Hit 500 engine rebuilds last week and it hit me different than I expected

I was just tallying up my work logs from the past 8 years and realized I crossed the 500 mark on complete diesel engine rebuilds. That number caught me off guard because I never really kept count, just did the work. Half of those were on old 5.9 Cummins blocks for farm trucks and the other half split between Detroit Series 60s and Cat C15s. The milestone made me think about how much scrap metal and busted knuckles went into that number. Anyone else ever hit a random count like that and have it make you stop and think about how long you've been turning wrenches?

2 comments

2 Comments

nguyen.tara11d ago

@joseph_torres that knuckle sandwich line hit home, I feel your pain on those 5.9s.

joseph_torres11d ago

Man those 5.9 Cummins blocks are tanks but they'll still hand you a knuckle sandwich if you rush the timing. My buddy runs a fleet of old Dodge Rams for his tree service and we pulled one apart last spring that had 400k on it still running but blowing oil everywhere. Turned out the rear main seal had turned into plastic basically. Took three tries to get the new one seated right because my fat fingers kept wiggling it crooked. That day I must have dropped the same 15mm socket into the oil pan four times before I finally taped a magnet to my wrist. By the time we fired it up I smelled like diesel and shame but that engine purred like a kitten.