help save my truck

[sublime8396]

Ok so been working on this damn thing for months finally ready to use it for its purpose to haul my Rock Crawler around so two full tanks of diesel fresh oil change new ps filter flushed coolant and filled with fleetgaurd everything's been working great untill i actually need it.

So im on the hiway 60mph then out of nowhere loss of power and huge cloud of grey smoke then the knock passenger side sounds like a piston is coming out to say hi to the world. I pull over immediately and pop the hood its the passenger side and sounds really bad so i shut it down and walk away. I talk to a few people and decide ill just limp it home and off to the crusher itll go :-( fire it up turn around and stomp the gas.... i know i know i really was going to limp it but i wasnt in the best mood so i wanted to kill it but what this cant be.... no knock no noise at all and pulling my trailer with crawler im smoking both back tires shes running great no loss of power no knock and tons of power. All the way home not being very nice to it and it loved every min of it.

Why? How? What am i missing here? Stuck injector? Valve? How did it go away so fast and will it do it again ? I dont want to scrap my truck please tell me this happened to someone else

 

[towcat]

sounds like your injection system got slimmed. change out the filters and see what happens. i had drivers who were abusive to my trucks and they wouldn't die by their hands either. when I found out about the abuse, they did wish they were dead after I got through with them

 

[sublime8396]

I did just fill both tanks.....possibly bad fuel? What should i look for? I would hate to change filters and it just plug them up

 

[typ4]

I did just fill both tanks.....possibly bad fuel? What should i look for? I would hate to change filters and it just plug them up

Thats what filters are for. Drain the old one into a clean container and have a look at whats iin it.

 

[dunk]

Mine did this maybe a year ago a couple times and has not done it since. Sounded like something was about to window the block. Freaked me out, but I suspect it was some junk hanging up and injector and worked its way out. Each time it ran fine after stopping and restarting the engine.

 

[gandalf]

I think I'd go with the idea of a gunked up injector. They can get pretty bad, but it depends where the gunk is. It can clog the injector and cause a knock, then reposition itself when the engine is shut off, so it runs fine next time. The bad part? Its still in there, so the potential is there for it to clog again.

I took a picture of one of my injectors after I replaced them. This is, of course, the inside, where they unscrew. The truck, btw, was running quite well.

Scarey, isn't it?

 

[icanfixall]

That is a mess Ken. I will go along with the injector problem. To original poster. Do you know what the mileage is on the injectors. Might want to invest in a set of new and not rebuilt injectors. This forum will recommend a couple of places to buy new or known quality renuilts. Care needs to be taken buying from the cheapest ebay seller of rebuilt injectors. Some good preventive reading in the Hall of shame forum about the charlatans selling crap on the ebay sites.

 

[bbjordan]

Scarey, isn't it?

Yikes!!

 

[sublime8396]

Thanks so much guys i love this truck but really freaked me out hearing that knock. I put 30 miles on it today and not a sound still driving perfect. Can i take apart my injectors and clean them?

 

[icanfixall]

I don't advise taking apart your injectors. Any dirt in them will ruin them. The pin to nozzle clearance is way less than half a thousands. When I was reading about injectors years ago the writer said even a finger print on the pin will foul the nozzle. When I worked on mine I kept changing my plastic work gloves when I saw some dirt on them. My injectors looked new when I removed them so figure what you have and how dirty it is. then think how you can clean them on the outside without getting any dirt on the inside.

 

[79jasper]

Well, if they're as bad as Kens were, what do you have to lose. Lol
Me being me, I would do it. Clean the outsides first. A nice little super sonic cleaner would be nice, but brake klean would be fine.
Make sure everything goes together the way it can apart. And do one at a time so you can have something to compare to.
At that point, might as well build a pop tester.

But your best bet would be sending them in and having them rebuilt and pop matched.

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[sublime8396]

Theres a couple of them in pick n pull maybe ill go grab all the injectors and build a pop tester. Its running great now im kinda afraid to mess with it haha

 

[marmot]

That knocking was probably injector nailing from lack of fuel, If you changed your filter and it's running good you should be good to. I have had the same horrific nailing on my 240d and a new pre filter cured it. Good luck.

 

[sublime8396]

Well today drove it again and running like hell missing and blowing grey smoke and no power. Havent been able to pick up a filter yet really hope itll help when i do.

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

Well today drove it again and running like hell missing and blowing grey smoke and no power. Havent been able to pick up a filter yet really hope itll help when i do.

Several experienced folks have already said this, but I'll say it more clearly: go buy two fuel filters. Investigate what's in your old fuel filter when you change it, and keep a new one behind the seat next to a quart of ATF at all times. Bad fuel is more common than you think and swapping a fuel filter is a simple road side fix that will probably salvage a future rock crawler trip.