Brown Truck Under the Knife Project - Engine

[ameristar1]

My truck has been a nightmare, and it's taken me a long time to get it where I wanted it. Initial to-get-running repairs:
Fuel return replacement
No. 7 injector
Glow Plugs
GP Relay
More GP
Clutch Master Cylinder
Clutch Slave Cylinder
Repetitive bleeding of the clutch system
Another 2 master Cylinders, another clutch, another flywheel, a lot more bleeding, replaced all the clutch pedal assembly, finally works.
One sunday it started smoking white when I started it up, and kept smoking, and I thought, "Oh no...another trip to the shop, and i've only been able to drive it for a month..." I drive it 25 miles to school, go to lunch (still smoking) and am driving it back from lunch when it locks up. I GOT PICKED UP BY THE DRIVER'S EDUCATION CAR!!!!
Apparently the No. 7 valve dropped and went through the piston, causing one hell of a mess. I heard it pinging around when I started it up at school, but couldn't do anything about it, and didn't know anything about it at the time. When the mechanic's pulled the pan, out came all the antifreeze and chunks of piston along with the oil. After a 6.9 was put in from a school bus, I was driving it home, loving the new power, and all of the sudden, the temp guage goes straight to H...Oh no... Turns out the motor had a cracked head. It wasn't overheating, cuz you could still touch the valve-covers. The shop had a 30 day warranty period, and pulled a 6.9 out of one of their own trucks and put it in mine to replace the motor with the cracked head.
Well, I'm driving the truck for a month or so, but it smoked a ridiculous amount, at idle. It was fine when it wasn't idling. So, I ask several people, and they think injectors. So, I buy some injectors off of eBay. Still doesn't fix it. Other people say that it wasn't starting well and smoking because the glowplugs were bad. So, I check all the glowplugs and replace them all. Finally, I start looking at timing. Everybody says you have to have a meter for it to be right, and that's the only way you can do it. I think, oh no, I have to buy another tool. Then I talk to my dad, and he says just rotate the pump. I do that, and it clears up all my problems.
Then, a month or so later, I notice the rear driver's side break is getting hot, and I had new brakes put on less than 6 months ago. So, I replace it all.
Still doesn't fix it. Almost ruin a new drum. Start following the E-brake cable, it was kinked and holding it up, finally get that lined out.
Meanwhile, Reverse goes out of the transmission.
Find a ZF-5 transmission. IT WAS FOR A 460 GAS!!
Find another ZF-5 transmission. With a LOT of miles, cheap. And it was diesel too.
Finally have it running good and right, despite spending countless hours of driveway time on jackstands.

So, don't give up on these old trucks yet. I've had to step back from mine countless times and work on something else for a while. I've always come back, because, despite being old, slow, noisy, smoky, and loud, the truck is actually fun to drive. I've never driven anything else that can plaster a stupid smile on my face quite like this one can.

You sound like you're married. Remember this when you go a courtin'.;p

 

[Brimmstone]

How soon till yours gets shipped to you. I have a good snapon unit I'll send up for you to borrow if it will be a while till you get yours. To me a chuff in the exhaust sounds like an exhaust valve is staying open or has a burnt section on it. I know my 87 truck is making the same noise out the exhaust and it has a burnt section in the valve.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Hey Brimmstone. I already used the kindness of another member here once already with borrowing a compression gauge when I started this project. I don't like using friends like that. Thank you very much for the offer though.
I paid for it right after I won the auction, and I tried to make it clear to him that I needed it right away and since I paid so fast I asked him to have the same courtesy towards me and ship it out right away on monday. Thanks again for the offer though.

 

[Brimmstone]

Man let me put it this way I have more tools that I'll ever know what to do with. At the current time I have 7 LARGE top and bottom boxes full of tools some of which I bought when I was working on heavy equipment and big trucks. I have no problem loaning out a high dollar tool as long as I get it back. I've been where you are at one time. I'm at a point if I have to borrow a tool twice I start looking for one and buy it. I have so many special tools now I need more room to store them all. If you ever need a special tool send me a PM and there is a better than average chance I have it. All I ask is to cover the shipping .

 

[opusd2]

OH man, the troubles I read about remind me of all of the projects I've taken on, whether they be mine or a customers. Where you just want to ****** the entire engine and just walk away to a cold beer. Been there.

But you walk away for a little while, maybe get some fresh eyes to help you check it out. One guy I knew got so mad at the project he was working on, took a hammer and was going to cave in the front fender. Turns out he nailed the tire and his hammer came back to kiss his forehead. Well, one HUGE lump and an ER visit later, he took some time from the truck he was working on and eventually fixed it. But it does show how your anger can come back to haunt you.

Me? I try to walk away for a while and avoid such fights. But inevitably I will get a fresh dent from my anger. I like to think I learn from my mistakes, but I keep forgetting that fighting with an inanimate object only makes them the winner.

 

[opusd2]

OH man, the troubles I read about remind me of all of the projects I've taken on, whether they be mine or a customers. Where you just want to ****** the entire engine and just walk away to a cold beer. Been there.

But you walk away for a little while, maybe get some fresh eyes to help you check it out. One guy I knew got so mad at the project he was working on, took a hammer and was going to cave in the front fender. Turns out he nailed the tire and his hammer came back to kiss his forehead. Well, one HUGE lump and an ER visit later, he took some time from the truck he was working on and eventually fixed it. But it does show how your anger can come back to haunt you.

Me? I try to walk away for a while and avoid such fights. But inevitably I will get a fresh dent from my anger. I like to think I learn from my mistakes, but I keep forgetting that fighting with an inanimate object only makes them the winner.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Here's what's so weird and made me think I figured out the problem from the get go but it didn't appear to be the problem. There is one injector that literally popped the return cap off, pushed it all the way up into the fitting and it's just ******* fuel out of it. It started doing that at the same time the problem arose so I seriously thought that would lead to the problem. This injector is on the same cylinder I'm hearing the clinking valve train type noise. I thought well there's the problem but when I cracked the line and cut fuel to that cylinder the idle got worse so I guess it wasnt the problem. But man that one's got me stumped.

The one injector that didn't have any effect on the idle quality is on the opposite cylinder bank, when listening to it with a stethoscope I could hear that one sounded REAL nasty. The others I could hear what sounded like a few having very weak pop's and others popping consistently at a strong sound level, but not like that one which is super loud and almost sounds like a gunshot.

I'm just trying to think positively, but you all are probably right, its either a head gasket or a broken valve. Because that's just my luck.

 

[Brimmstone]

I would swap the injectors around and see what happens. See if the noise follows the injector. Just make sure you heat the crush washers up red with a torch and then let them cool in the air. For this quick test I wouldn't bother flat filing them to make them square as they won't be in for long.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

I have about 400 of those copper washers and twice as many return cap orings. lol I could probably do that.

 

[Brimmstone]

You're almost as bad as I am except I have about 9 sets of extra injectors that need to be pop tested and rebuilt. Eventually I'll get around to checking them.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Looks like to top it all off I've got the swine flu. So now I definitely will be taking a break from the truck.

 

[Fishin76]

OH NO! thats it, I'm getting the vaccine!

 

[Alex S]

Looks like to top it all off I've got the swine flu. So now I definitely will be taking a break from the truck.

I had that, its just another ****** flue

 

[dyoung14]

i went and got my h1n1 vaccine today i cant get sick or i dont know what i would do

 

[typ4]

It hasnt run long enough to damage the coppers, and you know how I mean that.