440ICD engine rebuild

[BKahler]

Been a while since I've posted although I read the forums every morning.

I finally got my parts to the machine shop and back again for the detroit diesel engine.

About a year earlier I had dropped the parts off at a friends place to have him do a rebuild. He owes us a fair amount of money and since he is a diesel mechanic by trade my wife and I thought this would be good way to recoup some of our money.

Well after about a year of him sitting on the job because he didn't have the money to get the machine work done or buy the parts we decided to retrieve the motor and have me do the job. So......I now have a bunch of freshly machined and cleaned parts along with everything I need (I hope!) to start putting it back together.

For various reasons I have all the manuals I need to perform the rebuild so now its just a matter of me finding the time to actually do the work.

I'm sure I will have a LOT of questions for those of you who have performed this task already

Thanks in advance!

Brad

[carolina crawler]

What was wrong with your engine, locked up, worn out, and what machine work was done? like cylinder head recondition or rebore/resleeve cylinders....and must you replace the head bolts on the engine, before reassembly. I am planning to resleeve my 2-53,think everything is ok,just low compression. long live the 2 stroke.......Mark ..CC

[Lavoy]

Brad,
If you don't already have them, be sure to get the N series pistons, not S series, and change over to N series injectors as well. S series is what they came with, and are still available because they are used in the turbo charged engines, but you want the N series. It will start so much better you won't believe it.
Lavoy

[BKahler]

What was wrong with your engine, locked up, worn out, and what machine work was done? like cylinder head recondition or rebore/resleeve cylinders....and must you replace the head bolts on the engine, before reassembly. I am planning to resleeve my 2-53,think everything is ok,just low compression. long live the 2 stroke.......Mark ..CC

Mark,

There were two known issues with the engine.

1: the blower was seized
2: one of the pistons seemed to be frozen in place

The engine had definitely been rebuilt once before and when the machine shop finally got things apart they found the bores to be standard size and the pistons had no appreciable wear. So, the cylinders were honed and the pistons were bead blasted. The crank was turned .010" under and new cam bearings were installed. The valves were ok but a valve job was done anyway.

If I read your post correctly it sounds like you're saying I need to replace the head studs. Is there a reason for that?

Brad

[BKahler]

Brad,
If you don't already have them, be sure to get the N series pistons, not S series, and change over to N series injectors as well. S series is what they came with, and are still available because they are used in the turbo charged engines, but you want the N series. It will start so much better you won't believe it.
Lavoy

Lavoy,

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it I ended up using the pistons that were in the engine. Is there a way to tell the S series from the N series pistons?

Would you happen to have a good used replacement cam shaft for the 2-53 ?

Thanks,

Brad

[Lavoy]

Brad,
I am sure there is, but I do not know what it is.
Lavoy

[carolina crawler]

Brad, In most all of my engine rebuilds , I always Use New Head Bolts, There are some exceptions, but with a high compression engine, such as the 2-53,I would think the head bolts to be stretched over the years. I was going to ask Lavoy about this , If he uses new bolts on his rebuilds or if the OE ones are good enough......Sucks that the engine was locked up..mine spins, and tries to run,just been soooo busy here in Ga, have not had time to go to SC to tear her apart..Finally got my sprocket , from a super great guy here on the forum........totally 8) fair price I think...take picture of your rebuild.....and post them, would love to watch your progress...........Mark/CC

[Lavoy]

I have not heard that you need to replace the head bolts on the 2-53, you might want to call a local Detroit shop and see what they say.
Lavoy

[Stretch]

If it is like any other Detroit all you have to do is check the stretch of the head bolts.
Stretch