In March of 2024 I broke the crankshaft in my 6.6l Duramax motor in my 2015 Silverado. I ended up buying a long block motor from Choate Engineering in Bolivar, Tn., because I had a buddy that knew the owner, Cass Choate, and he spoke highly of him. I prefer to support the little guys anyway, so I went with his recommendation. Choate Engineering offers 3 motors for my truck, with the middle option offering a 5yr/100,000 mile warranty, versus a much lesser warranty if I went with the cheaper engine, so I went with the middle price and hired a reputable shop, HCS Auto Repair, to do the install. I will add here that the steps and processes Choate required to get the warranty during the installation, was insane. It required tons of pictures, videos, and special processes that took extra time that I paid for, but to get the warranty, we felt it was worth it. The installing shop told me they'd never seen such a long list of steps required by a manufacture and I had to pay $150/hr for the extra time they took to do this, but again, I felt it was worth it for the warranty.
Keep in mind, my truck is a daily driver that never gets worked. The heaviest load it's ever pulled is a 20’ equipment trailer that might weigh 2500 pounds hauling a 2200 pound UTV. For a diesel, that is not even breathing hard. It's creampuff that I keep extreme care of. I am anal with it's condition and cleanliness.
Fast forward now to January 25th, 2025, less than a year into my warranty and approx. 10,000 miles on the new Choate motor. I'm pulling my trailer and buggy when the over temp alarm went off. I look at the gauge and it's climbing to 250ish degrees. (Keep in mind, this is the coolant inside the motor, not the motor temp) This is also the first time the motor has ever overheated. I pull over and shut the truck off within 20 seconds. A friend that was with me, who is a good friend of Cass Choate, owner of Choate Engineering, calls him to ask what we should do. Cass had us check a few things and he suspected it might be a bad coolant reservoir cap. He told my buddy to tell me not to worry and that they’d take care of me since the motor was under warranty. So after the the truck cooled down, we carefully drove it to the next auto parts store and purchase a new reservoir cap, installed it, and finished driving home. When I got home, there was coolant blown out on the reservoir again, so I know it was something else.
Now I'm thinking the actual coolant reservoir itself is cracked, so I drove to Orielly’s and purchased a brand new reservoir kit for $225ish, and went back home and installed it. After I got it back up to temp, it started blowing coolant back out of the cap again. I got frustrated and went to bed.
The next day, I had my brother-in-law take a look at it, who is a master mechanic. He couldn’t find any leak in it other than the pressure build up that was forcing coolant out of the reservoir cap onto the engine and thought maybe it had a blown head gasket. So, he told me to take it back to the shop that installed the motor, HCS Automotive.
HCS mechanics ran some tests on it and concluded it was either the EGR cooler or a blown head gasket. My truck is “deleted”, so the EGR cooler isn’t even hooked up. So, they tore down to the heads and found that indeed, it was a blown head gasket. Both the shop manager and my service advisor told me they found loose head bolts when they removed my heads, as well as a couple other red flags. (I'm no mechanic and I can't recall exactly what the others were, so to be accurate I'll just leave it there) HCS also said the heat tabs, as shown in the pictures, looked brand new.
I had been in contact with the Choate warranty department during this time, and up to this point they’d told me they would only cover $50/hr for 20.6 book hours if it was a blown head gasket. I argued with them and told them that was a weak warranty because the shop rate alone on a diesel motor at HCS was $150/hr. After calling Cass Choate, he finally conceded that he'd offer $75/hr, but I would have to ship the heads back to Choate in Tennessee to be inspected, on my dime.
This is around 6 weeks into this process now and I have been without a truck this whole time. Choate had already shown zero sense of urgency in their responses and I was concerned this was going to drag out far too long if I continued on. The warranty department had sent me an email asking me to return the entire long block at one point, even. I was so frustrated with everything that I told HCS to forget the warranty, I’ll pay for it myself since Choate was offering to pay so little anyways, and just to have the heads inspected locally and put my motor back together. I then emailed Choate warranty department about my decision to bypass their substandard warranty.
The next day HCS notified me that the machine shop they use to work on these heads had ran tests that showed both heads were cracked. So, I notified Choate warranty department that we would in fact now be using the warranty after-all because the issue just got bigger. I told them I refused to pay freight on the heads as well, and they finally agreed to setup freight on their own dime.
When the heads got back to Choate, they did jump right on them, and after a couple of days, emailed me that they did not find any cracks in the heads whatsoever, but did confirm the head gasket was blown. So, they "o-ringed" the heads, replaced the head gaskets, and shipped the heads back to HCS.
Now this is concerning. I have a local reputable machine shop that swears both heads are cracked, and the manufacture that tells me they're not. Who do I believe? To be honest, I'm scared to death of this motor. The motor, installation, and now this future bill that I'm fixing to have to pay because of their weak warranty is going to put me around $26,000 deep on this. I can't afford to keep throwing money at it.
So, now I've decided I'm going to immediately put the truck up for sale and buy a new 2025 with the 6.6l gas motor. I'm done with diesel motors.
Yesterday I sent Choate warranty department an email asking how to go about getting reimbursed for the 20.6/hrs x $75/hr that totals $1,545 dollars. They responded with an email stating: We found no evidence of a manufacturer’s defect or cause of failure with your cylinder heads so there wouldn’t be any labor payout. No one from Choate has contacted the shop doing the work and I can't get a return phone call.
A blown head-gasket in less that 10,000 miles, and they are going to make me pay for it. Would not a blown head-gasket in itself be a factory issue? Especially 10,000 miles into a 5yr/100,000 warranty?
As of now, I have now contacted an attorney and will go broke over principle alone trying to recoup a minuscule $1,545 just to keep them honest.
I absolutely would not purchase from them again. Look up other customer reviews like I should have before I made a decision. There are far too many stories just like mine.
Keep in mind, my truck is a daily driver that never gets worked. The heaviest load it's ever pulled is a 20’ equipment trailer that might weigh 2500 pounds hauling a 2200 pound UTV. For a diesel, that is not even breathing hard. It's creampuff that I keep extreme care of. I am anal with it's condition and cleanliness.
Fast forward now to January 25th, 2025, less than a year into my warranty and approx. 10,000 miles on the new Choate motor. I'm pulling my trailer and buggy when the over temp alarm went off. I look at the gauge and it's climbing to 250ish degrees. (Keep in mind, this is the coolant inside the motor, not the motor temp) This is also the first time the motor has ever overheated. I pull over and shut the truck off within 20 seconds. A friend that was with me, who is a good friend of Cass Choate, owner of Choate Engineering, calls him to ask what we should do. Cass had us check a few things and he suspected it might be a bad coolant reservoir cap. He told my buddy to tell me not to worry and that they’d take care of me since the motor was under warranty. So after the the truck cooled down, we carefully drove it to the next auto parts store and purchase a new reservoir cap, installed it, and finished driving home. When I got home, there was coolant blown out on the reservoir again, so I know it was something else.
Now I'm thinking the actual coolant reservoir itself is cracked, so I drove to Orielly’s and purchased a brand new reservoir kit for $225ish, and went back home and installed it. After I got it back up to temp, it started blowing coolant back out of the cap again. I got frustrated and went to bed.
The next day, I had my brother-in-law take a look at it, who is a master mechanic. He couldn’t find any leak in it other than the pressure build up that was forcing coolant out of the reservoir cap onto the engine and thought maybe it had a blown head gasket. So, he told me to take it back to the shop that installed the motor, HCS Automotive.
HCS mechanics ran some tests on it and concluded it was either the EGR cooler or a blown head gasket. My truck is “deleted”, so the EGR cooler isn’t even hooked up. So, they tore down to the heads and found that indeed, it was a blown head gasket. Both the shop manager and my service advisor told me they found loose head bolts when they removed my heads, as well as a couple other red flags. (I'm no mechanic and I can't recall exactly what the others were, so to be accurate I'll just leave it there) HCS also said the heat tabs, as shown in the pictures, looked brand new.
I had been in contact with the Choate warranty department during this time, and up to this point they’d told me they would only cover $50/hr for 20.6 book hours if it was a blown head gasket. I argued with them and told them that was a weak warranty because the shop rate alone on a diesel motor at HCS was $150/hr. After calling Cass Choate, he finally conceded that he'd offer $75/hr, but I would have to ship the heads back to Choate in Tennessee to be inspected, on my dime.
This is around 6 weeks into this process now and I have been without a truck this whole time. Choate had already shown zero sense of urgency in their responses and I was concerned this was going to drag out far too long if I continued on. The warranty department had sent me an email asking me to return the entire long block at one point, even. I was so frustrated with everything that I told HCS to forget the warranty, I’ll pay for it myself since Choate was offering to pay so little anyways, and just to have the heads inspected locally and put my motor back together. I then emailed Choate warranty department about my decision to bypass their substandard warranty.
The next day HCS notified me that the machine shop they use to work on these heads had ran tests that showed both heads were cracked. So, I notified Choate warranty department that we would in fact now be using the warranty after-all because the issue just got bigger. I told them I refused to pay freight on the heads as well, and they finally agreed to setup freight on their own dime.
When the heads got back to Choate, they did jump right on them, and after a couple of days, emailed me that they did not find any cracks in the heads whatsoever, but did confirm the head gasket was blown. So, they "o-ringed" the heads, replaced the head gaskets, and shipped the heads back to HCS.
Now this is concerning. I have a local reputable machine shop that swears both heads are cracked, and the manufacture that tells me they're not. Who do I believe? To be honest, I'm scared to death of this motor. The motor, installation, and now this future bill that I'm fixing to have to pay because of their weak warranty is going to put me around $26,000 deep on this. I can't afford to keep throwing money at it.
So, now I've decided I'm going to immediately put the truck up for sale and buy a new 2025 with the 6.6l gas motor. I'm done with diesel motors.
Yesterday I sent Choate warranty department an email asking how to go about getting reimbursed for the 20.6/hrs x $75/hr that totals $1,545 dollars. They responded with an email stating: We found no evidence of a manufacturer’s defect or cause of failure with your cylinder heads so there wouldn’t be any labor payout. No one from Choate has contacted the shop doing the work and I can't get a return phone call.
A blown head-gasket in less that 10,000 miles, and they are going to make me pay for it. Would not a blown head-gasket in itself be a factory issue? Especially 10,000 miles into a 5yr/100,000 warranty?
As of now, I have now contacted an attorney and will go broke over principle alone trying to recoup a minuscule $1,545 just to keep them honest.
I absolutely would not purchase from them again. Look up other customer reviews like I should have before I made a decision. There are far too many stories just like mine.
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