But I feel bad also for all the work put in to it, only to find out the engine was a dead end. The bigger issue is the family, since we have not been on vacation in so many years. Was just an incredible psychological blow.

Well even though we kind of had a history on that motor it was brief, I guess when we found that motor for sale it did seem too good to be true given the price. Those things are pretty unforgiving, It sucks man. Did the Mech find a cause of failure? If there is valve/piston damage it'll be obvious what happened.

AND even though the belt may be ok that doesn't rule out not holding proper tension and letting the belt jump time.

The timing is not off, so that issue is not in play. They charged 130.00 for diagnosis as it was, so I asked them not to dig any deeper, that would just be a waste. Its major damage either way and has to be re-done from the ground up. Hopefully damage beyond those two cylinders is minimal. We are talking about salvaging as much from the top end as possible and finding another block. Clearly, given the original dealer re-build under warranty there is something wrong with that block.

Maybe LT can remember when they did the rebuild, It was way before i bought the truck and had a good amount of miles on it. So it was tested and lasted for a good while, I'll ask our friend at Mitsu R&D and see what he can get a OEM long block for just for giggles.

holy cow. I can't believe im reading this. total bummer.

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It sounds like time to start looking for a 6G76 3.8 motor in a wrecking yard.

I tell you, the 3.5 is great while it is running, but it is such a sensitive motor. Reminds me of the Powerstroke engines, forget to clean the air cleaner one week and it explodes. Then again, prior to now the couple of 3.5's I had did not last as long as I would like, but others over heating the hell out of them caused damage. And even then, they seemed to take more abuse then this one.

Is there a more modern motor that drops in reasonably? Probably out of the budget, but would be great to have a more advanced mid 2000's motor. These motors fall into the "experimental stage" of modern engine building.

if i remember correct the dealer rebuilt the engine because it smoked.

There are more modern engines but that is more extreme down time and money. I don't know how you stand with extra cash on hand but at least a new loaded block would be the way to go and have your heads rebuilt.