Smoking. Cracked ring...??? What to do

[artvonne]

  I am glad its all working out, and happier still that Williams is stepping up. And I appologise, for not having a better understanding of the expense and work involved in diagnosing a big diesel.  But I dont believe marc needed all the aggrevation this caused him either. I think too many of us, myself included, get real excited when someone starts throwing repairs costing $$$$$$$ at us and still arent able to tell whats wrong. Perhaps better communication from the very beginning (from all sides) would have elleviated much of the pain this has caused.

[thejumpsuitman]

Well when the episode happened on the road, Clifford prepared me for the big $$$$ I would be spending, but I was not prepared for the failed attempt at the fix and all the delays.  In the end it costs what it costs.  And from the numbers I have been given, Clifford was right.

[thejumpsuitman]

UPDATE...

I just got a call from Williams.  They have taken the head off and found that the #3 piston has come apart.  The head mechanic who is working on it says that a big chunk of it was just gone.  (That must be what sparked coming out the tailpipe back on I-65).  The broken chunk got slammed into the valves, bending them.

The good news was that he said the head itself was fine other than that and that he could press new valves in.  That savings offsets some of the cost of the piston and liner.  Ironically, the actual piston rings were fine.

The overall estimate has remained just about the same, even though more work is being done. 

I did ask him what caused that.  His guess was overuse of ether.  He said that violent explosion could have caused a fracture in the piston which eventually over time caused the crack to spread and for the chunk to come loose.  The injector was intact, so I don't think that was the cause of the problem.  Of course, when the piston belw apart, it destroyed the injector which they replaced of course.

[chart1]

Well it is finally nice to know the cause of the headache. Not so good to hear what the probable cause of the piston coming apart as I live in a climate that calls for ether in the winter months. I don't use much but I do use.

[JohnEd]

So the original injector coming apart didn't contribute to this at all.  Was the original injector in the #3 piston?

How can you "over use" either?  We all need to hear that.

Thanks for your post,

John

[thejumpsuitman]

So the original injector coming apart didn't contribute to this at all.  Was the original injector in the #3 piston?

How can you "over use" either?  We all need to hear that.

Thanks for your post,

John

I can't answer that.  This is just what he said.  Maybe he means too much at once was shot in there once.  Or maybe somebody dumped gasoline in there at some point in the past.  I have heard of people doing that and it is very explosive.

[luvrbus]

I don't buy the big "bang" most of the time staring fluid will take the compression ring out first or break the crank, if the piston failed something else went wrong could have been wrong timing gauge used on that 1 cylinder or bad rack adjustment causing that one cylinder to carry 30% more of the load on that bank

[thejumpsuitman]

I don't think we will ever know why that happened.  The only thing I can say for sure is that I saw the old original injector and it was completely intact.

[Len Silva]

[Zeroclearance]

Marc, is Williams going to rebuild the entire head??  Is the tech just recommending to stuff 4 exhaust valves in the failed "hole"

I think that it's foolish not rebuilding the head since it is already off the engine.   Is it really penny wise?  How many miles since the last topend overhaul.   

[pato-06]

broken piston parts = not so good for turbo.

[thejumpsuitman]

They were actually recommending re-sleeving all cylinders as it was.  I asked them if they just did the one cylinder, would it run like it did before this disaster happened, and he said yes.  The problem with fixing more than the minimum is where do you stop?  That's just the problem.  They know I need to save what I can or this whole course of putting money into this engine is not feasible.  I could come out better with a re-power somewhere else.

All I know is that they said it was possible that it would need a head, but would see when the got if off.  Now that they have it off they say they can save it.  

[thejumpsuitman]

broken piston parts = not so good for turbo.

The engine is non-turbo.

[artvonne]

  Do you have any history on the engine? Not the old "it was rebuilt 10K ago but no paperwork" garbage, but real paperwork that documents everything. Curious how long since an overhaul, miles, .....

 

[RnMAdventures]

I am glad to hear you are getting some resolution to the problem. Reading your experience helped me and I think others as well. As with all things, what any engine can do is unpredictable. Unless you know all the variables, which we never do, you can't really predict when/where you will have problems.

Thanks for sharing your experience.