okay dont know what has happened. truck was fine running prior to stopping. went in to the store came out and started the truck and sounded at first like a 3 cycle cold start. turned it off quickley. checked to see if I had any codes. bumped the the key a few times I'm flowing fuel have 19psi flowing. I was less than a 1/4 mile from home. so I started it drove it home. really no power or boost white to grey was puffing out the stack the entire trip. the sound is a knock, not like the sound when i bent a exhaust valve. but almost up top on the engine. would a bad vp still run throw no codes and make this loud of a knock. my oil is not milkshaked my radiator fluid is fine. no visual leaks anywhere. what would the signs be something bigger in the engine. as I would accelerate the sound would almost pick up pitch and the knock would be a little less the shacking of the cab would be less but the pitch would be lounder almost like a baseball card in spokes as the wheel went faster. trucks parked. still no codes after driving it. so now what. to dark now to take of valve cover

 

when I can pull the valve cover tomorrow what would I be looking at that would indicate a broken piston? or anything with bearing and rod?

 

Is blow by tube puffing? Or a lot of blowby? Could have blown the tip off an injector. Do you have acess to a diag tool to disable each injector? If so kill the injectors 1 at a time untill the knock quits. If it does not then pull the valve cover and take a peek.

 

blow by tube not that I noticed but wasn't looking and couldn't hear anything over the knock and noise. I do not have a diagnostic tool to shut down each one. the only thing I can do would be start it and crack the injectors individually. I just really dont want to keep starting the truck also with it making this sound not sure if I'm doing more damage.

 

Pull the valve cover and look for push tubes off, a depressed valve stem(loose valve bridge) or a broken valve bridge or broken rocker arm. Have someone start the truck and smell the exhaust. You are looking for raw fuel smell=bad injector. After running pull the dipstick and look for metal in the oil out in the sun or a strong light. Some running time will be nessary to troubleshoot without codes. No codes usually indicates mechanical problems. With the smoking and clear fluids it sounds like a tip blew off an injector. Good luck.

 

I will look I just have never heard of a mach injector doing that. if the tip was cracked or blew there would be a considerable amount of fuel dumping. may be the white and grey smoke when I was driving but when its ideling there is not really any color coming out of the exhaust. I figure if it was a injector this would be constant coming out. but I will pull the valve cover later. after work. and yes it may take some time of running the truck like that to troubleshoot it or hydralock the cylinder. but I'm at work and its funny how you can focus on work when you know your truck is down. funny how that is.

 

okay pulled cover and everything looks normal and is tight. seen all valves, push rods seem to be straight. but with out pulling things apart again? turbo checked nothing out of normal with turbo. tomorrow will restart the truck and check with infered thermometer and check the manifold for a colder cylinder. if I cant see anything on top half of valve-train then everytime I start it I could be doing more damage. could be broken wrist pin, piston? who knows. I did have a slight haze after running it for 30 sec. of grey coming out my stack and it did smell like fuel not strong but did. I'm going to have a friend check out under the valve cover tomorrow see if he notices anything I missed. so like anything else will take some time and money to figure this out. have more time now then soon money.

 

There is not much I have not seen on these engines. I was a floor foreman for a freightliner dealer for 3 years in the early 90s. Many trucks had this same engine and fuel pump installed. Still get a few of the 90s trucks though the shop with this combo. You can take off the oil filter and cut it open, if you find metal then you can look below the head. You are doing the right thing with the thermometer. You can also pull the exhaust manifold to troubleshoot cylinder problems. Hope you find something minor. Good luck

 

I'm limited to a point with what I can do. I dont have alot of time or resources at my house. but I will go as far as I can. and then it will be off to sourceautomotive Rip will take care of me. its just a bad thing that you will have to dig and dig possibley past the head to find and fix. so the deeper it goes the higher $ goes. I'm hoping its simple. oh and no metal particles in my oil on the dip stick. thinking of draining some oil out of it to check since it really has sat for 3 days with out running now.

 

Take off oil filter and cut open and look at the paper as you unfold it to check for metal. their cheap and a very good indicator of something wrong below the head. Again I hope its something simple.

 

I will try this.

 

okay so I didn't get my hands on a heat reader. but after rechecking the valve train one more time. I ran the truck for about 2 min. after 2 min. 2-6 on the manifold you could barely keep your hand on it but #1 was colder to touch you can grab it and where not much heat on it. so the first time before I had the head redone and ringed was due to a bend exhaust valve on #1 30k miiles later I'm back with this bigger problem with #1. so either pull injector have it scoped to look inside. it does not seem to have dropped a valve dont know about bent valve. so most likely the head will have to be pulled.

 

I suggest you pull injector on # 1, inspect with a magnifying glass. If you need to clean it first use a brass wire brush ONLY on the tip. if no damage then have it popped. If it passes pop test then scope the cylinder. Is the engine over full on oil or does the oil smell like diesel? If the valve train is intact, i doubt you have a bent valve. If no metal in the oil or filter, then usually no hard parts damage. Its looking better all the time. Good luck

 

next step will be pulling the injector and scoping it. the oil is the same I havent grown anymore oil or it doesn't smell. no coolant loss. with my current Job of working with veterans this may be up to a couple weeks untill I can do all of this. just not enough time right now. I may pull the push rods on #1 and see what they are doing? but no metal, no fluid loss or gain. just no heat on manifold. white grey puffing out the exhaust (unburnt fuel) when I have it running. if this is a injector tip split how loud of a sound would it make I have heard bad injectors before that was more of a softer clank. this is a lound metalic clanking. ???? well time will tell. thanks so far for the help.

 

Worst case blown whole tip off and its has Bounced around your clyinder and destroyed hard parts. More likely split or otherwise damaged inj. and putting fuel in at wrong time causing a lot of noise and grey smoke. Without any restriction within the injector, fuel just pours in and fires when combustion pressures ignite it, yes it can be very metalic sounding. I still think with grey smoke and raw diesel smell out of the exhaust, you have blown an injector.
Pm me if you get time. I have some freinds up there who may be able to help you.