M35A2 restoration LDT engine rebuild

[Caustic]

I finally found some time to take a close look at my new duce and it is appearant that i need to do some major engine work. my first warning was when i discovered that most of the head studs and many other bolts and nuts were not even tight. One of the cam lifters is MIA and most of the hoses are disconnected or missing.

Im going to start by pulling the heads and the oil pan to see what the internals look like. Any warnings or suggestions as to what i should replace or look at? If necessary, is it possible to rebuild the bottom end without removing from the vehicle?

Where is the best place to find the needed parts such as intake/exhaust/head gaskets, oil filters, fuel filters, bearings, cam lifters, misc hardware etc... I know saturn surpluss is a good start but i was wondering if there was anything cheaper and possibly closer to Kalifornia?

 

[Monster Man]

sounds to me like yours quit running, they attempted to diagnose it, found it was shot and they put the parts back onloose and stripped the rest <img src="emoticons/icon_smilie_bitchin.gif" alt="Bitchin">

I found this link helpful:

http://www.angelfire.com/vt2/gmmvc/rebuild.html

now, if this were me (believe me, I'm very happy I got a solid engine even if everything else falls off the truck), I'd consider a swap to a beefier diesel. Cat engines seem popular, and that's what I'll consider if mine goes on me. But then again a stripped down rebuild to get it running CAN'T be beat on price versus a swap

 

[Pappa-G]

Plan on sepperating with some green on the rebuild. $350 for overhaul gasket set $300 for main bearings $200 for rod bearings $750 for new crank $300 to machine the old one. (I just finished rebuilding mine last week. ) then you have 4 gallons of antifreeze, 5.5 gallons of oil, oil filters fuel filters, hoses and belts blaha blaha blaha+ pistons, rings, rods, cylinders, cam, lifters, timing gears, oil pump so when its all said and done it is a big expense. You may see take out engines for sale on the Govt Sales site. But most of them had bad AOAP (Army Oil Analysis Program) samples.
I have seen factory/depot rebuilds on Ebay for $3000+/- they will have fresh paint and decals and no rust on the exhaust manifold/turbo and no dust on the clutch/flywheel and overspray on the belts.
The engine isn't hard to remove, just VERY heavy.
The lifter can come out of the galley and be hidden, you can move them around and back in place with some grease on the end of the pushrod and help from a long screw driver (or the dip stick).
The rear most main bearing cap cant come off without first removing the flywheel (there are two bolts hidden) so if all you plan on doing is the rod bearings, i'd say leave it in but it sounds like you have more going on than that.
Best of luck- Pappa-G<img src="emoticons/icon_smile_pimp.gif" alt="Pimp">







=

 

[Caustic]

Ok, ive got the heads pulled and so far everything looks good. The chambers are really clean as are the heads. Looks like it was already gone through but never got running. No signs of any damage. Now I think im just going to slap on another head gasket and put it back together and see what happens.

Could someone tell me the best place to order gaskets for the LDT 465 1D. I need both head and manifold, valve cover, and maybe oil pan if i decide to pull it off. I also need a dipstick, not the tube, just the stick. I emailed a bunch of heavy truck parts suppliers but i dont know who would carry this stuff. I emailed saturn surpluss but they didnt show the gaskets on their website. Ill probably have to wait until monday for anybody to reply.

 

[red devils dude]

My truck needs a head gasket too, how hard is it to pull the head and get it back in.

 

[Caustic]

its not too hard if you have the right tools. the head nuts on the driver side under the fuel injectors are in a really tight spot and the location of the heat exchanger makes it almost impossible to get one of the nuts off with a regular wrench. so what i did was buy a cheap 7/8" wrench and bent it in a hydraulic press. (I think the cheap ones will bend instead of snap as a good tempered one will.) This made it possible to go over the top of the heat exchanger. I also had to remove some material with a bench grinder to improve the wrench/head clearance. Some of the 11/16" manifold nuts are hard to get at. You might have to unbolt the dipstick and starter relay. once everything is unbolted, the heads should come right out, but they sure are heavy so dont hurt your back.

I dont know about putting them back on, i have no idea how im going to torque all those hard to reach manifold nuts, but i did buy a cheap socket that i ground down enough to fit on the head studs so that might work for the head at least.

Now that i have the heads off, is it really nescessary to machine the gasket surface?

And where can i order a good head and manifold gasket set?

 

[Recovry4x4]

Check ebay for headbolt wrenches. There are 2 different ones. Long and short. Make shortorder for doing work on the MF engine.

 

[red devils dude]

You do not have to machine the gasket surface
if thay are good you will need a machinist grade
straightedge(or a steel ruler) to check for warpage lay it on the head and look for as much
contact as possible if indented more than
.004 to .006 in the center have it checked by
a machinist hope this helps.

 

[big mike]

i use 3M roll-lock atachments in my die grinder. they take everyting off the cylinder heads and block surfaces.