Blew my engine...Crap!
 

So, last month I loaded up my 4 horses and took a trip for a couple days down to the Moab, UT area. Had a great time riding. Drove back home a couple days later. Didn't notice any change in the truck or lack of power during the drive. Got up the next morning and started up the truck and it ran like crap. Took it directly to my favorite diesel shop to have the injectors checked. They called me later that day and informed me there was zero compression in #1.

Sent it to a rebuilder, who tore it down and said it appears my #1 injector had been over-fueling, which caused both compression rings in #1 to break, scoring the cylinder walls. He also found that about half the plastic clips that hold the feet on the lifters were broken, allowing the little steel cup feet to fall into the head. The camshaft also had some galling and needed to be re-ground. The crank was nice and smooth. Turbo was good.

Just hit 289,000 miles.

So, bored .020 over, new pistons, new main and rod bearings, overhauled head, new (rebuilt) injectors (Industrial Performance, SLC, UT), reground cam, and I'm back in business.

Over $7,000, and a good price at that. Just wish my injectors had given me a little warning.

Updated break-in procedures: For the first 100 miles, load it to towing capacity and drive the crap out of it!

Should be good for another 300K, at least. At least I hope! Too much money in it now to sell it and buy a new one.[duhhh]

so you didn't see any change in the motor oil levels from overfueling? I wonder how else a man can keep up with this problem other than checking oil levels.

I also wonder about the durastops if they have this problem of sticking injectors or are their injectors not as high pressure as ours?

My truck started using oil a few thousand miles ago, but I didn't know that was anything more than a matter of 280K miles. It never ran poorly at all until the morning after that last trip.

Duramaxes also have trouble with injectors, even worse than with the 5.9 Cummins. Their injectors are angled in the cylinder such that when they have one go it blows a hole in the piston and blows all the oil out. My brother is a "hot-shotter" who ran a Chevy until it blew. He now drives a GMC and changes out his injectors based on mileage. GM even has a "kit" for #5 and #6 injectors, so even they know they have a problem.

I don't know when my injector started going, but I suspect it has been bad for quite some time. I had the injectors checked last June or so, so it was after that and likely some time within the last 10K miles. This being my first diesel, I just didn't know the signs. Inspection of them didn't show any cracks or obvious failure.

This was a very expensive learning experience.

what's a " durastops"?

I think that is what you might find under a Cheby's hood.
Back to morning brew. [coffee]

I am very curious about this because last time I had my injectors out I encountered several cracked plastic retainers that hold the sockets onto the rockers. Sounds exactly like what you are describing.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...socket-281792/

After talking to several mechanics I came to the conclusion that the plastic retainers were only to hold the sockets in place on the rockers during installation or removal and that if the valves were properly adjusted that the sockets (or "cup feet" as you call them) could not physically move or fall into the head. I reassembled my truck with at least four of those plastic retainers missing and have had no issues that I know of lol for the last 20k miles.

Sounds like it is the opinion of your engine builder that these plastic retainers failing can actually cause the sockets to drop into head?

I imagine that a large number of folks would find several cracked plastic retainers if they were to look for it. If the broken retainers can actually allow the sockets to fall out of place it would be very worth while to check them and replace them. I understand that the newer rocker arm assemblies do not have the plastic pieces.

Cheers

While it is not a sure bet....installing pyros pre turbo on both side of the exhaust manifold (its split between front three and rear three cylinders) is a good way to catch a stuck injector. Of course it depends on how much the injector is over fueling, if the nozzle cracked, etc. but if you have an injector that really starts dumping fuel a trained eye will catch the elevated temps on the pyros. At least when I had a #6 injector stick I immediately saw my rear manifold pyro running much hotter relative to the front and shut her down before there was any damage.