I have a 2007 6.0L that just passed 100,000 miles, all the sudden one afternoon the truck started running very rough, was missing, thought it was going to stall at idle, heard knocking noises, had no power and white smoke was coming out of exhaust. Engine light did not come on. I immediately limped the truck to a mechanic. Truck has not been losing antifreeze. White smoke smelled rich of fuel. He ran a scan which told him it was a faulted number 1 fuel injector. He replaced the injector but truck was still missing and not running well. Mechanic says he did a compression test and number 1 cylinder only has about 50 psi all the rest were at normal levels. After telling me this he did not offer any alternatives just straight up said you need a new engine. I asked him about investigating more, replacing bad cylinder head, checking for bent rocker arm, bad valve etc. and he said you don't want to go down that route, you will probably end up spending more trying to figure out the problem. Finding a used engine with lower miles is my only real, best option.

Any of this make any sense to anyone? Does it really make sense with this engine to not go tearing it apart? Maybe he did more investigation before coming to this conclusion. I think no matter what I want to get truck towed to get a second opinion, but I am looking to educate myself more before I talk to this guy again and taking somewhere else.

 

Did he give you the old injector? Was the tip cracked and missing? I would want to pull the head personally before just replacing the engine.

 

I did not have a chance to ask him if the injector came out intact. I plan to ask him that tomorrow.

 

With only 50 psi of compression on one hole, I agree you definitely have a base engine issue. The question now lies "how deep" is it? Just some food for thought. If he replaced cylinder #1 injector, he had to have bank #1 valve cover and high pressure oil rail removed in order to do so, giving him very clear view of the valvetrain. If at that point, nothing looked untoward (which I'm assuming to be the case, or else he would've called you BEFORE slapping that injector into that hole), the next step is to pull bank #1 cylinder head. Which brings me to my next question. Are you willing to pay the labour to remove that cylinder head for further inspection, knowing full well that the bill is only going to increase from there, with the only remaining question being how far? If the answer is YES, then I would request he pull that cylinder head for whatever agreed upon labour charge. This again, is fully being aware that the end result may very well end up being a complete engine will be the most cost effective repair in the end.

 

Thanks for the reply m-chan68. I have a question about your comment about paying the labor rate to remove the cylinder head. If i were to go straight to replacing engine wouldn't he have to tear it apart anyway. Is removing the heads not required to remove black? If not how much more work is it to remove the head in the process of taking the entire block out. So why wouldn't he want to remove the head to check cylinder and then at that point continue tearing the engine apart to take the block out or decide block is not shot and fix as required?

 

As a tech myself, I can tell you that it will be a fair bit more work to pull cylinder head(s), AND THEN replace the entire engine assembly, than it would to just outright replace the long block itself. The way I'm reading it, the mechanic wants to save you that extra charge by just outright replacing the entire engine itself, rather than having to pay for the extra labour to tear it down, only to have the end result still being an engine replacement. However, on the flip side of things, without pulling that cylinder head, you/he won't KNOW the extent of damage present to cylinder #1. The best case scenario, would be a cylinder head/valve issue that ends up costing you only a cylinder head (and the labour to replace it). This would be provided that there is no damage to the piston or cylinder wall, but I highly doubt it. If the piston is damaged, but the wall is intact, you could likely get away with a connecting rod and piston assembly replacement to go along with your cylinder head. But even at that, you're now very close to the cost of an outright long block replacement.

 

Ok. So after a night of no sleep accepting the money I am going to have to spend on this more or less sounds like replacement engine. What is the best approach. Try to find a used engine new engine remained etc. at this point I am about over my head into this truck but I plan to keep this truck for a long time so I am not looking for a cheap fix to get it running just to sell. So I want to go with the best approach to get the biggest bang for my buck. But I also can't afford all the bells and whistles for a more or less gold plated engine (if you know what I mean).

 

Call some rebuilders and get quotes on long blocks. Since they are close to you, I'd start with Ashville engines and there is a place in Norfolk too

 

I was actually just looking at Ashville. Blackwater Engines is also another rebuilder close to me. Anyone have any experience with either of these. Or have any other suggestions on where to go

 

Do some extensive searches on the shops that you are considering.

 

Crazy question, have you thought about taking the truck to another shop/dealer for a second opinion? I have heard tons of stories of injectors wiping out cylinders, but a couple hundred dollars, could save you thousands?

 

I am still very much considering a second opinion. I have some new questions first about the injector failure trouble code. The mechanic said the trouble code told him a bad injector, but my question is this how does the computer access the bad injector. Does any misfire in the cyliner resort to a bad injector or is the computer very specific about atrributing the failure to the injector.

My thinking is this. What if one of the valves (I am thinking more likely the exhaust valve) was stuck open or not closing all the way. This would cause the cylinder to missfire. This would cause unburnt fuel and thus rich diesel smelling white smoke out of exhaust. Now how does the computer acess this situation, the the cylinder misfired and thus resorts to throwing an injector code? Or again does it only throw the injector code when there is specifically a problem detected with the injector. Would a different code be thrown if the cylinder was misfirng due to valve issues?

 

You have to get a leak down test done. A good tech will know if it's a valve or a cylinder

 

While there are codes specific to each injector and its wiring, they are related to high/low voltage readings. A contrabution/balance code is triggered by a delay in the time it takes the cam and crank sensors to see the power pulses (or lack of) from each cylinder (in milliseconds). A contrabution/balance code means the cylinder isn't pulling it's load but doesn't specifically diag a bad injector even though odds are good it is an injector issue (generally).

 

That is probably the BEST explanation I have read in answer to the OP's question. About the only thing I will add is, in a nutshell, high/low circuit code = ELECTRICAL failure of the injector AND/OR its associated circuitry. Contribution/Balance code = MECHANICAL injector failure (cracked or broken tip etc.) AND/OR base engine issue (valve, piston etc.). Hopefully this helps to clear things up.

Knowing that the OP intends on keeping his truck for awhile, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have bank #1 cylinder head pulled for a look/see in order to determine the direction the repair should take. Although the priciest option, the Ford/Motorcraft engines do have a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty on their engines (both parts and labour) if I'm not mistaken.