Newb Questions

[vt951]

make sure there's no copper washer still stuck in there. before you use the reamer.

I will, thanks towcat. Only #5 has a washer stuck in it. That was the one with good compression. So, I guess the fact that the washer is stuck indicates that it has a good seal to the bottom of the injector bore.

 

[vt951]

Alright, I'm getting ready to start making some more progress, I think. I received the injector seat reamer from icanfixall (thanks Gary!), and want to start using it tonight. Picture of the reamer below.

So, it threads into the injector bore, and then it's got a 1/2" square drive on the top that you use to crank it. If anyone on here has used it before, I'm wondering if it should be hand-cranked (with a socket wrench), or if it's better to use a power drill.

 

[vt951]

I finished the injector seat reaming last night. The tool worked really well. Thanks again, icanfixall (Gary). All I'm waiting for now is my new injectors from typ4, and I'll be ready to get it back together and see if she'll start. I also got new Motorcraft ZD1A glow plugs (made by Beru), and a new return line kit (with injector washers).

 

[Agnem]

To to answer your own question, I'd say you should have hand cranked it. Which did you end up doing?

 

[vt951]

I hand cranked the first 4, and then I got to some with deeper pits and switched to a cordless screwdriver. I used that on low speed mainly so I could apply more downward pressure while it was cranking. I used PB Blaster as the "cutting fluid." It worked very well, and I ended up going back over all of them using the cordless afterwards. It did not harm the reamer at all... still extremely sharp.

 

[vt951]

Damn, I got my hopes up to get it running today, but it's not looking good. I did another compression test after getting all of the injector seats cleaned up and using new copper washers. I went around and installed one of my old injectors in each cylinder one at a time (using a new washer each time). The passenger side bank is a lot better now, but the driver side bank is all still low. Does that sound like a possible head gasket issue? I hope that's all it is, but I'm beginning to expect the worst with this truck!

Cyl Compression
1 280
2 150
3 320
4 150
5 350
6 200
7 290
8 210

Passenger bank: 280, 320, 350, 290
Driver bank: 150, 150, 200, 210

 

[vt951]

Would it make sense for me to install the new injectors, glow plugs, and return lines and see if it starts, even with low compression in 4 cylinders? Maybe it will run on 4 cylinders and I can at least drive it to a shop or something. Or, would it make more sense to just start working on taking off the driver side head?

 

[ameristar1]

With those numbers, you better check both. You don't want to have an imbalance between the banks. The other thing, ever considered doing a leakdown test to see where the leakage is coming from?

 

[towcat]

It could very well be because the rings got washed down from the injectors leaking diesel fuel. If I already had the parts on hand and didn't have anything better to do today, I would put it together and spin it up see what happens. You know you're screwed already, what harm is there to try and see? At the worst, you will have to take that much apart again.

 

[vt951]

With those numbers, you better check both. You don't want to have an imbalance between the banks. The other thing, ever considered doing a leakdown test to see where the leakage is coming from?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I guess I'm not sure how a leakdown test would tell me what's wrong. How would that tell me whether it's worn/scored cylinders, worn rings, bad valves, headgastket, or something else?

I'm hiring a mechanic to come to my place and take a look at it, maybe I'll suggest a leakdown test to start if that really makes sense.

 

[vt951]

It could very well be because the rings got washed down from the injectors leaking diesel fuel. If I already had the parts on hand and didn't have anything better to do today, I would put it together and spin it up see what happens. You know you're screwed already, what harm is there to try and see? At the worst, you will have to take that much apart again.

Cool. I'll wait until this mechanic looks at it, and then maybe give it a go unless he has a different plan.

 

[ameristar1]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I guess I'm not sure how a leakdown test would tell me what's wrong. How would that tell me whether it's worn/scored cylinders, worn rings, bad valves, headgastket, or something else?

I'm hiring a mechanic to come to my place and take a look at it, maybe I'll suggest a leakdown test to start if that really makes sense.

Leakdown test will pressure the cylinder up and based on the percentage of leakage and where the air is escaping, you can tell what got messed up. It's a little more thorough than a compression test.

 

[vt951]

Leakdown test will pressure the cylinder up and based on the percentage of leakage and where the air is escaping, you can tell what got messed up. It's a little more thorough than a compression test.

That sounds good. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how can you tell where the air is escaping?

 

[zpd307]

air out of the tailpipe says bad exhaust valve. air out the intake equals bad intake valve. hearing air out of the crankcase would be rings, bubles in the coolant would be headgasket. i am sure there is more to this......

 

[vt951]

Huh, ok makes sense. Thanks for the help guys.