Engine Rust

Hey all,

I’m a little paranoid about rust but is this too much rust underneath the engine? Picture is taken from underneath the passenger side. For context, there’s hardly any frame rust but the previous owner did live in a coastal town. First post so I apologize if I didn’t do it properly.

thanks!

 

Nah. I wouldn't worry about that. Not much you can do anyway. Just know it might be challenging to replace any of those exhaust parts. Soak them in a lot of penetrating oil before disassembly.

 

It's an iron block and exhaust pipes always gets rusted over time. Perfectly normal.

Just make sure you don't hear any leaks from the exhaust manifold because replacing them is always a challenge but not impossible.

 

Thanks for all the replies! This definitely helps put my mind at ease. So no real need to address this even if I’ve, hopefully, got another 400k miles on it?

 

The chances of you rusting thru that block are about zero.

It's not chemical-induced rust like you'll find in the rust belt, which is much more aggro than airborne salt induced surface rust.

The biggest issue you may find is: Frozen exhaust manifold fasteners. Hard-to-remove fasteners at the exhaust-manifold-to-cat flange. Hard to remove upstream O2 sensor. The closer to the ignition source, the more heat/cool cycles metal bits go through, and corrosion tends to hit those places the hardest.

 

Super helpful and informative. Thanks all.

 

Whenever I see nuts and bolts like that on our Best Gens, I can say for certain that the frame is probably a 9/10 out of 10 before even looking at it.

That ole girl should be around for many years to come.

 

Even looking at the hardware on those manifold/cat flanges, I'm guessing they'd pop off clean without even pulling out the breaker bar. Guys in the rust belt are cussing right now.

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I'd not worry about it. Every iron engine block I've had has had similar rust on it. You are never going to rust through your engine, and even if you could the rest of the truck would be long gone.