinued more than a decade ago let alone one 20+ years old and sold as surplus. We're on our own to support these trucks.
Maybe they did want to address it but, couldn't because the end user (.gov) thought it could add an unnecessary failure point with not enough reward for the risk. Maybe, as I think I mentioned before, .gov didn't care about a small increase in reliability when they've got warehouses with so many BNIB and refurb engines in crates they sell them off surplus all the time. We just don't know what went on behind the scenes.
What we
do know is that the original 6.5Ts had issues with #8 cylinder cracking due to poor cooling. To the point where engines were being replaced in H1s with no cost to the owners in many cases with no official TSB, recall, or otherwise. I remember the posts from the old HML days. The kits from places like Predator, Flash, and others were designed to address this. The 6.2s and the non-GEP 6.5s many of our trucks come with are of a block design similar to the original 6.5Ts and, while they don't see the temperatures turbo engines do, still have the same inherent cooling issue. Perhaps, like you mention, with the changes GEP made to the block, they DO have changes designed to reduce the problem internally that the previously mentioned engines don't. Admittedly, I don't know this and unless we had engineering drawings or could do a side-by-side teardown/cutaway it's hard to say.
Personally, $275 isn't that big a deal to me and spending it to take care of what is a known design flaw in my generation engine is okay by me. Especially compared to other solutions on the market for the same issue for $345, let alone $850.
As always, YMMV and my
is worth exactly what you paid for it.