Does a replacement engine show accurate hours?

[Cajun Jamie]

When a dealer replaces an engine with another used engine, are the engine hours carried over? I would think the computer would be reading the actual hours carried over on the engine.

After I purchased my 2006 Tahoe with 179,000 on the odometer, the previous owner sent me all his paperwork (the dealer gave me his contact info). Turns out a year ago the PO had an extended warranty and the camshaft bearings wore out. The dealer replaced the engine under warranty at 168,000. I contacted the dealer and warranty company. Neither could find a record of the recorded mileage of the replacement engine, BUT the warranty company said the rules state the replacement engine must have 20,000 miles fewer than the original, at a minimum. This puts the replacement engine at 148,000 miles maximum. I bought the vehicle 10,000 miles and 10 months later, so the odometer reads 180,000 and I estimate the engine to have 20,000 less, so I say 160,000 on the engine.

All this said, the engine hours only show up at like 1800. I've been looking at Suburbans at work and one with 100,000 has 2300 hours. One with 189,000 as 4300 hours. If I estimate 45 miles per engine hour, which is what the math comes to on these others, roughly, that only puts my engine at 80-90,000 miles.

Any thoughts?

 

[Doubeleive]

I would just presume it is less and let it be, it's pretty unlikely that someone wrote down the hours on the engine and provided the dealer with it and even less likely that anyone would bother to re-program the hours. the bottom line is :does it really matter? maintenance isn't really done by the hours anyway

I had a brand new factory motor put in mine at 84k, my hours still say 4000+, again it doesn't really matter I have all the paperwork for the engine when and if I ever sell it to show anyone that wants to know or see it.

 

[Cajun Jamie]

I would just presume it is less and let it be, it's pretty unlikely that someone wrote down the hours on the engine and provided the dealer with it and even less likely that anyone would bother to re-program the hours. the bottom line is :does it really matter? maintenance isn't really done by the hours anyway

I had a brand new factory motor put in mine at 84k, my hours still say 4000+, again it doesn't really matter I have all the paperwork for the engine when and if I ever sell it to show anyone that wants to know or see it.

Thanks. I was mainly trying to determine that if the replacement engine only really had 1800 hours, and that really only was about 80,000 miles, then I would feel much better about maybe taking a 13 hour road trip on a Tahoe with 80,000 engine miles versus 160,000 engine miles. Now the tranny still has 180k, but anyway....

 

[Cajun Jamie]

I spoke to the dealer and their response was the engine hours are for the vehicle overall and does not reset. If the computer shows 1800 hours, that's how much run time is on the vehicle.

 

[Erickk120]

If it helps you sleep at night I have over 7.3k hours in my stock 5.3 over 200k miles, lots of city stop and go time and I would trust it to make it across the country. Why? Because the engine just wont fail out of blue when I've taken care of it. I would say its more likely to have a tranny die than to kill one of these engines when you've taken care of them. I had a 6.0 with over 300k miles still ran solid when i sold the van to a friend, he still has it and its been a few years, its his work van. Like someone else said, take care of them and they will take care of you.

 

[zraffz]

I can't comment on passenger vehicles but the rule of thumb for our municipal trucks is 10-15 miles per hour of run time. You never know how much time a vehicle spent idling and it is horrible. I have seen many BBC motors be idled to death at 50,000 miles.

 

[swathdiver]

When a dealer replaces an engine with another used engine, are the engine hours carried over? I would think the computer would be reading the actual hours carried over on the engine.

After I purchased my 2006 Tahoe with 179,000 on the odometer, the previous owner sent me all his paperwork (the dealer gave me his contact info). Turns out a year ago the PO had an extended warranty and the camshaft bearings wore out. The dealer replaced the engine under warranty at 168,000. I contacted the dealer and warranty company. Neither could find a record of the recorded mileage of the replacement engine, BUT the warranty company said the rules state the replacement engine must have 20,000 miles fewer than the original, at a minimum. This puts the replacement engine at 148,000 miles maximum. I bought the vehicle 10,000 miles and 10 months later, so the odometer reads 180,000 and I estimate the engine to have 20,000 less, so I say 160,000 on the engine.

All this said, the engine hours only show up at like 1800. I've been looking at Suburbans at work and one with 100,000 has 2300 hours. One with 189,000 as 4300 hours. If I estimate 45 miles per engine hour, which is what the math comes to on these others, roughly, that only puts my engine at 80-90,000 miles.

Any thoughts?

It's with near certainty that your engine hour meter was reset involuntarily. They often reset to zero when the battery fails or of course when the cluster is replaced. My truck's average speed is 27 mph, some time ago a bunch chimed in and the average was about 30.

 

[91RS]

That information is stored in the cluster. Sometimes the cluster freaks out and it can reset and a replacement cluster can sometimes have the hours reset or programmed to match the old cluster depending on where the cluster was sourced and who installed it.

 

[Jorge1313]

If it helps you sleep at night I have over 7.3k hours in my stock 5.3 over 200k miles, lots of city stop and go time and I would trust it to make it across the country. Why? Because the engine just wont fail out of blue when I've taken care of it. I would say its more likely to have a tranny die than to kill one of these engines when you've taken care of them. I had a 6.0 with over 300k miles still ran solid when i sold the van to a friend, he still has it and its been a few years, its his work van. Like someone else said, take care of them and they will take care of you.

View attachment 218095

What do you do to take care of it so it lasts that long . Share your knowledge with us

If it helps you sleep at night I have over 7.3k hours in my stock 5.3 over 200k miles, lots of city stop and go time and I would trust it to make it across the country. Why? Because the engine just wont fail out of blue when I've taken care of it. I would say its more likely to have a tranny die than to kill one of these engines when you've taken care of them. I had a 6.0 with over 300k miles still ran solid when i sold the van to a friend, he still has it and its been a few years, its his work van. Like someone else said, take care of them and they will take care of you.

View attachment 218095

 

[91RS]

Change the oil and other fluids regularly with good quality stuff, don't abuse it (in gear and WOT before the starter is even done cranking the engine), fix stuff when it breaks, use good quality gas. It isn't that difficult. People just don't seem to want to care for stuff any more. Getting 200k miles out of a vehicle isn't that hard to do if it's taken care of well. My dad's 2000 2500 has about 350k miles, his old 94 had over 300k before it was retired, a buddy of mine has a 05 with 330k miles, a vendor at work has a 05 or 06 with 570k miles, and I saw an 08 years ago that had 800k miles on it. I could go on but there's no need. They spare no expense in taking care of their vehicles and have been rewarded. I also think most people have gotten used to having car payments and would rather just keep buying new cars and have a payment forever.