Brown Truck Under the Knife Project - Engine

[icanfixall]

Sean... Those are easy things to fix compared to what you have been thru. I would try to find some semi batteries with the top lugs.. The types with the 3/8 inch threaded studs. I think they are called 31 series batteries. Be careful they don't touch the bottom of the hood as they are a little tall for our trucks. They are either 1000 or 1100 amps each. Don't try to crank the motor with low or failing batteries. The starter will burn down because of the low voltage and higher amp draw in short order... Its kinda funny how this starter killer sneaks up on you over time... Then when it finally lets all the smoke out of the starter it happens very fast.... I saw it happen on a start many years ago.. The motor turned over slowly.. Then caught and jumped to life just as lots of smoke leaked out from the hood to fender joint... I ran the truck for the next 8 hours scared to shut it down till I got home from hauling horses... That starter never turned again... The next morning it was toasted and replaced.... Took me some time to figure out what the issue was that caused the burn down starter..... Now I keep a close check on the batteries and cables... They are cleaned every time I suspect a slower than normal start.... And that doesn't happen too often...Our lows here on thw West Coast are around 40 degrees... Nothing even close to freezing usually...

 

[seawalkersee]

Yeah...the cold sucks when you are trying to work on stuff. Too many layers and I can not get my hands where the need to be. It was 4* here today at noon. -4 when I got up and I am still trying to get my bypass off.

SWS

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Hehehehehehehehe! Broke the 75mi mark today. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Take that you little gremlin ********!

 

[Fordsandguns]

Hehehehehehehehe! Broke the 75mi mark today. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Take that you little gremlin ********!

Oh, Now you've done it! You shouldn't have said that!
Don't tempt them.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Well looks like i need to fire this thread back up. As I posted last night in another thread, I finished retiming the motor, checking for boost leaks and all that good stuff. I finished installing my exhaust system, which is pretty awesome BTW, and took the truck out for a test drive. In a mile the truck told me what was really going on with it causing the low boost, high EGTs and louder rattling. I had to limp the truck home with a giant cloud of white smoke trailing behind me. Got it home with the temp gauge hitting the L and shut it off instead of letting it get hotter. Didn't even need to pop the hood, there was antifreeze all over the drivers fender. Its pretty obvious it blew a head gasket.

I'm not really sure why a head gasket would let go on a motor with ARP studs running less than 15psi on low compression heads. I guess I get to pull it apart again and find out.

 

[65sixbanger]

Man that sucks, you sure are having a hell of a time with this thing... guess I got lucky

 

[dyoung14]

Well looks like i need to fire this thread back up. As I posted last night in another thread, I finished retiming the motor, checking for boost leaks and all that good stuff. I finished installing my exhaust system, which is pretty awesome BTW, and took the truck out for a test drive. In a mile the truck told me what was really going on with it causing the low boost, high EGTs and louder rattling. I had to limp the truck home with a giant cloud of white smoke trailing behind me. Got it home with the temp gauge hitting the L and shut it off instead of letting it get hotter. Didn't even need to pop the hood, there was antifreeze all over the drivers fender. Its pretty obvious it blew a head gasket.

I'm not really sure why a head gasket would let go on a motor with ARP studs running less than 15psi on low compression heads. I guess I get to pull it apart again and find out.

Maybe the heads were not rebuilt/surfaced right? Im no expert but it shouldnt keep blowing headgaskets with the studs,

 

[zpd307]

yikes.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

To answer a couple questions, yes I believe it is the same head that had the valve lock up in it. The drivers side is the only one that I can see any signs of leakage. Oil has been leaking out of somewhere on that side for weeks, I just thought it was a valve cover gasket and figured I'd get around to it sometime, guess it wasnt.
So now here's the next question. Since I'm pretty darn sure its the head gasket where do I go from here in terms of rebuilding it right so it doesnt do it again. Get a new head, or pair of heads? What I'd really like to do is get some Cometic head gaskets or have the heads ringed.
The only point I need to make about a possible hang up is the block has never been surfaced, I didn't see it necessary when I had the block stripped down. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I missed a spot that had some deflection. I guess I need to call Gary and have another long chat with him about this motor.

 

[david85]

I know this is a long shot, but could it be you blew out the valley pan? 15 PSI of boost is really close to the limit of what the intake gasket can take. Did you reuse the bolts or did you use studs for the intake?

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

I reused the stock bolts, torqued to 45ft lbs. But its also a reused valley pan as well.
I haven't looked close enough to rule that out yet I guess. I just know its all over the drivers side.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Thought I'd post the pics I took of building my exhaust yesterday and the last happy pic I'll have with the old girl for some time.
My long section of 4" pipe turned out to be about 14" too short so I had to make a splice, not bad though, I used stainless band clamps on everything I possibly could, I used Ubolt clamps only in the areas I was mounting hangers. This way with the band clamps hopefully they wont crush the pipe the way the Ubolt ones do and I'll be able to disassemble the exhaust if I ever need to. I also welded in the bung for my crank case Evac system, theres a couple pics of that in case some of you have wondered what one looks like.

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[seawalkersee]

Though you can not reuse the intake gasket on a gasser, I would not do it on the diesel either. If it were leaking at the intake, you would be getting less air in that cyl. and running hotter.

Either that or it may have a blocked oil squiter. New HG, VALLEY GASKET, and check the piston to see if it is discolored.

SWS

 

[david85]

The reason I ask is you have open ports to the head cooling system that get blocked off by the valley pan gasket. If overboost pushes out from the ports into the right place, you have boost pressure getting into the water jacket near max power, but once you back off, thermal expansion of the water will force coolant back into the intake where it would get ingested by the engine. Dave Sponaugle managed to blow his valley pan out completely before he switched to studs for the intake. He figured 15 PSI is very close to the limit of what the valley pan can survive.

Again, its probably a long shot though. Really sucks, Sean

 

[seawalkersee]

*Side note* Valley pan studs? Where did he get them? Got a link?

*Back to thread* I never thought of it that way. Can you cut the holes a bit bigger and add screw in plugs?

SWS