Just as review, remember that I had a coolant leak in the drivers head, that hydro-locked the engine during starting.I checked deck heights on the 4 pistons, and as far as I can measure with my lashed-up rig, they were all within 3/10,000ths of a an inch. I figure that nothing is bent or broken.

I got the replacement head on the truck, and it runs. But it knocks on the #1 hole.

This is what happens..

When I start the truck cold, it has a miss and spews white smoke (unburned diesel). After a minute or two, the truck warms up the miss goes away, and is replaced by a bad knock. The miss and knock are definatly on cyl #1 which is where my motor hydro-locked with the coolant leak in the head. If a crack the injector line, the knock goes away.

I first thought it was a bad injector. I relaced it with a new one, with no results, I put the original #1 into #3 and the knock remained in #1. Other than the knock, the motor runs good, has good oil pressure, and everthing else seems ok.

In reading some other posts, I got to thinking that maybe I had the #1 and #3 injector lines crossed. I pulled the intake last night and no luck, all injector lines are in the proper order.

I am 99.9% confident that it is NOT a rod knock or other mechanical thing. To me, it seems like a combustion knock. Like the timing is way out on #1.

My question is...

Could hydro-locking the #1 hole have affected my injection pump? I am sure that the cyl P.S.I when it was locked was pretty high, could that pressure bleed back into the I.P. and hurt something? Or could trying to inject fuel into the high P.S.I. of a hydro-locked cyl damaged something.

I've spoken with Jamie, and he is checking with his pump expert, but I thought maybe one of you pump guys might chime in here.

Thanks!
tim

That the IP has gone south on one injector sounds like a logical conclusion. Is there any way to field-test the IP while it is in-situ? The worst-case would mean pulling the IP and having it tested, no?

Sincerely,

Rob :)

I would drop the oil pan, easily done and check the rod bearings, rod ends and crank and bearings just to be sure. Better for sure than not sure I'd think. Also give you chance for lower end inspection for other damage that might have happened.
anyway to run the engine with no compression in that hole.

anyway to run the engine with no compression in that hole.

Take out the glowplug.

I can give the only advise to pull it out and tear it down. Don't run that thing and rev it up to try and diagnose a noise like that. I think you are pulling at straws here. When my piston split like an acorn, I kept running the motor thinking of what was going on and I kept trying to pinpoint the noise. That is what really did my origninal motor in.

Pull it or drop the pan OR just cut the filter and look for bearing material.

Adding to what somebody else said somewhere else...

What type of wrist pin bushings do you have? Offset at all?

I read somewhere about wrist pins problems with DD Rebuilds.


You must be pissed. I can see it in your Avatar's eyes.

Good Luck...

I dont know if my experiance will help or not but...
I recently put a set of heads , new IP and injectors on and it ran great for 3 weeks...then i started to notice a rough idle and a "rod knock" sound and thought one of my new injectors was messsing up. took it to diesel tune and when mike heard it, he said shut it down, it's a spun main bearing.
When i pulled the pan and turned it over by hand to check the bearings # 2 rod was goooonnneeee. So i am waiting for a crank and bearing set now. I hope yours is not the same thing, if that's any consolation.
Doc:blahblah::blahblah:

Wow, if it is, we will have to pull CowRacer off the celing!

I dont know if my experiance will help or not but...
I recently put a set of heads , new IP and injectors on and it ran great for 3 weeks...then i started to notice a rough idle and a "rod knock" sound and thought one of my new injectors was messsing up. took it to diesel tune and when mike heard it, he said shut it down, it's a spun main bearing.
When i pulled the pan and turned it over by hand to check the bearings # 2 rod was goooonnneeee. So i am waiting for a crank and bearing set now. I hope yours is not the same thing, if that's any consolation.
Doc:blahblah::blahblah:

Could hydro-locking the #1 hole have affected my injection pump? I am sure that the cyl P.S.I when it was locked was pretty high, could that pressure bleed back into the I.P. and hurt something? Or could trying to inject fuel into the high P.S.I. of a hydro-locked cyl damaged something.

High pressure? need more than 1700psi to open the injector from the bottom and even you couldn't force fuel or coolant or anything past the delivery valve in the head and rotor. so no, you didn't hurt the pump.
Even if you did have a bad delivery valve, you would at worst have a lub because of low fuel delivery in one cylinder rather than a knock.

I'd make them take the whole thing back and reinstall another one.

I'd make them take the whole thing back and reinstall another one.
I hate to say it cowracer but I think jspringator is right. We are going to find out if Avant stands behind their stuff

Thanks for the reply guys. I am confident that the Avants will make things right. Jamie has stressed that they will.

If replacement is in order, then I guess I will have to go that route, but I am trying to eliminate any other possiblities first. I guess I was hoping for a cheap and easy fix. I am getting kinda tired of wrenching on this thing.

VALVES! I never thought about the valvetrain...

This weekend I will pull off the valve cover and the oil pan (if necissary) and well get to the bottom of it. I STILL would have a hard time beliving its in the bottom end because it would make the knock from the get-go, not after warming up, but at this stage, I would belive anything short of a Keebler Elf in there with a ball-peen hammer.

At any rate, I am passed being pissed. I was highly pissed when it didnt start that first time. Now I am just wanting a truck that I can trust.



Tim

That the IP has gone south on one injector sounds like a logical conclusion. Is there any way to field-test the IP while it is in-situ? The worst-case would mean pulling the IP and having it tested, no?

Sincerely,

Rob :)

Not gonna happen on a distributor type IP. Least not in my experience with them. The same set of plungers put fuel to each cylinder, only difference from one cyl to next is lobes on cam ring, and if it got knocked off you would have no fuel or low fuel to that cyl, which would not cause a knock.
better get into that engine, and forget the IP for now.
brian.

The noise you describe sounds like the noise I am experiencing. It unfortunately didn't change with the new IP, and the head were supposedly rebuilt. It is what seems like a "compression" or "air" noise. I have not changed out any of the injectors yet, as I am not sure where the noise is actually coming from except mostly on the passenger side. Will be interested to see what you findout.

Anything change in the last month? What was the cause of the noise?

Mine started out too quiet to even tell for most ears and gradually got worse, way more noticable when warmed up. As far as i know so far the crank broke (18:1's with splayed mains, balanced crank too!!!!!!!!!!). What caused it, i dunno, motor still has to be pulled.

Bent connecting rod.

Bent connecting rod.

Roger that!

For the record, Jamie not only built a new engine, but he is paying for the labor to replace it. I think that goes above and beyond "standing behind a product"

Hoping to get it back this weekend.

Tim

Hey Tim;

Man I feel bad for you you have had rotten luck with the truck for the last 6 months. I hope you can get this resolved and move on. At least you folks got that property sold that you had hanging out there so long.

Keep us posted!