bcartman_2

My friend is working on his 00 Suburban with a 5.3 in it and has found the coolant leak, it is a small crack in the water jacket on the pass head. when he called about a head or a pair of them from the junk yard the guy at the yard told him he should just replace the motor because if he replaced the heads the bottom end will blow shortly after... I have never heard of such things but figured I would ask you guys. The motor has 107K on it and the bone yard is trying to sell him a 15k motor... not looking for performance options, just the best way to fix the issue

Thanks

BigBirdLS1

15K for a motor out of a junkyard...you better go somewhere else. I have never heard of a head swap blowing a motor. ALOT of guys here do head swaps all the time, hell I've done one and its been 2000 miles and no issues at all. Just do it right. new head, head gasket, and head bolts, clean the head and deck surface up good. Properly bolt her down and you are ready to roll.

bcartman_2

The motor has 15k on it...they only want 1200 for it... is there any issue with just changing one head vice doing two?

JaYZeig

iTrader: (11)

you can change one cylinder head and have absolutley
no problems at all..ive done it myself on my 6.0 lq4.

granted its JUST the cylinder head thats junk...your friend
will be ok just putting one cylinder head on!

murphinator

iTrader: (2)

likely his point was by the time you buy head ,head gasket , intake gasket , head bolts ,pay labor etc... its usually cheaper to put in a whole engine , of course if tear down , reassembly , and all labor is free done by himself then its cheaper to do the head. a good100k 5.3 is about $400-500to get back to where he was before his head cracked


the lower end going soon comment is usually due to coolant getting in the oil - if that is happening do a couple oil changes after the head job to get any remaining coolant out of the oiling system , if coolant is all going out the tailpipe as sweet smelling white smoke and the oil looks good then the lower end should be fine , if the oil looks like a milkshake send a sample to blackstone for analysis to see if the bearings are coming apart yet or not BEFORE you/he decides which route to take

bcartman_2

Thanks guys he is doing the work himself so no labor cost and it is just a small external crack, never overheated and no internal issues...I also had someone suggest getting it tig welded while still bolted up to the motor...I guess it is worth a shot?