[wolf-creek-steve]

Ten years ago I bought a firetruck with a 6V53T in it to swap into the hot rod Autocar cab-over I've been working on. On the way home with the firetruck, something went wrong in the engine, lots of oil smoke, loss of power and I knowingly drove it too far with too little oil. I never tore it down as I didn't want to have a bunch of pieces-parts to keep track of before I was ready to rebuild it. Well, today was the day!
Knowledgeable folks have told me that it was turbo or blower seals, I thought wrist pin seals, but no one ever mentioned this.

I heard on a different forum that the truck had been in a local truck repair shop and had a head off. I'm willing to bet someone didn't get a valve keeper in right.
Looks like I'm going to need a different head and at least one cylinder kit. I haven't had a look at the crank yet to check for damage from running low on oil.

 

[edpruss]

Hopefully just contained to that one cyl.

Ed in CO

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

What is the best way to mount a 6V on an engine stand? I have a very heavy home made stand and have read the cautions about trying to mount the engine by the flywheel housing. (has to come off anyway)
I have a piece of 1" plate that is big enough to catch a couple oil filter mounting bolts and 5 or 6 oil cooler bolts. In turn, I can bolt this plate to the engine stand. Is this the best way?

 

[edpruss]

Somewhere on the side of the block, inline engines do that, should be able to find a spot.

Ed in CO.

 

[cjfisher]

Wolf,

Look at A310's 4-53 build... it looks like he is using the blower mounting bolt holes to attach his engine to a stand. I know yours is a heavier v6, but it may work fine.

Cj

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

Richard (Gypsyman) kindly sent me diagrams of the OTC mounting plate. It gets bolted to most, if not all the holes on the side of the block. (oil cooler, oil filter)
I'll be doing some fab work today!

 

[Snuggletough]

I used to have 4 149's to take care of. Had one with 25k hours that was pretty tired. Decision was made to put all new heads and injectors in it to get a few more years out of it. The heads had defective valves in them and made a huge mess. There was a day where we had a fuel transfer valve fail and the only engine we had that could run the plant was that old #4 with too many hours and 4 dead holes. Rated for 1 megawatt, that old 12 cylinder V16 held a 1.2 MW load without missing a beat for most of a day until we could figure out what was wrong with the other 3 and get two more online.

Detroits have nothing but respect from me.

There just enough room for a guy with long arms to climb inside a 149 block to guide the rod onto the crank.

 

[rgausman]

Hey Steve,

Don't forget checking the rod - may want to recon it.

How about posting some pics when you get the adapter fab and on your home made stand.

Wanting build a heavy duty one. Tired of rolling an engine on the floor or on the bench. Seeing guys hanging their Cummins pickup diesels hanging from the flywheel end on a HF stand makes me nervous.

Bob G.

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

I've got to check the rod and also the valve gear for that cylinder. I can't imagine that the rockers/bridges escaped damage. After the holiday, I plan to make a trip to a couple local salvage yards that I know had some 53 series stuff laying around.
Here's pictures of the mount adapter. My stand is made of 2 1/2X4" 1/4" wall tubing. The mounting block on the stand is 3 1/2" thick threaded on to a 3 1/2-12 shaft with a jamb nut to keep the block from turning. (just junk I had laying around) I need to find a good way to turn the block because it isn't balanced perfectly.

 

[rgausman]

Steve thanks for the photos.
Was looking at using a shorten rear axle/taper bearings for the stand hub and brake slack adjuster to rotate the engine.

Bob G

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

Steve thanks for the photos.
Was looking at using a shorten rear axle/taper bearings for the stand hub and brake slack adjuster to rotate the engine.

Bob G

I probably would have gone that route also, if I hadn't had this stuff laying around. It was the shut height adjuster on a small plastic injection molding machine that I salvaged from a company I worked for.

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

Update; I ordered my kit today from a local parts house and machine shop, he had the best price at $1650 for an inframe kit with an optional full gasket set. I also found a used head locally complete with the valve gear and injectors for $250. Even if it needs a valve job, that's reasonable.

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

Today I found out that you can't buy wrist pin bushings for my engine! My rebuild has been on hold as the shop I have doing my work has been putting off my job (with my permission) as they are very busy. They finally got caught up and started on mine yesterday, but the wrist pin bushings are too worn. (.004 clearance) Detroit no longer supplies just the bushing, now you have to buy re-con rods. ($100 +$40 core charge) I also found out that some idiot at some time in the past did some grinding on the rods, (he says random, not at all professional looking) so my engine guy is worried that my old rods won't pass as good cores.
Hoping to get my kits either Monday or Tuesday, so I can get this thing back together and out of the middle of my garage.

 

[A310]

You can get the bushings from https://www.powerlinecomponents.com/detroit-diesel/5116181/con-rod-bushing-53. They are a great company and sell just about any Detroit parts you'l need.

 

[edpruss]

I used them, too, close by in Afton, Wyoming, they bought many parts from DD dealer in Grand Junction, good service.

Ed in CO.

 

[wolf-creek-steve]

I'm sure my parts guy is aware of Powerline. My engine doesn't take the normal 1 3/8 wrist pins, I have 1 1/2 pins and those are the ones not supplied individually