rrgrassi

What kind of assembly lube did you use on all the moving parts?

It should not have locked up that fast.

Rick 12v CTD

Sometimes I feel like there's a curse on me! Everything I touch turns to poopoo, this just confirms it lol

And I use clevite assembly lube.

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mhuppertz

I don't think that Cummins wants to be put in your Ferd...
Never seen such a string of bad luck.

Rick 12v CTD

Ha yeah really. The first motor the hg went and the head ended up being junk. Massive cracks between the valves on 4 of 6 cylinders. Then last winters cam journals go bad and now this. Whatcha gonna do tho. Can't turn back the clock

And I've never seen or heard of this kinda luck either.

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rrgrassi

I wonder if some oil passages got clogged with debris from the ground up cam journal bearings, oir maybe the oil pump has too much play and cannot build pressure.

Do you have an external, mechanical oil pressure guage you can use for the next time?

Rick 12v CTD

The oil pump was perfectly tight, it was making plenty of pressure literally seconds before I turned it off the last time on the other block.

As for block oil passages, I don't see how that's a possibility. The oil passages are far bigger than any metal flakes that were in the oil, and on top of that, that block was so damaged I had to scrap it and I got an entirely different block. I suppose that one could have had a clog, but I would think any clog would have come unlodged one of the 3-4 times it was hot tanked.

Rick 12v CTD

Long story short, it's been quite the ride the last couple months.
2 deaths, 2 different friends with head injuries and in comas, broke up with the Gf of 3 years and the motor locked up on me during break in 4 days before going out of town for 7 weeks for work. And that's why there has been silence. Most of which was mentioned in the thread a while back.

In any case I got home a couple weeks ago but the weather was too cold to work on the truck. Weekend saw a break in the weather so I got the motor out and on the floor in the garage. Tonight I rolled it on its side and pulled the pan and main caps (and 1 and 6 rod caps) to find the only bearing showing any real signs of wear is #5 main. And boy is it buggered... I don't want to get a head of myself here (because I haven't checked 2-5 rod bearings or piston movement in the cylinder on those) but I may have dodged a bullet. Looks to me like the #5 bearing was REAL close to spinning but the motor was shut down just in time.



You can see all kinds of light from the space between the bearing and the cap. Same amount of space on both sides of the bearing


And bearing surface showing the nice gap on both sides. Funny thing is, mains 1-4 literally look brand spankin new still. Crank will have to be pulled to be polished on #5. I'm going ahead and replacing all the bearings, then throw the bottom end back together, figuring out why the oil didn't pump and then getting it back in the truck.

Angry Johnny

Hope you dodged the bullet this time. I always pack my oil pumps with Vasoline.

mhuppertz

I still think you need to chase all of the oil passages with a drill bit. There has to be a blockage. So sorry about your personal losses.

patdaly

Do what you want to, but if it were mine, I would definitely check the line bore of that block. From my experience, if it were simply the oil pump not pumping, more than just the #5 would show distress, especially given it locked.

Did you measure each main bore before assembly for size and round?

Rick 12v CTD

No oil was circulated through the motor at all. everything is dry. I need to figure out why it never picked the oil up. There was no oil pressure on the gauge tapped into the oil filter housing/oil cooler cover. So either I just didn't prime it right (even though given how long it was run it still should have caught oil, but didn't) the sump is plugged or something really early in the system is wrong. I'm wondering if I have the wrong oil cooler gasket in there. Once I get the bottom end fixed and back together I'll be searching out the cause of the no oil

also, Pat, the bottom end was line honed at the machine shop, that's not an issue. The motor turned over with ease prior to starting, so nothing was binding. The motor locked up because it was run with no oil, not because the line is wrong. #6 and 7 also show signs of wear but it's not too severe. Ans aside from that I've thus far only checked half of each bearing as the crank is still in the motor. I don't know what the other half of each bearing looks like yet, there may be wear all of em on that side I don't know. I'm guessing the assembly lube managed to protect 1-4 better than the others. Also, #5 is the thrust bearing as well so I'm not entirely surprised it took the brunt of it. It must be a little tighter than the rest of em, but I don't think it will be an issue when the motor is actually pumping oil. Again, the line was checked for size and round and was out a touch so it was honed on the machine.

patdaly

Good thing, glad you had already addressed it.

One thing I also always did was before a pump was installed, I always pressure checked it with a drill and a blockoff plate with the pickup in oil and spun by a drill.

I don't think this is possible with the 5.9, and I can't see just exactly how the idler gear is held in place, is there a possibility you could pull it so the OP is not connected to the crank and then find a way to spin the OP with a drill or something while installed to pre-lube and check for proper oil pressure/flow?

j_martin

The Idler is part of the oil pump assembly. If it won't unbolt from the front, you could pull the crankshaft gear and turn the pump with oil in the pan. It would get a bit messy, but you should be able to prove prime and pressure that way before you commit any moving parts to the test.

Personally, I wouldn't start a newly assembled engine until I could get oil pressure up. If you can't turn the internal pump, you can at least tap into the oil system at the filter and pressurize it with an external pump. With a pre-turn oil pressure test, you find things like a galley plug you forgot, or other wrong parts or bolts either relieving oil pressure or blocking flow to something.

If there's a leak in the pickup tube, the pump won't prime.

Rick 12v CTD

yeah this time around I plan to address pressurizing the system prior to starting so this can't happen again.

And if something does happen I won't wait 30 seconds to shut it down. I'll have an eye on the OP gauge on the filter housing right away, and watch it like a hawk.

I wish it were practical to spin the oil pump with a drill but it isn't and I'm not pulling the crank gear to do it. I'll use an external pump and check valve tapped into the filter housing most likely.

Greed 93

Filling the oil cooler after putting oil in the pan an filter sure brings pressure up quick.. I'm sure you know but that cooler port goes straight to the pump.