punkmechanic
diesel tech
I need some help from the collective to figure out what is going on with my truck.
first the background. Bought the truck a year and 20k miles ago in florida. Its an 87 with a 6.9 and was a c6. The motor was swapped before I got the truck, supposedly an actual ih 6.9 from the ih dealer. No proof of that. The truck had sat for some time and didnt want to fire when I got to it. New gp's (motorcraft) and it ran great. Found a zf5 and bought a hypermax pulse turbo. Ran better. Never been a real powerhouse but it would get out of its own way and ran when I needed it (everyday as it was my daily driver). Pulled a uhaul 3500 miles from florida to oregon where I now live. Overheated it pulling a grade on the way out here (stuck in missoula) but once it cooled down and had coolant back in it, seemed fine. I have always had slight oil leaks, nothing major and I dont lose much between changes so never really worried about it.
I started to run waste trans fluid around the first of the year and ran up to a 50/50 mix till 3 months ago. I started smokeing way more under load and was losing power. switched to straight ulsd puke and tried that for a few weeks with no real improvement. swapped out injectors with ones from a solid running core motor at work ( the owner had just had them replaced by another shop, and we found 2 dead holes and sold him a reman). Some improvement but still not "right". Had the pump rebuilt by a local, recommended, reputible shop. More improvement but Still not "right". Checked the timing and advanced it a bit, no real change. I have been around a few of these trucks that are owned by other members and can say for sure mine has the least power and is the slowest. I might have non turbo power with the hypermax installed.
The last month it has sat more than its ran and when I do run it Im afraid Im gonna get a mass polluting ticket from the portland police. I can cloud a 4 lane highway with dark black smoke, if Im pulling a hill. She seems fine on flat ground, but as soon as I hit a hill, egts and boost climb to limit (i remove foot from floor) and the truck slows. down shift and repeat.
I have 5 of the 8 cylinders comp tested with good results (lowest is 390 and highest is 420, all jump to 210-230 first crank). performed a blowby test with the rotunda meter at work and got a 2.5 on the magnehelic gauge with the allowable being 4-5 and dusted being 6+. I cant find a thing wrong but something sure aint right.
Anyone else have a similar situation? Im running out of ideas. Im not getting rid of the truck, but I dont want to pull the motor if it isnt back (probably going to soon to do head studs and gaskets and reseal the oil pan, anyway).
Im going to steam clean the engine and finish the comp test. Any ideas are more than welcome.
Im near broke and hope to be moving out of this **** hole apartment soon so I need the ol girl to at least get the move completed then hopefully I can pull the motor and tear it down if need be.
Im leaning towards the injectors being toasted from the waste trans oil. I filtered it down to 4 micron but I still feel that could be a contributing factor in all of this. If the comp test is good then a new set of injectors is in the works, after that I have no idea.
thanks in advance
punk
aka Justin
first the background. Bought the truck a year and 20k miles ago in florida. Its an 87 with a 6.9 and was a c6. The motor was swapped before I got the truck, supposedly an actual ih 6.9 from the ih dealer. No proof of that. The truck had sat for some time and didnt want to fire when I got to it. New gp's (motorcraft) and it ran great. Found a zf5 and bought a hypermax pulse turbo. Ran better. Never been a real powerhouse but it would get out of its own way and ran when I needed it (everyday as it was my daily driver). Pulled a uhaul 3500 miles from florida to oregon where I now live. Overheated it pulling a grade on the way out here (stuck in missoula) but once it cooled down and had coolant back in it, seemed fine. I have always had slight oil leaks, nothing major and I dont lose much between changes so never really worried about it.
I started to run waste trans fluid around the first of the year and ran up to a 50/50 mix till 3 months ago. I started smokeing way more under load and was losing power. switched to straight ulsd puke and tried that for a few weeks with no real improvement. swapped out injectors with ones from a solid running core motor at work ( the owner had just had them replaced by another shop, and we found 2 dead holes and sold him a reman). Some improvement but still not "right". Had the pump rebuilt by a local, recommended, reputible shop. More improvement but Still not "right". Checked the timing and advanced it a bit, no real change. I have been around a few of these trucks that are owned by other members and can say for sure mine has the least power and is the slowest. I might have non turbo power with the hypermax installed.
The last month it has sat more than its ran and when I do run it Im afraid Im gonna get a mass polluting ticket from the portland police. I can cloud a 4 lane highway with dark black smoke, if Im pulling a hill. She seems fine on flat ground, but as soon as I hit a hill, egts and boost climb to limit (i remove foot from floor) and the truck slows. down shift and repeat.
I have 5 of the 8 cylinders comp tested with good results (lowest is 390 and highest is 420, all jump to 210-230 first crank). performed a blowby test with the rotunda meter at work and got a 2.5 on the magnehelic gauge with the allowable being 4-5 and dusted being 6+. I cant find a thing wrong but something sure aint right.
Anyone else have a similar situation? Im running out of ideas. Im not getting rid of the truck, but I dont want to pull the motor if it isnt back (probably going to soon to do head studs and gaskets and reseal the oil pan, anyway).
Im going to steam clean the engine and finish the comp test. Any ideas are more than welcome.
Im near broke and hope to be moving out of this **** hole apartment soon so I need the ol girl to at least get the move completed then hopefully I can pull the motor and tear it down if need be.
Im leaning towards the injectors being toasted from the waste trans oil. I filtered it down to 4 micron but I still feel that could be a contributing factor in all of this. If the comp test is good then a new set of injectors is in the works, after that I have no idea.
thanks in advance
punk
aka Justin