Bad day yesterday for the CTD I was going about 60 on cruise control when I heard soming thing pop in the engine and start a loud knocking and missing pulled the valve cover, everything up top still together. Now the engine pretty much locked up. I am trying to keep a good frame of mind about this but it is hard to. I purchased the truck new about 5 thousand miles ago with 135K on it. The worst I thought I would be up against is a bad VP-44, not this.

I am going to pull the engine and tranny together this week after work and see what I've got myself into.

 

Do a little checking first before yanking the engine out. Could it have been the KDP? Several other things to think about as well. The KDP could have knocked the VP timing out of whack too causing it to miss then die. Then the KDP got weged in the gears. Its a "best" case scenario, but better than an engine. I think the 24V 2nd gens still had the KDP!?

 

I noticed you have taken care of the KDP.

What kind of cam gear do you have, press on or bolt on? I'm not saying it's the cam. I usually try to look at the last things done to an engine when trying to figure out problems.

 

Missed that!^ Did you fix the KDP yourself or the PO?

 

Did the KDP myself when I did the cam, the cam is the bolt on style gear I was thinking possible cam as well.

 

I would recheck the cam and kdp before yanking the engine.

 

I will do that, it is on the way to the other anyways thought about pulling the pan as well if there is nothing at the cam.

 

Drain the oil and check for metal. That might clue you in on where the problem may be. You may want to disect the oil filter too.

 

What is the possibility of a flex plate breaking?

 

Pretty good possibility, but can't see it locking the engine up.

 

I plan on pulling the pan & timing cover tonight. I have been thinking back abought signs of what may have happened to the CTD and I am thinking it may be a pistion like the problems with #6 ive heard about.

I had warning signs, I've been having excessive blow by since I purchased the truck. (thought it may be the V-pump good time to do it now though)

It devloped a knock / tapping noise in the engine that Cummins said was bad cam and lifters. pulled cam lifters did not feel that they were the problem visualy, upon breaking in the new cam the noise was still there I was determined to break in the new cam and ran the specified RPM and time, by the time I finished the cam break in the tapping noise went away. After the cam the engine did not sound healthy at higher RPM's like 2300+ all in all this equaled disaster, but I was too hard headed to stop driving it tear down the motor and find the root cause. I even told my son the day before I was going to drive it until it broke this time so I could fix what was wrong for sure.
Guess I get to now for sure. I am a little discouraged at this point though this is my first diesel vehicle and I was hoping to get 350K out of it before anything major guess that is out the window.

There is a bright spot though now I can build how I want it

 

Does the engine turn over at all?

I would pull the front cover off first and double check the gear on the cam, but if it came off or sheared I would think it would have exited the front cover. I have never heard of one of Don's cams breaking. I am not saying that it couldn't happen, just an observation.

You can try to unbolt the flexplate from the convertor. If the engine then turns over, it's a trans issue. If not,well the motor needs to come out. That may save some back breaking work.

Dave