Zion
Registered User
My plans for getting to college fell apart pretty abruptly and the only option I was left with was to drive my 6.9L from Iowa to Oregon. Still west bound and down at the moment, and it has already been very eventful. I can’t pinpoint what all is wrong with it, but I fear that MethZilla has had its corn thoroughly creamed.
From the get go, it was a dog to get up to speed. Under harder acceleration, the exhaust would start popping. Sounded like someone was feeding firecrackers down the straight pipes, might have also been a miss, but between the thin fire wall and the exhaust pipes, I couldn’t discern much.
While heading up towards Cheyenne, the truck lost power and was blowing light blue smoke excessively. I advanced the timing when we got to Laramie, and it was somewhat improved, but eventually started to get worse over time. When I went to adjust the timing again, it was phenomenal, but once again lost its timing after 30+ minutes. Leaving Wyoming, it started driving like it was oxygen-starved. Shortly after, I let it cool down, changed the fuel filter, and filled it with Diesel Kleen. Since then, there has been some rice-crispy exhaust and an absence of constant blue smoke, but I am left very perplexed. It will still act oxygen starved, but will adequately maintain speed. Sporadically, it will gain significantly more power for a random amount of time.
The engine is running incredibly well on the road and maintaining low temperatures, but idles horrendously. Now the truck will not smoke under load, unless it is a tiny puff of blue. I’ve been checking oil and coolant at every stop, and there has been oil consumption, but no evident coolant loss or intermingling of the two fluids.
I’ve been combing through the forums to get some idea of what is occurring, but my truck checks a lot of boxes for a handful of differing component failures.
I’ll try to find someplace to start disassembling the engine, but in the meantime, I’d appreciate any help, advice, or straight up hand-holding you guys may have to offer.
From the get go, it was a dog to get up to speed. Under harder acceleration, the exhaust would start popping. Sounded like someone was feeding firecrackers down the straight pipes, might have also been a miss, but between the thin fire wall and the exhaust pipes, I couldn’t discern much.
While heading up towards Cheyenne, the truck lost power and was blowing light blue smoke excessively. I advanced the timing when we got to Laramie, and it was somewhat improved, but eventually started to get worse over time. When I went to adjust the timing again, it was phenomenal, but once again lost its timing after 30+ minutes. Leaving Wyoming, it started driving like it was oxygen-starved. Shortly after, I let it cool down, changed the fuel filter, and filled it with Diesel Kleen. Since then, there has been some rice-crispy exhaust and an absence of constant blue smoke, but I am left very perplexed. It will still act oxygen starved, but will adequately maintain speed. Sporadically, it will gain significantly more power for a random amount of time.
The engine is running incredibly well on the road and maintaining low temperatures, but idles horrendously. Now the truck will not smoke under load, unless it is a tiny puff of blue. I’ve been checking oil and coolant at every stop, and there has been oil consumption, but no evident coolant loss or intermingling of the two fluids.
I’ve been combing through the forums to get some idea of what is occurring, but my truck checks a lot of boxes for a handful of differing component failures.
I’ll try to find someplace to start disassembling the engine, but in the meantime, I’d appreciate any help, advice, or straight up hand-holding you guys may have to offer.
