So, methinks I blew it up...

[SparkandFire]

A couple weeks ago I was dispatched to southern california for work, so I took the family and the fifth wheel down to Bakersfield for a few nights, then went over to the coast for a week long project down there.

Before the trip I changed the oil, using Valvoline Premium Blue diesel oil, and I put 4 gallons of concentrated Fleet Charge, and 4 gallons of distilled water in the cooling system.

Long story short, I was pulling up Grocer Grade on HWY 166, which is fairly steep and quite long, got the EGT's up to about 1100 before dropping into 2nd for the remainder of the pull. Boost was up to almost 12 with the stock turbo, EGT never got above 1150 (briefly.)

After getting over the hill, and downshifting, I noticed I had a knock that didn't used to be there. Well, at this point I was hours away from anyone I knew who could help, so I pushed it on into Morro Bay (a good 100 miles from where I noticed the knock)

In Morro Bay I reinstalled my old factory gray injectors in hopes that it was just that, a failed injector... Nope, still knockin'. Seems fast enough to be a rod bearing or wrist pin. And, now it smells like burnt oil from the tailpipe, and there are puffs of blue smoke that seem in time with the knock from the engine. So, I wonder, cracked piston??

Anyway, I finally ended up just driving the rig home, with the fifth wheel, in the midst of a nasty rain/wind storm with a kid sick from the flu and an angry wife, but by God the ****** made it the 180 miles back home, and parked my fifth wheel back in it's storage spot. A good friend offered to come down and tow the whole shootin' match back home for me for nothing more than a good steak dinner. But no one ever accused me of having common sense!

So, I am going to try and track down a good used engine, and swap it in. I've always told myself that when my 7.3 IDI finally melted down I would drop a 6bt in it's place, but that old IDI got my 8k trailer and family almost 300 miles farther down the road after suffering from major internal injuries, so I suppose it's earned my respect.

Just thought I would share this with everyone, and once again give my thanks to all those out there who have helped, and will help in the future get me, and those like me, through tough times...

 

[vegas39]

Thats quite a story, sorry to hear about that. When mine blew its head gasket, we were still quite a ways from our destination and pulling a trailer but it got us all the way there also. These things are just like everyone says, "bulletproof"

 

[typ4]

it wasnt a rod bearing, likely a piston issue, may be an easy repair and time for one anyway. My truck only acts up when the wife goes along, and she is the one that notices it, just sayin.

 

[rhkcommander]

pull the heads at least and see if its a real problem or something fixable... These engines don't like to leave you stranded unless something real catastrophic happens

 

[icanfixall]

Taking the engine apart is the only sure way to know what happened. As posted it could be a piston because if a rod let go your going to have plenty of signs.. Like no more running engine and a windowed block. My feelings are a valve issue but no way would I pull the heads and rebuild them only. Its time to remove the pistons and crank. Mic it out and see what the specs are. Then rebuild from there. With the heads off its no time to shortcut a rebuild by not at least knowing that the crank looks like. Seeing this might be a factory turbo engine I'm betting there are some watching and thinking heres another turbo piston failure happening.. I can't comment on that idea but I have had some discissions on the topic...

 

[wmoguy]

Mine ended up having a bad lifter, that normally sounded like a ticking sound. However, after pulling hard, and working hot under load it sounded very much like the knock you mentioned. New lifter and no more sound

 

[SparkandFire]

I think my plan, for now, since I need this thing on the road, is to get me a running truck and pull the engine, drop it into my truck, then tear down the factory turbo engine for diagnosis.

What gets me is that my oil pressure is normally close to 40 psi when at operating RPM, if I get it pretty hot I have seen down to 35 psi before. When I worked before it started knocking, my oil pressure was almost down to 30 psi. So I wonder if the valvoline blue diesel oil might have let me down.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

A blown headgasket can also make a knocking sound. If you don't believe me here's a video of my brown truck when the stock 90k mile engine popped a the compression rings in the head gasket between 2 cylinders.

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Just about anything is possible. Do a compression test first before you tare into it. It will give you an idea of what you're getting into. If 1 or more cylinders fail the compression test, leak down test them that will show you exactly whats going on if its a valve train/head gasket failure.

If you want to hear what a bent or stuck valve sounds like this is a video of that same engine after the rebuild with a galled exhaust valve.

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Pretty much if you have metal on metal sounds thats not a good sign.

 

[SparkandFire]

What's strange is that it's not a real bad knock, like the one you have there Sean. Thats why I swapped the injectors out, hoping it might be an injector popping to early. My old gray "G" injectors were running fine, though. I did manage to pull the drivers side valve cover off and everything under there looked ok, I barred the engine over a couple times and checked all the rockers and the valve springs and all looked ok. I would've torn the passenger side cover off but the management at the RV park was giving me the stink-eye...

 

[icanfixall]

Wow... I missed that about using a differant oil. Then working it hard. As these engines work pulling a grade the oil temp runs up to about 260. That thins it out so the oil pressure drops no matter what. Change oil or at least add something to thicken the oil. Maybe some Lucas oil treatment or most anything that thickens up the visclsoty. Don't use so much that ot over treats the engine. No need to be pumping honey thru the engine. The filter bypas will pop open and dirty oil wil circulate. Not thats better than no oil... Its a cheap idea and it may work great. Down side is the cost if it doesn't work. That will be less than a double double at y no wat.....

 

[Brimmstone]

Throw that valvoline crap in the recycling tank. I've heard nothing but complaints about it from other bus mechanics. One company lost five of their engines running that crap. All were relatively new DD60s still under warranty. Every one showed after analysis that the oil had broken down and caused the failure. I personally use either Delo 400 or Lubriguard from Warren luricants. My highest mileage engine at the yard is pushing 900K with nothing major done except injectors a couple of times and a turbo.