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melton vs gep

TOBASH

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Others have told me that Melton had quality control issues. I am driving a 6.2 re-manufactured by melton and I am currently happy with it but in the back of my mind I am always worried.
 

Elijah95

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One last question was this a bad idea? keyed ignition View attachment 863141 I watched a video with black dog saying it was
Some say terrible idea, some say it’s great. Personally I had one, a heavy duty Napa switch, but I’ve seen issues with cheap ones unable to carry amperage. I also had a supplemental ground harness on my truck after fighting all kinds of issues and it cured them, so i felt confident in my keyed ignition


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GuntherRommel

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Some say terrible idea, some say it’s great. Personally I had one, a heavy duty Napa switch, but I’ve seen issues with cheap ones unable to carry amperage. I also had a supplemental ground harness on my truck after fighting all kinds of issues and it cured them, so i felt confident in my keyed ignition


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Thanks, that makes me feel a little better
 

Mogman

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When AMG bought the rights to build the Detroit and formed GEP they went in a did a ton of upgrades, from adding more nickle to the block and heads, redesign of cooling passages, thicker webbing and different bolts in the main bearing area, better crank and several other mods I can't remember.
It is considered to be a far superior engine all around than the Detroit.
IMHO the 6.2L was a better engine than the 6.5L Detroit, when they punched it out it only made the problems already in the 6.2L worse.
 

Coug

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the majority of us think a keyed ignition is a bad idea, because as stated most of the kits sold for our trucks use cheap chinesium components for the kit, and they eventually fail. When they fail they take out things like the control box, which can be a $1000 to replace.
Some people have haven't had any issues with them, and that's good for them, but there are plenty who have.
 

blutow

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I did a bit of research on the 6.5 block/head variations and GEP definitely made some improvements over the GM blocks/heads, but there are lots of GM motors out there with a lot of miles on them without issue. The block/head cracking is the big one that comes up with the GM castings, but I suspect it's like many "common" issues you hear about. Meaning that a 6.5 GM block is more likely to have cracking compared to a GEP block, but still not that likely to happen based on the number they put on the road and how many occurrances they had. That said, It was a big enough issue that GM made some attempts to fix it and GEP spent time to address it as well, so it's a legit issue, but nothing that keeps me up at night. I have an 08 "506" GM block in my 2009 Melton rebuild. I'd rather it be a GEP block, but I wouldn't have paid thousands more to get a GEP block. I would have paid some premium for a GEP block, but I'm still guessing there are many other things that are more likely to fail on a 20+ year old truck before I end up with a cracked block or heads. If these were $10k motors in short supply, I'd be more concerned. If my motor blows (for whatever reason), I'll just find a decent used replacement and swap it in.
 

Maxjeep1

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I did a bit of research on the 6.5 block/head variations and GEP definitely made some improvements over the GM blocks/heads, but there are lots of GM motors out there with a lot of miles on them without issue. The block/head cracking is the big one that comes up with the GM castings, but I suspect it's like many "common" issues you hear about. Meaning that a 6.5 GM block is more likely to have cracking compared to a GEP block, but still not that likely to happen based on the number they put on the road and how many occurrances they had. That said, It was a big enough issue that GM made some attempts to fix it and GEP spent time to address it as well, so it's a legit issue, but nothing that keeps me up at night. I have an 08 "506" GM block in my 2009 Melton rebuild. I'd rather it be a GEP block, but I wouldn't have paid thousands more to get a GEP block. I would have paid some premium for a GEP block, but I'm still guessing there are many other things that are more likely to fail on a 20+ year old truck before I end up with a cracked block or heads. If these were $10k motors in short supply, I'd be more concerned. If my motor blows (for whatever reason), I'll just find a decent used replacement and swap it in.
I need to check but I believe my 2002 M1123 has 506 in the valley of the block. I have the GEP sticker on the valve cover and the engine hasn’t been replaced.
 

blutow

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I need to check but I believe my 2002 M1123 has 506 in the valley of the block. I have the GEP sticker on the valve cover and the engine hasn’t been replaced.
I believe my GM block had the numbers (including the "506") on the rear of the block right under the heads. Number under each head area, I can't remember which side was which. I don't remember anything in the valley, but I might be wrong.
 

Mogman

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I did a bit of research on the 6.5 block/head variations and GEP definitely made some improvements over the GM blocks/heads, but there are lots of GM motors out there with a lot of miles on them without issue. The block/head cracking is the big one that comes up with the GM castings, but I suspect it's like many "common" issues you hear about. Meaning that a 6.5 GM block is more likely to have cracking compared to a GEP block, but still not that likely to happen based on the number they put on the road and how many occurrances they had. That said, It was a big enough issue that GM made some attempts to fix it and GEP spent time to address it as well, so it's a legit issue, but nothing that keeps me up at night. I have an 08 "506" GM block in my 2009 Melton rebuild. I'd rather it be a GEP block, but I wouldn't have paid thousands more to get a GEP block. I would have paid some premium for a GEP block, but I'm still guessing there are many other things that are more likely to fail on a 20+ year old truck before I end up with a cracked block or heads. If these were $10k motors in short supply, I'd be more concerned. If my motor blows (for whatever reason), I'll just find a decent used replacement and swap it in.
GM was not building blocks in 08
 

86humv

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GM casting dates: 1 Letter followed by 3 numbers
GEP casting date: 4 numbers followed by 1 letter.
 

Mogman

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So the 506 is an GEP block?
I have no idea actually why I premised it as on the "interweb"" The GEP block uses 10MM main bearing bolts and the Detroit uses 12MM bolts (bigger is not better if it weakens the block webbing) I have seen several references to 506 blocks with 10MM bolts, I have a late (REV) turbo motor and I see no 506 in the valley, possibly they used the old molds for early production of the GEP, they may have built some engines with some of the modification in an intermediate period before the "new" molds were ready, again I have no real concrete evidence one way or another, so this is worth every penny you paid for it!!!
 

Mogman

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OK so everyone was saying 506 cast in the "valley" so I am a little confused, the "valley" is in between the cylinder banks, My GEP casting number does end with 506 if that is what everyone is trying to say...
The casting date is 04-11-P
 
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