So I am reading as many posts as I can, because my truck was running perfect before I decided to replace the head studs with ARPs, fuel injectors and oil cooler. I have 120K miles on my '05 F350 Harley Edition and have an Edge Evolution and did not want to blow the head gaskets, so I decided to dig in and upgrade.

Stupid me, when I pulled my truck into the garage the low fuel indicator was on, but didn't think anything of it since I have a 50 gallon tank and should have had at least 5 to 7 gallons left in the tank.

Upon finishing, I started her up and expected the long start after experiencing that when I replaced my STP, stand pipes and did an EGR delete a year ago.

But it never stopped running rough - like I had dropped a cylinder.

When I took it out on the road, it was extrememly sluggish and never cleared up. Checked the codes and I had a P0272 - Cylinder #4 contribution error. Thought maybe out of 8 new injectors, I got one bad one so I replaced rubber and copper gaskets on an old one and stuck it in the #4 cylinder and tried again with the same result.

Every time I try to start her, it is a long start and with the same results.

I have torn her back down to put the new injector back in, and was thinking about pulling the head to see if for some reason they messed up the head when they cleaned it up, but before I take it that far, I thought I would put one more post out there to see if may I am just that stupid for not having at least a half a tank of fuel before starting or maybe I am not giving her enought time to get all the air out of her system.

Someone with real experience, please tell me I don't have to pull the head, or at least it is worth a try to put it back together and try something different before I pull the head and take it back to the shop.

Or tell me I'm stupid for not just pulling the heads again and doing it all over again - those Black Onyx gaskets are cheap enough!!!!

 

Check the pushrods to see if one is out of place or bent while you're replacing the injector. Pulling the heads again would be the last resort for me.

How long did you let it run after the overhaul?? Sometimes it takes a while to get air out of the HPO system, but it should still run fairly smooth even with a long crank to start.

 

According to cheezit it's not uncommon to bend a push rod if you don't hand crank the engine 1st after an upper end tear down.

 

I didn't run it long - let it sit for about 5 minutes and then took it about a mile up the road. When I couldn't didn't get any power and saw the smoke it was blowing, it scared me and I did not want to hurt the engine.

For me to take the push rods out, I have to take the head studs nuts off - can I do that without taking them all off to keep even pressure across the head?

Also - Should I replace all 8 push rods in that head, all 16 at the same time or can you replace just one?

 

how about a compression test. also have you varified the valve train's operation?

 

So how do you verify the valve train operation? No I have not done a compression test. I wanted to, but do not have access to the "Special tool that is required to stick into the Glow Plug hole and the only compression gauge that I have is for a gasoline engine.

I have to admit that this is my first diesel. I have found that it was a bit intimidating at first, but patience and following directions, whether that be from experienced people like yourself or the service manual, have always paid off, and I tend to lead toward experience over the service manual, although there have not been many instances where they have differed.

This is the first time that I have done something to the truck that has resulted in unsatisfactory results.

The reason that I am here is because I was going to replace the old injector with the new one anyway since there was no diffference, so checking the pushrod since I am right there shouldnt be an issue. The real question is, should I release all of the head stud nuts or can I just release the ones that I am going to check and possibly replace.

Also, if it is bent, should I just go ahead and pull the head and replace the valve follower??? And should I just replace that pushrod and follower or both for that cylinder?

 

So apparently I did something wrong and have ended up with a bent pushrod.

Also while I was extracting the pushrods, I noticed that a couple of others seem to have cracks - one that goes almost completely around the pushrod and the other about half way around. both cracks are a little bit below half way down the pushrod, one on the same cylinder as the bent pushrod #4, the other on #2 Cyliinder.

So 2 questions:

When I insert the other pushrods into the slots it feels almost as though there is a seat that they fit in to, but when I insert the new pushrod into the slot that had the bent pushrod, I do not get that feeling - should I replace the Valve Tappet?

Question 2 - I am replacing all of the pushrods on this head regardless, but are these cracks normal? and should I replace the pushrods on the other head?
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cant tell you what normal is if I cant see it. however that should be no cracks in the push tube's.
did you turn the motor pver by hand when you had the heads back on?

I would install the new push tube and go from there. Ive seen lots of rockers get kicked off and more then a few bent push tubes. only see a few cause real damage. .
so far as droping the push tube back in and not feeling the seat goes... i would look inside the hole with a borescope.

 

Yup--He schooled me on that, remember--LOL. I hadn't heard that before or maybe I just didn't remember. I have had a bent pushrod but don't know if it was from new lifters or misplacement by inexperienced tech, but I was lucky and didn't have any damage except for the pushrod.

 

Thanks Cheezit - Wasnt sure I would hear from you again

Stuck my head down there with my lighted magnet and looked like something thin like a spring or shaved metal was down there. Put the push tube down at a right angle then moved it left and there was a slight reisitance and then it went down and I could feel the seat.

Figured I better take the head off and look.

I would send a pic of the tubes but not sure how to do that. When I click on add image it asks for a URL instead of browsing my computer for the pic. When I figure that out I will send it.

Will get back when I have the head off.

 

I have a day job. im on for a few hours here and there. so helping / awnsering questions durring the day is kinda out for me.
sorry.

 

So head is off - Head gasket is ripped and bent around where the push tube goes through it - that is probably what I saw. Also the plastic fins at the bottom just above the lifter - they look like they collect and focus the oil back into the hydraulic lifters - the right side of the one where the push tube was bent is torn. I will take pictures and see if I can get those out later this evening - My wife has a web site - maybe she can put them out there and I can use her URL to point to them.

 

Yea - I understand that 100% cheezit - I thought my ignorance and maybe arrogance might have pushed you a little too far.

So a question if I may - How do I hand turn the engine? Do I leave the glow plugs out? do I do it before I put the injectors in, and what do I turn? On my gasoline engines, I would put a wrench on the crank and turn without the sparkplugs, but I've never taken the fan and stator out, so I cant get near the front of the crank.

 

from the crank pully is the easist way to do it. glowplugs in or out wont matter. its just harder to turn over with the compression.
the reason for this is multi folded. first is to make sure every valves moves. second I have found that it helps reduce the damage caused by lifters that wont bleed down by frocing them down slowly by hand. also if something goes wrong its easy to fix whith the engine apart already.
also I do this after torquing the heads to 65ft lbs but prior to yeilding the bolts with the glow plugs out.
questions dont really bother me.

 

So Pictures of the damage - I am going to have to redo this post as the pictures were too big and even though I have resized them on the website, they are not resizing on the forum.

First pic is the push tubes - the top two are ones that have cracks in them. You can barly see them but they are just left of the middle on both. The top one has another smaller one to the right of center.

The bottom on is the one that I obviously put in wrong!


The next one is the valley looking down at the lifters - a bit blurry but you can see the tear on the right - not sure if I have to replace this - Probably should.

I am replacing all of the push tubes for sure, as well as the head gasket as you can see by the picture below, the bent push tube completely tore off the tab