ViolentMouse
Senior Member
I love my truck. no two ways about it, it is a fixture in my life and no matter what I will fight to keep it in my life.
That being said, I killed my motor......RIP factory motor@116k miles.
So, back to my short story told the long way.......
Bought the truck used with 35k miles on it back in 2006, got a real steal on it could not pass it up. I was looking for a megacab 4x4 so I could get a straight axle front end, but the stars lined up on this one so no megacab for me.
First year of the 3rd gen body, last year of the magnum motor...having dealt with so many hemi problems at work I was not a fan, and wanted to stick to a reliable platform with high parts availability.
Fast forward to 2011, radiator split open in the desert, overheated, killed my heads.... no worries, EQ heads coming my way, hughes plenum pan, some 4 hole injectors, a nice camshaft and some shorty headers (no tune needed.)
truck was running great, then 2015 the rear end started making noises I pulled it apart and discovered why I got such a great deal on my truck, the clutch pack holder had failed on the original owner it chewed the axle housing and the carrier bearing caps. They dropped a new carrier in it and quickly sold it as an easy fix. I know this is the case, because the new retainer was still in there and had not broken when the bearings failed on me several years later. So I bought a whole new rear end and it ran perfect, right back to doing silly stuff in the desert, like pretending my truck is a trophy truck
then 2018.... started to notice a slight miss at idle, temp gun showed cylinder 6 was cooler than all the others... grabbed my trusty rocker arm shims and shimmed both rockers on #6 expecting it to fix it...nope.
plugs were new, wires, cap, rotor, all new. cylinder leakdown test showed the EQ head had cracked between the valves. No worries, I lived with it for a year until I could not stand it anymore...
Keep in mind, from 2006 to now, I have driven this truck like I stole it, I have done huge donuts all across the country in this truck, I have driven it so far down into mexico the mexicans were lost lol. I have thrown my quad in the back of my truck and launched it across the desert at full throttle countless times, it should come as no surprise I cracked the un-crackable heads.
So I ordered up a set of Indy MA-X heads (keeping with the cast heads because I wanted a very close to stock appearance. ZZZzzzZZz)
Got a nice big camshaft, 1.6 roller rockers, an airgap intake, a 1000+cfm throttle body and an SCT tuner to make it all work.
Got one step colder plugs in it as ordered by the Mad Scientist who built the tune, and I spent a whole day putting my goodies on.
Boy did I get what I paid for, I could shred the tires, and I could finally pull on my buddies old 6.0 silverado...(he was not happy)
This setup has been amazing this last year. I flogged it so hard in the desert this year that I even shattered my entire dashboard and bent a rim!!
You would expect that I had killed my motor screaming across the open desert blasting my tunes and having a great time, but nope! it died on me on the freeway coming home from work, I had just swapped the trans filter out (I do it every year, considering how I drive it.) and I was cruising at 65 maybe 2100rpm, and I pressed the O/D off button and locked it in 3rd so I could accelerate and make a lane change. No sooner than I started to make my lane change it let go.
We are talking like 3000rpm here..... not flogging it at all...no warning... no pinging, no knocking, just let go and threw down the coolest james bond smoke screen you have ever seen.
I started to do an autopsy that weekend and the intake was filled with piston. I gathered the last of my energy for the day and got the passenger head off only to find a piston that was missing a large chunk of itself. The day I worried about finally came, they did not lie to me when they said you can only push about 400hp into those stock pistons and they will fall apart, and they did. very suddenly. throwing piston pieces through my intake and into my valves and into other cylinders. it is bad, so very bad.
I bought another motor, a nice old used motor, however the 2002.... uses 4 bolts on the motor mounts, and the 2001 and earlier only has three. I had to buy another motor.
That brings us to now... I have the new used motor apart, and it looks to be in decent shape for having a boat load of daily driven miles still has a 4 inch bore so never been punched out at all. but I do not want to go backwards.... only forward....
What to do moving forward? should I stick with the stock rods, and throw some wiseco forged slugs on the end of them so I can run the same setup without suddenly losing a piston for no reason at all. lol
Or should I get a little crazy and get some eagle H beam rods to go with those forged mechanical fists? So I can punch that A/F mixture harder than ever?
I don't want to stroke it because I want it to still be able to daily my lazy ass around for another 116k miles, but I also want to be able to flog it hard and not worry about hurting it too bad.
Problem is, I am suddenly indecisive. Usually I just pull the trigger and buy what I want, because I know what I want, but right now I feel like a woman in a drive through. I cannot make up my mind!!!!
Anyone have experience with H beam rods in a 5.9? was it worth it?
Do I go all out, get H beam rods and forged pistons?
Do I cheap out and just get forged pistons and run the stock rods?
Only reason I would not slap a turbo on this thing.... 4x4. If it was a 2 wheel drive single cab... I wouldn't be here writing a novel I would already be making woosh noises lol
Need suggestions.
Be warned... This will turn into a build log no matter what direction it goes. photos will be coming soon with some of the carnage
That being said, I killed my motor......RIP factory motor@116k miles.
So, back to my short story told the long way.......
Bought the truck used with 35k miles on it back in 2006, got a real steal on it could not pass it up. I was looking for a megacab 4x4 so I could get a straight axle front end, but the stars lined up on this one so no megacab for me.
First year of the 3rd gen body, last year of the magnum motor...having dealt with so many hemi problems at work I was not a fan, and wanted to stick to a reliable platform with high parts availability.
Fast forward to 2011, radiator split open in the desert, overheated, killed my heads.... no worries, EQ heads coming my way, hughes plenum pan, some 4 hole injectors, a nice camshaft and some shorty headers (no tune needed.)
truck was running great, then 2015 the rear end started making noises I pulled it apart and discovered why I got such a great deal on my truck, the clutch pack holder had failed on the original owner it chewed the axle housing and the carrier bearing caps. They dropped a new carrier in it and quickly sold it as an easy fix. I know this is the case, because the new retainer was still in there and had not broken when the bearings failed on me several years later. So I bought a whole new rear end and it ran perfect, right back to doing silly stuff in the desert, like pretending my truck is a trophy truck
then 2018.... started to notice a slight miss at idle, temp gun showed cylinder 6 was cooler than all the others... grabbed my trusty rocker arm shims and shimmed both rockers on #6 expecting it to fix it...nope.
plugs were new, wires, cap, rotor, all new. cylinder leakdown test showed the EQ head had cracked between the valves. No worries, I lived with it for a year until I could not stand it anymore...
Keep in mind, from 2006 to now, I have driven this truck like I stole it, I have done huge donuts all across the country in this truck, I have driven it so far down into mexico the mexicans were lost lol. I have thrown my quad in the back of my truck and launched it across the desert at full throttle countless times, it should come as no surprise I cracked the un-crackable heads.
So I ordered up a set of Indy MA-X heads (keeping with the cast heads because I wanted a very close to stock appearance. ZZZzzzZZz)
Got a nice big camshaft, 1.6 roller rockers, an airgap intake, a 1000+cfm throttle body and an SCT tuner to make it all work.
Got one step colder plugs in it as ordered by the Mad Scientist who built the tune, and I spent a whole day putting my goodies on.
Boy did I get what I paid for, I could shred the tires, and I could finally pull on my buddies old 6.0 silverado...(he was not happy)
This setup has been amazing this last year. I flogged it so hard in the desert this year that I even shattered my entire dashboard and bent a rim!!
You would expect that I had killed my motor screaming across the open desert blasting my tunes and having a great time, but nope! it died on me on the freeway coming home from work, I had just swapped the trans filter out (I do it every year, considering how I drive it.) and I was cruising at 65 maybe 2100rpm, and I pressed the O/D off button and locked it in 3rd so I could accelerate and make a lane change. No sooner than I started to make my lane change it let go.
We are talking like 3000rpm here..... not flogging it at all...no warning... no pinging, no knocking, just let go and threw down the coolest james bond smoke screen you have ever seen.
I started to do an autopsy that weekend and the intake was filled with piston. I gathered the last of my energy for the day and got the passenger head off only to find a piston that was missing a large chunk of itself. The day I worried about finally came, they did not lie to me when they said you can only push about 400hp into those stock pistons and they will fall apart, and they did. very suddenly. throwing piston pieces through my intake and into my valves and into other cylinders. it is bad, so very bad.
I bought another motor, a nice old used motor, however the 2002.... uses 4 bolts on the motor mounts, and the 2001 and earlier only has three. I had to buy another motor.
That brings us to now... I have the new used motor apart, and it looks to be in decent shape for having a boat load of daily driven miles still has a 4 inch bore so never been punched out at all. but I do not want to go backwards.... only forward....
What to do moving forward? should I stick with the stock rods, and throw some wiseco forged slugs on the end of them so I can run the same setup without suddenly losing a piston for no reason at all. lol
Or should I get a little crazy and get some eagle H beam rods to go with those forged mechanical fists? So I can punch that A/F mixture harder than ever?
I don't want to stroke it because I want it to still be able to daily my lazy ass around for another 116k miles, but I also want to be able to flog it hard and not worry about hurting it too bad.
Problem is, I am suddenly indecisive. Usually I just pull the trigger and buy what I want, because I know what I want, but right now I feel like a woman in a drive through. I cannot make up my mind!!!!
Anyone have experience with H beam rods in a 5.9? was it worth it?
Do I go all out, get H beam rods and forged pistons?
Do I cheap out and just get forged pistons and run the stock rods?
Only reason I would not slap a turbo on this thing.... 4x4. If it was a 2 wheel drive single cab... I wouldn't be here writing a novel I would already be making woosh noises lol
Need suggestions.
Be warned... This will turn into a build log no matter what direction it goes. photos will be coming soon with some of the carnage
