hey cascade whats up what did you end-up doing ?

 

I figured the engine was seized and have a pending deal on a newer truck, put the old truck and camper in storage to come back and deal with later

However, when I put it in storage there was a mechanic there who told me I wouldn't be able to turn the engine over with a pry bar anyway with the high compression. More importantly, we noticed the following:

When you kick the starter with the key, the crank turns ever so slightly each time - maybe 10 degrees, but it does move. So the engine is not totally seized.

I never had a chance to drop the starter, so that could still be a concern though if the engine turns a bit the starter hasn't locked it completely.

This mechanic felt that if the motor overheated there may be air in the fuel injection lines and it might have been running on only a few cylinders when it was running rough.

I think I'll have him pull the injectors and poke around, but he may not be able to do it until next week after my deal on the other truck already has to be done. So I guess I've put myself in another pickle.

The sparkles in the oil filter seem like bad news regardless, but as this guy put it "there are no big chunks" ... the largest piece is maybe the size of the head of a pin. There are many many small pieces though.

So now I'm confused ... maybe the engine damage wasn't as bad as I thought given that it can turn a bit. And maybe it would in fact be possible to fix the truck without swapping in a different engine and rebuilding it. And maybe I shouldn't have made a deal on another truck

 

Well you were in a bind there and had to do something so don't kick yourself too much. Anyway, two CTDs are better than one!

 

You most definitely CAN turn a Cummins 12V over by hand...with a breaker bar, or other tools.

The starter is going to apply a heck of a lot more torque though....so it's probably dragging the damaged pistons up and down the cylinders.

 

Put a rachet/socket on the alternator. Alot of engines will turn over that way. I usually do this to adjust valves. Sometimes the belt will slip some and has to be held.

Or find a barring tool and turn it over

 

I'm sure the mechanic means well, but he also makes a living working on other peoples machines. You're in a vulnerable spot and willing to hope beyond reality that it's an easy fix but that motor in all likelihood has serious issues. Albeit slowly, these motors can be turned by hand tools. Get home and clear your head then you can concentrate on an action plan to recover your truck.

 

I would pull the injectors out and then try and turn the engine over. There is a check ball on injectors that prevents the fuel from flowing out into the engine. If this gets stuck upwards it causes fuel to pour out into the cylinder and will lock the engine up or cause it to run like complete dung. Piston to wall clearance is so darn close that fuel has a hard time finding its way into the oil pan.

Simple tool you can make at a hardware store or if the mechanic can do it then even better.

Once all six are out turn the truck over and see what happens. If the same thing happens then take a flash light and look into the injector hole, see if the cylinder walls are scored. If you want, maybe pick up a snake camera at a hardware store. Autozone rents them here, roto router and ACE all rent these out. A plumbing company would be your best bet, at least this will rule out the engine damage.

 

Sorry to bump this thread, but could not edit the original post and I wanted to add something for future searchers.

I believe that the water pump bearing failed tearing out the water pump seal completely and causing the top end to lose all coolant in a short period. Driving along in the dark in cold weather on the highway, I didn't notice steam or spray. If I had been looking at the temperature gauge, it would have read high for 5 or 10 minutes, but perhaps not more than that.

Knowing how quickly an engine can overheat even in cold weather if the coolant , I would install this unit on any vehicle that does not have a high temperature alarm. I have no affiliation with engine watchdog, but it is a thermocouple based alarm that seems just about foolproof - just bolt the thermocouple to your engine and set the alarm temp. This would have saved my truck:


I've since bought a 2010 Cummins 3500 Dually (my truck camper hauls much better with a dually) that I've already had many good miles with, but I wish I had that alarm installed on the old truck. It was a great truck and I miss it. I sold it to a guy in New Jersey who had his own motor to put in.

Andy

 

Glad to hear it worked out, enjoy the 4th gen.

For whatever reason on all of my trucks when newly acquired, I always did the water pump as something to do while tidying everything else out. (cheap and easy to change) Just because I didn't want a coolant leak out of the weephole- wouldn't have thought it could shell a whole engine like that though!

 

Good idea, I would do that as well in the future - I didn't have history of when it had been done and the truck had a bunch of miles. Hadn't gotten around to it

But thanks, life is good with the 4th gen

 

Because of what happened to you and your 1st Gen, I decided to swap in a new water pump on my 93 motor. Glad I did...it was weeping, but not enough to notice on the ground yet.

Interesting little unit. You could mount it up under the dash so you didn't need to see the temp unit, but could hear the alarm if it went off.

 

It wouldn't be a big deal to put a commodity temperature switch, say about 250°, in the pipe port right behind the thermostat and wire it to a sonalert under the dash.

We do that on high performance outboard motors. Flat out on step you can't hear the beeper in the console if you wrap seaweed around the water intake, or trim the engine too high, but a 100 db sonalert gets your attention soon enough to avoid damage.