Let me start out by saying the truck is already in a shop seeing that I'm 1,000 miles from home. The scenario:
I was pulling a 25 ft trailer, nearly empty with my 03 f350 dually, 6.0 liter. Saw some black smoke going up hills but attributed that to the load of the trailer. Bout 45 minutes into the trip I hear a slight knocking sound that I thought was my kids game tablet. Slowed down to check it out and heard a definite knock with rpm change, which sounds more like a popping noise once out of the cab. Turned the truck off, started it back up a few minutes later to investigate. Huge billows of black smoke when started and still hearing the knock/pop sound. Now, I had ZERO indication of coolant temp fluctuations up or down. Had solid oild pressure the whole time and no loss in power what so ever. Now the shop is telling me its hydrolocked, and now I need new glow plug harness. I'm not really buying it to be honest. In my experience, if I had an issue with a head gasket leaking coolant into the cylinder wouldn't I have seen some fluctuation in temp, or at least something in the oil? I understand it could be excessive fuel in the cylinder or even oil, or water from contaminated fuel, but what they are telling me just doesn't add up. Absolutely an insight is welcomed

 

You probably lost an injector and they want to pull the glowplugs to relieve the hydrolock. It's common to break an injector harness removing it. An 03 would be a bussbar but still may break.

 

Sounds like they are on the right track. Injector stuck open.

 

Yes I could understand that for sure. The issue I'm starting to have is I'm getting mixed stories from them. Yesterday it was expelled of fluid from the cylinders and they couldn't tell me what the fluid was, and had a glowplug harness on order for it. Today they say they haven't expelled the fluid and haven't touched it. But parts are still on order. Its quite conflicting.

 

I appreciate the feedback guys. I'm trying to trust these guys. I've heard nothing but good things about their work but I'm a bit irritated in the lack of communication from them to me. Hard to sit back and let a shop do the work when I'm some used to do in it myself. Ahhh!!

 

alright guys. sorry its taken so long to post results. life got in the way. So it was an injector issue. had a crack in the no. 7 injector, causing the hydrolock. charged an arm and a leg and a total of 2 weeks to complete the task. I think the service performed shouldn't have taken two weeks, and the way I was treated I think was a bit unprofessional but its been running strong since the fix.

 

Glad to see you got it going again and thank you for the update.