obscure mechanic question

[5.4MarkVIII]

lol

our back up delivery van is a 2002 Chev E3500 with a unicell box.

it has the 5.7 (350?)

we have owned it for 4 years ish. and only put about 40000km on it in that time. (currently only has 160,000 ish kms)

we have had to replace the exhaust manifolds twice now for cracks once for the initial safety when I bought it and once a couple years ago. now the damn thing has started ticking again.

is this a common thing? sounds stupid for a work delivery truck but I have half mind to order a tubular header for the stupid thing so I don't have to deal with this every 2 years on the cast iron ones.


on that note anyone know if a tubular header would fit? or os there a better option to replace than the after marked cast ones my mechanic has been using.

thanks.


oh also on a side note with stupid mechanical questions. Why the Fu#k do mechanics not turn rotors any more? our main delivery vehicle (2013 Izuzu NNR) is in getting its yearly stupid commercial check. all the break rotors and drums are glassed over and pitted. pads have tones of life left in them the mechanic says they need to be replaced I saidokay how about we turn the rotors and drums and put them back on. he said no. no one does that any more we just replace them. I said how much.

HE SAID WITH LABOUR WE ARE LOOKING AROUND FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! "it took him all day to get the drums off because of the lip in that back and the calipers were seized.

I said again. okay how about replace the calipers clen up the shoes and turn the fucking drums. NOPE all needs to be changed for the cert. oh and also new fucking drip free safetys. so waiting on some obscure coolent line because it had a drip on it.

[Ponyryd]

Headers should be available but you would need to adapt them to the current exhaust I’m sure. I haven’t had too many issues with SBC manifolds, a few have cracked but not that frequently.

As for the safety, the rotors only actually fail if they are cracked, undersized, badly pulsating, or very badly rusted. Some places resurface still, (we do) but once they’re rusted or pitted it’s pointless, machining won’t help much and the condition will return within a few months.

[5.4MarkVIII]

needs a restock lol

find it funny. just in my travels today. say a car with no working break lights or turn signals. another one spewing blue smoke everywhere and a pick up that I literally could see threw both sides of the bed. like stand on one side of the truck and can see the person standing on the other side threw the damn truck.

and Im held up on deliveries because a single tiny leak, that has NEVER cause a puddle. or required a refill of the coolant.

also on a similar note. if you have told your employed the required maintenance schedule and assured them of the importance of it and clarified with them that it is in their job description to ensure said truck gets its required maintenance. it is STILL not safe to assume the required maintenance is getting done

[5.4MarkVIII]

Headers should be available but you would need to adapt them to the current exhaust I’m sure. I haven’t had too many issues with SBC manifolds, a few have cracked but not that frequently.

As for the safety, the rotors only actually fail if they are cracked, undersized, badly pulsating, or very badly rusted. Some places resurface still, (we do) but once they’re rusted or pitted it’s pointless, machining won’t help much and the condition will return within a few months.

thanks for the input. I just remember always machining rotors. I can understand most cars now since white box is relatively cheap vs time. but for giant commercial truck rotors I guess is just assumed it was still a thing,

[hammerhead]

The Chinese have, I think somehow managed to veneer steel..lol especially rotors - in my experience it has been best to replace all at once or your pulling the wheels regularly to replace the things you should of the first time...

to be honest I have this suggestion and I tell this to a lot of people with commercial vehicles who aren't delivery people and this comes from being in the trucking industry for a long time - contract out your deliveries with someone who has a truck and maybe a small trucking business for local deliveries - I don't know how busy you are for delivery but this may be the best option for you - consider all the nonsense and expense needed to have and maintain delivery vehicles and also the time your losing now because of having no driver or poor driver employee's...there's a ton of reason to do it this way.

[ZR]

Cracking manifolds on GM vans, dramatic reduction if you remove the rubber inner fender liners on both sides. Carpet trucks we service have gone from one broken manifold after another to haven't done one in several years. Another common cause is a partially plugged Cat, on those trucks first sign is detonation then reduced power. Also worth keeping in mind, while the 5.7 hauls those trucks around just fine when driven realistically, drive it firm to hard and it's working it's bag off making huge heat, yes cracking manifolds.
Turning rotors, while to your eye they may look like a skim n all will be fine. Rotors these days start to show rust from the inner n outter edges which somehow turns the steel into acting like it's a veneer (as said above). You know those small pin holes you see on the surface, start to machine the face and they go from pin holes to craters. I have one of the very best lathes on the market, machine few if any rotors anymore for exactly that reason. You can blame crappy sub standard steel used to make em combined with this ridiculous slop they slather our roads with each and every winter.

[ZR]

Oh and when replacing manifolds, opt for OEM used before using a set of those cheapest of cheap made in gosh knows where, they are doomed to fail but yes the price on them looks attractive.

[ZR]

As for the Isuzu, look to Rock Auto or similar ahead of it's next inspection, might be shocked how affordable non OEM stuff can be.

[5.4MarkVIII]

thanks for all the input. it all makes sense when I set aside the cheap ass part of my mindset.

[5.4MarkVIII]

The Chinese have, I think somehow managed to veneer steel..lol especially rotors - in my experience it has been best to replace all at once or your pulling the wheels regularly to replace the things you should of the first time...

to be honest I have this suggestion and I tell this to a lot of people with commercial vehicles who aren't delivery people and this comes from being in the trucking industry for a long time - contract out your deliveries with someone who has a truck and maybe a small trucking business for local deliveries - I don't know how busy you are for delivery but this may be the best option for you - consider all the nonsense and expense needed to have and maintain delivery vehicles and also the time your losing now because of having no driver or poor driver employee's...there's a ton of reason to do it this way.

sub contracting makes sense from a cost perspective but doing the delivery ourselves with guys trained to do it properly is one of the biggest customer service advantages we can offer that sets us apart from the big box stores.
I see it on a weekly basis we get called out by the big box store to go look at a "warranty issue" only to show up to find out that the issue is the guys who delivered it had no idea what they were doing, didn't level something. didn't install it properly ect. these things are not covered by warranty and the dealer who is subcontracting wont pay. so it ends up being time an cost for both me and the customer.

but its a catch 22. I have no idea how these contractor companies do it so cheap. but I don't pay my guys minimum wage and have to maintain the equipment but most people bitch about having to pay a delivery fees