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That's what happened to mine too. I drove to Dallas to inspect a car for a friend, drove back, stopped at Bucee's, fired it up to leave and it billowed white smoke out of the exhaust. I got it home, went to move it, and it locked up on me, this time for good. So I just pulled the heads on mine this weekend and am driving Rudolph in the meantime. It's no 6.0, but it still gets down the road.
I discovered why mine blew and it was through no fault of my own. I'll be talking to the shop owner later this morning.
Aww man... I figured you were all set for some smooth sailing for a while
Razzi sent me some pics and on my phone screen with my poor eye sight I could see the problem. I can't believe that work came out of a reputable shop. I've got to open my own shop after I retire from being a lineman. May 19th 2018 won't come soon enough.
That's what happened to mine too. I drove to Dallas to inspect a car for a friend, drove back, stopped at Bucee's, fired it up to leave and it billowed white smoke out of the exhaust. I got it home, went to move it, and it locked up on me, this time for good. So I just pulled the heads on mine this weekend and am driving Rudolph in the meantime. It's no 6.0, but it still gets down the road.
I discovered why mine blew and it was through no fault of my own. I'll be talking to the shop owner later this morning.
With all that work this last year. Yes I know trans is not engine.
Are you going to share some photos of the cause?
Two days of driving my Ex, towing wife's explorer. First time towing with the 6L, what a blast. Going up the hills along the way, boost builds to 25-ish PSI and I get pressed in to the seat as it accelerates up the hills..
Cruise control helps to stay focused on traffic and staying in the lane, a task that gets easier as the miles disapear behind me.... West Memphis, AR Welcome Center on I-40
Tow haul mode is super at slowing down on offramps or in traffic. It helps around town when hunting for food/fuel/restroom, reduces brake usage.
A few pics of my newly rebuilt Ex (hurricane Irma dropped some huge tree limbs on it).
snow still on ground in Western GA (I-20 near Ala state line)
When I was visiting my sister one time and coming into her place the back way
with all the skinny steep roads. I had to take it out of T/H so the jogger would
hear me. I found that when in T/H and rolling down a hill the noise of the engine
is really quiet. I was going only about 15MPH so even the trans was not making much
in the way of sounds. You should of seen the look when I turned it off and stepped
on the throttle. The look on the guys face. He was shocked that a big truck could
sneak up on him like that.
Back in post 18778 I showed places where you could get screws, nuts and bolts of the type Ford uses for less then Ford prices. Clips and Faseners was one of the sources and showed their website. As a follow up, they are now on Amazon.
That sucks but I guess it's nice to get the ball rolling on getting it taken care of. Hope it works out!
I've done some extensive planning once I noticed the problem, I didn't expect to have to have to do it, but I'm a planner and this is a great learning experience.
Originally Posted by Rusty Axlerod
Aww man... I figured you were all set for some smooth sailing for a while
Yeah, me too...there is a bright side to this all.
Originally Posted by Per4mance
Razzi sent me some pics and on my phone screen with my poor eye sight I could see the problem. I can't believe that work came out of a reputable shop. I've got to open my own shop after I retire from being a lineman. May 19th 2018 won't come soon enough.
Me either, it was no fault of the owner. He'd had problems with guy who worked on my truck and while they took some time to rear their head, they're being resolved now.
Originally Posted by Yahiko
With all that work this last year. Yes I know trans is not engine.
Are you going to share some photos of the cause?
I will once everything is resolved.
On to the main story this evening...
The issue was two-fold: improper torque and the heads not being machined. Instead of sending my heads off to be machined, the mechanic working on my truck decided to use an air grinder on my heads to finish the job so he could get paid. This was then followed by him improperly torquing my heads. On the passenger side, you can see where the combustion leaked through on all 4 cylinders. The driver side had two cylinders that were sealing the rest were blown. There was also little to no gasket transfer on the heads, which again, points to improper torque. This was further confirmed by finding the 4 10 mm bolts on top of the heads sitting up and loose. So much so that water puddled in each of the bolts and caused them to rust. Needless to say I was absolutely livid when I found the reason why my truck made decent power but never sounded and ran quite right.
Keep in mind it's a miracle in and of itself that I didn't have a catastrophic engine failure. The engine NEVER overheated, ran like a champ through the storm over 4 years and 2 months, never missed a beat, and gave me fair warning when my time was running out. This is why while it pisses me off that I have to do head gaskets again, it doesn't bother me one bit to get The Monster back up and running again. When my truck's been this good to me, it was hard not to say no.
The bright side in all of this:
I spoke with the shop owner who is a very good friend of mine and when I told him what happened, he was a let down and irritated. Since before he opened his own shop, he's been a very stand up guy and told me he'd take of me and get my heads machined for me, no charge.
I'm dropping the heads off at the shop this evening, so I should get them back by this time next week if not sooner. Since I'm off till January, I'll have time to take my time and do the repair correctly.
I will also get to reseal everything, address anything it needs, and do it all myself so I know it's done correctly.
I don’t understand why people are using die grinders on these. Even with mild abrasive it’s so easy to produce a hollow, and yet I see vids with well respected techs promoting their use. Plus the abrasive action is so concentrated. Little transfer to the heads can also be from improper cleaning (silicone doesn’t like oil) or too smooth of a surface, again die grinder comes to mind. I look forward to seeing the images.
It would also be interesting if you were able to vid the surfacing, to see if there was a hollow where the poor transfer was.
In some ways it’s good I’m taking a few weeks Christmas tree break from my own sorrows, although my big concern is the block deck.
I am kindred with your frustration after disassembling the motor, trusting the source.
Die grinders or ziz wheels also throw a lot of crap around. I was short on time and had a mechanic reseal the intake on my 93 Blazer so I could take it on a trip. He user a ziz wheel and crap got in the engine and ruined my crank, I had to completely rebuild the engine.
Jack your killin' me. Your really gonna make me go out and take a picture of the tool aren't ya.lol. I believe it's called a carbon block bar. Anthony uses it in one of his videos. It will clean up some of the mess from the wizzer wheel Razz. God hates a coward. Go for it!
12-11-2017, 04:54 PM
