The infamous Cummins company decided to allow one of it's outsourced vendors from Brazil to "save some weight" by thinning the walls of the outside of the engine block from 11 mm down to 5.5mm. The result of that "weight savings" (really money savings) idea yielded what is known as the #53 block. They crack...if you tow heavy loads, or hot rod the engine, the block will crack. There is no permanent fix for this except for replacing the engine, which Cummins offered me $500 for if I agreed to not write and publish an article about the problem...that ain't gonna happen...stay away from any 1998.5 to 2002 Cummins powered Dodge wtih the #53 block in it...or at least, negotiate a far better price for the truck based upon the record of this particular engine.
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The infamous Cummins company decided to allow one of it's outsourced vendors from Brazil to "save some weight" by thinning the walls of the outside of the engine block from 11 mm down to 5.5mm. The result of that "weight savings" (really money savings) idea yielded what is known as the #53 block. They crack...if you tow heavy loads, or hot rod the engine, the block will crack. There is no permanent fix for this except for replacing the engine, which Cummins offered me $500 for if I agreed to not write and publish an article about the problem...that ain't gonna happen...stay away from any 1998.5 to 2002 Cummins powered Dodge wtih the #53 block in it...or at least, negotiate a far better price for the truck based upon the record of this particular engine.
- mountaingoat, Lancaster, CA, US