Unclejake

If it looks like the engine is recoverable I might just splash out an a caliper rebuild kit too. Oh, and about a kilometre of brake line, some flare nuts, a few balljoints, a Pitman arm with a BJ that activates the drag link after less than half a rotation of the steering wheel, a hell of a lot of POR15 and about 100 other things. LOL Freight will be a killer, but stuff for these full-sized GM pick-ups is easily available and usually remarkably cheap (compared to Lexus bits anyway).

By the look of them they can't drop down as the block would prevent it, but I haven't peeled off the headgaskets yet. Two of the pre-combustion chambers (thank you for identifying them) had rotated on one head. The other head looked OK, but it's all still filthy so needs a proper inspection once clean

The first problem found (apart from the normal exhaust studs snapping etc) was this. It's hard to say if the accumulated crud was actually blocking the thermostat when the engine was operational or not, but still...ha! Then I got a bit confuddled by this rotated injector spray guide thingy (whatever they're called) which doesn't seem to lock into the head very well, and by the strange burn pattern on it might have been rotating when the engine was running? Dunno really. I would have thought the head would have clamped the thing down enough to stop it rotating, but it was half out of the head when I lifted the head off the block By the time I got the sump off I was too dirty to touch my phone so no crank photos (sorry), but I found no sign of anything getting very hot, no huge cracks anywhere, no snapped bolts, the pistons slide up and down the bores just fine (albeit with a bit of a ridge at the top of the bore), but almost all of the main and B/E bearings had been spinning. There's bits of bearing jammed inside the crank oil galleries and I'm having trouble lifting out the crank on my own (mainly due to spun bearings I guess), but it was getting dark, the shed has no lights or power and the flies kept landing on my sweaty bald head, so I will pull the crank tomorrow. There may just be more life in the engine yet! I am pretty happy to have found most of the internals intact.

All points noted mate, but I have pulled the motor down already. When it was parked ~ 3 years ago it was running, but badly. I'll upload some photos and update the project thread late tonight if possible. The news is all rather good

Thanks mate. That's very helpful

Nick, is the Rocol kit likely to show a hairline crack in a head or a crank web, and for a big V8 would you want one or more of the 300 gram kits? The kits will be well in excess of $100 each (landed), but I don't want to run out either!

I could probably rig something up to pressurise the water jacket, but tbh I'm not entirely sure what that would tell me? There's no obvious water in the oil and the collant in the radiator looked perfectly clean and green (but there was an unknown oily scum in the expansion tank) so any advice is welcome. Evidently these 6.5 litre GM blocks are known to crack, and something has almost seized the rotating assembly, but until I can pull the motor apart I have little clue as to what it going on. I don't want to pay >$500 to send a cracked block back to the mainland if it's just going to be thrown away, but I hadn't thought about the logistics of bringing in aerosol gear in until just now. Gah! It's ll so hard. NickJ, I live on Chatham Island and the supply ship is now going via Norfolk Island and won't be here until late March

I see a few three part aerosol spray can kits on the market for weld crack identification. Does anyone here have any experience with them? The application will be an old V8 diesel motor that I'm yet to dismantle. The bad news is that I'll need to get the kit(s) sent to me by sea so they could take more than 6 weeks to get here. There's no other local alternative that I'm aware of. Ta https://nzsafetyblackwoods.co.nz/en/rocol-flaw-finder-kit-3-part-packet--00977405

What a mission! I will have a look inside the engine once we can move it to somewhere I can pull it down. Probably next weekend. I dread refitting it though. It was a bastard to get out.

Milestone! Finally she's in a shed. Hopefully the engine will be on the floor by Sunday

The convertor is bolted to the flywheel and I can't turn the motor over. The convertor slides onto a splined input shaft that juts out of the the transmission ( I think) I have the huge advantage of a (seized) short-block lying in the same paddock. It was obviously removed with the convertor still attached, and has helped me work out where the trans/engine block bolts are

Rental and government vehicles have WoFs, but not many other people bother. I will build a safe and sound vehicle - but that doesn't mean it'd pass a WoF. Getting parts delivered here by ship is no problem, but it can take a couple of months and cost a lot. This Chev was ~ $5k in freight from NZ to Chatham, but about $3k in freight from USA to NZ. I can fly things the same week from Wellington to Chatham @ $3.50 per KG, but that needs someone running around in Wellington, and an engine probably weighs 400 kgs (you can do the math). CI used to have the highest Harley ownership per capita on the planet, but those days are gone now. A question: If I pull out the motor, leaving the torque convertor on the flywheel (connected to the crank) will I need to drain the auto trans first? I may abandon this project once the motor is out and I don't want to leave a dry trans sitting in the salt air for the next few years if I can help it. Does the transmission need draining?

Dear readers, things are not going entirely to plan, but the good news is that I have access to a shed next week, and the weather has been amazing, so I've spent the last couple of afternoons lying on hardened sheep shit and thistles, whilst dropping rust flakes in my eyes, in an attempt to get the motor ready to remove next week. Once the motor is on a pallet and the heads and sump are off I'll make a decision as to what to do next. The big unknown is the transmission. I'd hate to spend three or four grand sorting the motor to find the trans or 4x4 system was no good, but at this stage I have no way of checking. I do have what may be a dumb question wrt removing the torque convertor without draining the transmission, which I'll ask on the discussion page. Be gentle. I know petrol, carbs and manual gearboxes. This diesel/turbo/automatic malarky is new to me.

Yeah, it's 4x4 so lots of rusty stuff in the way. I think the filling the block up with lubricant idea has some merit (thanks OS). I hadn't thought of that

What if I filled the entire engine with diesel from the oil filler tube, let it sit for a few days and then drained it out. Reckon it'd creep up past the rings?

I dunno. It feels (for absolutely no reason other than gut feel) that the issue is down low rather than in the bores. I was wondering if a crank thrust washer had moved, or some other hideous thing had happened to the lower part of the rotating mass (remember that the previous owner said it overheated in the oil and the oil smelt very hot, but the water didn't get hot (info I only got today), and then he parked it running very rough), but I guess it couldn't hurt to get something into the cylinders before pulling the engine! Good thinking bat people. The engine oil level is good so I don't think diesel has been dripping into the crankcase anywhere. I guess I've turned the motor over (via the starter) about 30 - 45 revolutions in the last couple of days. I can buy WD40 here. Rost-off will be harder to come by (but or course I have heaps at home in Wellington)

I still haven't met Jay (to my knowledge). It's an odd place. ~ 600 people live here, and in May I'll have been here for a year, but almost every single day I see someone I've never met before. WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? Aliens I guess. Un-vaccinated aliens spreading 1080 and selling fake rims. Oh, I have a plan for access to a shed. The owner's already said no, but I reckon if I promised to be in and out fast he'll relent. I'll see what I can achieve in the paddock first. I'm figuring motor and trans should probably come out together, but I have no idea how big a job the transfer case will be. I didn't look that hard. Too much sheep shit and thistles. In other news it's cold as all hell here today. Ha

Thanks for that. The alternator did have a bolt in it that I could access, but no matter how tight the belt was all I as able to do was to compress the rubber in the crank pulley to crank interface. This engine is very, very tight. Removing four glow plugs didn't help at all.

The bad news is that the parts needed list is starting to grow. Brakes are shot, brake lines are rusty and about to fail, suspension bushes are well flogged, the ignition barrel is destroyed, the ignition module is fried, the transmission is unknown, but worst of all the engine is almost completely seized. It will turn over juuuust, but I can't budge it with a socket wrench and the starter will only just rotate it. There's another Chev with a similar engine (but non turbo) in the same paddock and I can easily turn that motor over with a socket wrench, so something is bad inside the 6.5 litre turbo engine. 6.5 engine re-build kits are surprisingly affordable (around $1,500 plus shipping) - so I may yet pull the engine out for a better look, but I don't have anywhere to do that yet. There's plenty of guys with Hi-ab trucks here, so the actual lift will be achievable, but finding a dry shed and an engine stand for a couple of months is another matter. I better go to the pub and yarn to some old-timers. BRB

I'll try removing glow plugs tomorrow. Hand spinning is hard as there's no central bolt easily accessible on the front crank pulley. If there is one it's buried behind the drive belt pulley which has four rusty bolts fixing it to the harmonic balancer. I tried to move them but they weren't budging

Auto mate. I assume not. For now I am mainly keen to assess if the motor is kaput or not. If it is I may abandon the thing due to limitred time and tools

Pass wrt glow plug operation. As the ignition module is toast they're probably not operating. They're all there but look very rusty and flimsy (they're below the injectors). I can probably get the four LHS ones out without too much drama, but the RHS ones will probably need the turbo removed for access. I assume glow plus are threaded and I just spin them anti-clockwise to remove them? I should have mentioned that I won't do too many heroics to get this thing running. If it's too far gone I'll walk away from it. Thanks heaps for the responses

Gentlemen, I am new to diesel spanner work, so please forgive my possibly dumb questions: Background: I recently bought a '95 C3500, double cab Chev 6.5 turbo auto 4x4. The engine is out of a '94 dually (which is rusting away right beside the C3500). Both the engine and chassis have about 200,000kms on them Some months after the initial installation, the '94 engine popped off an oil line (about three and a half years ago), so the previous owner used a 'Jesus'/Omega clip from a window winder to put the oil line back on. A week or two later the engine evidently overheated and ran badly. The previous owner advised that the oil got hot but the water didn't. I don't know how he knew that as there's a (faulty) electronic oil pressure gauge, but no oil temperature gauge. There is a water temperature gauge. The vehicle has sat in a salty paddock for the last three and a half years. The ignition key has been lost The previous owner is resourceful, had three other similar trucks to rob parts from, but is not particularly mechanical All of the people that repair anything here do a half arse job. Partly because they don't really care, and partly because conditions are tough and parts are hard/slow to get The engine oil level is good. The transmission oil level is good The coolant is full of crud I have access to a couple of similar Chevs for spares I have very limited tools, and am working outside in a paddock full of sheep shit and thistles What I've done in the last few days: After much research I drilled out the ignition barrel. I have a new barrel and key on standby in Auckland I installed two new batteries I have the ignition barrel turning now (with a screwdriver hammered into it), and can feel Acc, Ign and Start as I rotate the screwdriver The dash lights do not come on, the engine did not crank, and none of the gauges move The blower fan works when the ignition is on, but not when it's off... so rotating ignition barrel is doing at least something The wipers and headlights work regardless of 'key' position One of two interior lights work Based on the above, and some checks with a multi-meter, I have diagnosed a faulty ignition switch (in addition to the drilled out ignition barrel), which is evidently a common problem, so using pliers to short two connections on the ignition switch I have been able to engage the starter motor The starter cranks the engine very slowly. Far too slow to start. I have cleaned all the battery terminals ( 2 x 12v batteries in parallel), replaced one dodgy earth cable, but have not been able to get the main +ve cable off the starter motor due to very limited space. The engine still cranks very slowly. The engine could be very tight due to having been overheated about 3.5 years ago. I don't know for sure. The slow cranking could be bad battery connections (unlikely with the exception of the starter end of the +ve wire), a symptom of the bad ignition switch, be a weak starter motor, the engine could just be time seized, be hydraulicing, or some other thing I haven't thought of Question: What's the easiest way to remove compression from the motor so I can narrow down the slow cranking problem? Pull out a few injectors? Any other bright ideas?

Cock blocked due to a lack of key still. Getting the ignition barrel out without a key is easy on a 1994, but destructive on a 1995 Chev.

So keen to hear this puppy gurgle...