I cannot even believe this myself but I need some advice on serious problem.

I was driving home last night from a day of play in the hills. Traffic was bad but moving, I saw an object in the road and due to traffic I was unable to avoid hitting it. It was a bag of garbage. Right after I hit it, my truck was running different. It lacked power and was making a new sound I had not heard before.

I pulled off into a service station right away and shut down the truck. I opened the hood and the air cleaner was OFF! The intake hose to the turbo was loose and the top portion of the air cleaner assembly was hanging open. What a mess! There was a hunk of plastic bag hanging from the exhaust pipe behind the turbo assembly.

I had the truck towed home and took off the intake hose from the turbo. I found bits of white plastic around the turbo opening. Looks like one of those plastic grocery bags.

I THINK MY TRUCK INGESTED A PORTION OR ALL OF A PLASTIC BAG THRU THE TURBO!

I vacuumed and picked out the remaining bits of plastic.

The impeler in the turbo spins freely.

I am going to remove the air inlet housing and inspect the intake air grid heater to see if any debris made it that far. My guess is it did!

I bet the intercooler is also choked up with junk. The manual says I will need to remove the front bumper, support bracked, discharge the A/C and remove the condenser, and remove the intercooler to flush the garbage.

Any other suggestions!?

Do you think I trashed this motor?

Any and all help in this matter would be greatly appreciated!

My life has been a mess lately, my girl left me for her ex and my dog just passed away. This is all I need. HELP!

 

Man I feel for you, the same stuff happened to me, save for the plastic bad thing, a couple of months ago just seems like the world is falling apart but I promise it will get better. As for the truck, you should make sure that the white poweder substance on the impeller blades wasn't messed up because that could unbalance it and lead to turbo failure. of course so could sucking garbage into it. any who I'm not sure that the stuff could have gotten into the intercooler but I'm not sure. I would deffinitle check the downwind side of the turbo, gridheater and so on, just look for melted plastic. I would be willing to bet that any plastic melted and burned awayonce it got past the turbo. I don't imagine any damage being caused by the trash, but more likely from any dirt and the like that you could have sucked up while making it to the service station I don't know how all the systems in these trucks work so this is just my opinion sorry the post was so long and best of luck.
in the words of Joe Dirt, "you just gotta keep on keepin on man"

 

It think you'll be ok, doubt if any of the bag made it past the intercooler and if any did it will just burn up and pass though with no damage. My main concern would be the bag plugging up the cooler cores.
If it was mine I wouldn't even remove the intercooler, just disconnect the inlet and outlet and back blow it with a high power compressor (the kind with a diesel engine) or connect it up a leaf blower to back blow any debris out.

 

Forget the girl friend. Be glad she left now and not when you were married with 3 kids. DO NOT take her back when she calls, and she WILL call. She will simply leave you again. The best revenge you can get on her is to live large and be successful. Now that you are single again look around you and stay single for a while. There are women drueling to be your girlfriend, you just haven't "seen" them yet.

Oh, yea, the truck, tough luck man! Do what Infidel says, put it togeather and drive it like you stole it!

 

Your right about the girl, she did call and I told her to never ever call me again. I miss the dog more. I got a line on a champion lab puppy.

Now the truck. I removed the heater grid and cleaned some melted plastic off of it. The pieces of plastic did make it past the intercooler and melted to the grid. The motor had to have ingested some of the plastic. How much, I am not sure.

I disconnected the inlet and outlet on the intercooler. I connected a big shop vac to the inlet and gently tapped on the intercooler with a rubber mallet. I got some plastic debris out.

I love the leaf blower suggestion, thanks infidel. I left everything apart and tomorrow I will go buy the biggest baddest electric leaf blower I can find and hook it up. I bet I get more.

I am wondering if the plastic debris will clog the resonator or the muffler or if the motor would have burned the plastic up? Should I change the oil? Just changed it about 500 miles ago.

I am still worried about any possible damage to the turbo and perhaps the wastegate. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the replies!

 

as long as the truck is running well, I wouldn't worry about it... any little pieces of plastic that made it into the engine were burnt up and I wouldn't imagine that being enough to clog a muffler. the resonator can't clog, it's straight through.

now, you could have damaged the turbo impeller, but if it looks/feels good, I'd bet that it is.

like I said, don't worry about it as long as it runs well.

oh, and get a BHAF so this won't ever happen again!

Forrest

 

BHAF?

 

It's a type of air filter. Do a search and you will find more info then you can digest.

Also, fill in you sig so we'll know a little more about you and your truck.

My adivce: Get another dog and forget the girl. Be more particular next time.....make sure she's good looking, built like a Playboy model, and most importantly...RICH!

 

BHAF=big honkin air filter

 

if you are carefull and slowyou do not have to discharge the ac,,,,,it will all move out of the way......enough to even pull the engine.btdt

 

When it rains it pours!!! Tough luck about your truck. I wouldn't worry too much about the plastic, it will burn up in the combustion cycle. The peices would have to be pretty small after getting processed by the turbo then going thru the inner cooler. The bigger peices would be caught in the in-side of the inner cooler. You can do the reverse flow tricks like the previous posts suggest and get as much as possible. If anything is lodged after that it will probably still be there when the truck is long gone. Just be cautious for a few miles to see how it goes. If you suspect a lot of debris is lodged the only other option would be to replace it or have it cleaned at a rad shop. You might try locating someone with a cyl bore scope to look down the inlet side of the cooler.
As far as the girl, I agree with every body so far. Forget her. I call girls like that users. They are out there in high numbers. I broomed my share of them before I found my present wife of 23 years. When the right one comes along you will both know it and you will both respect each other in all ways. Good luck


Howard

 

Take picture to your insurance company. Tell them leaf blower or inner cooler?
Also wonder if there is a chemicle that would disolve any plastic debris. Maybe something used when overhauling radiators?

 

Dont worry about any new girlfriends being good lookin' or well built.......... Just wealthy Looks are only skin deep and high maintenance girls are a pain in the rear end.

Good luck

 

It looks like all is well with the truck! I want to thank everyone for your response, truly amazing.

The electric leaf blower trick dislodged quite a few bits of plastic from the intercooler.

I ran the truck down to the local turbo shop and the mechanic took a look at the unit. All is well. He even remembered the time he left a bunch of tech lit. in a brand new unit and started the truck. It chewed it up with no problems. He also said most of the time if a turbo is going to fail from ingesting debris it does it right away.

I will now look into upgrading my stock air filter to a proper BHAF!

Oh ya, I got the lab puppy!

Thanks again!!!!!!!

 

Lots of good news!