I have a 2001 excursion 4wd 6.8l v10. Just saying. I am not a genius with motors. But I know more than most. But this has me at a complete loss for words. Thanksgiving day the truck made a weird whining noise, like a belt. so I pulled into a parking lot an it shut off on me. Figured the alternator gave out on me. Which is what caused the whining. Took alternator off, and of course it was bad. Could tell just by the sound of me spinning the wheel with my fingers. Went ahead and had it tested, it was bad. Bought a new one. Put it on. It would slow crank once then stop. Almost like a dead battery. After 20 minutes of it sitting on jumper cables. Same thing. Took 6 month old optima red cap to autozone. Had it switched out for 20$ for a yellow cap optima. Put it in truck, cranked couple times then stopped. Put jumper cables on it. Slow crank again. So I took starter off. Bought a new one, put it on. Same thing. Finally unplugged my system, my lightbar, everything except the starter and the other basic necessities. It fired up. Then died almost instantly. At this point I'm starting to be really confused. Tried again. Slow crank. Maybe bad connection somewhere...bad ground...bought new terminals, cut wires, put new ends on them. Cleaned the wires. Cleaned EVERY GROUND. Still slow crank. I can see the bell housing turn when it slow cranks. So don't think motor is locked up. Took jumper cables and ran them straight from battery to starter. Positive on positive. Ground on ground. Still slow crank. Lights dim and damn near go out everytime I try and start it. Sometimes the lights will go out and not come back on even if jumper cables are hooked up. Takes a few minutes for lights to come back on..my guess bc it "needs to charge back up." I haven't looked at fuel or fire bc it's not cranking. And bc i personally don't think those would cause the lights to go out and not come back on. I'm in the military so I don't make a lot of money. I can't go and buy random 2-300$ parts to just see if it works. Don't wan to take it to a shop either bc that costs money. Any help would be phenominal. Every mechanic I have asked that I know is at a loss for words also on this problem. Please help. It's my daily driver. And my only vehicle.

 

Have you tried to start with the accessory belt off. You may have something dragging like AC, idler or alternator.

 

Yes. I have also tried to do that. And it slow cranked then too.

 

Is it possible the engine is hydrolocked by some fluid (coolant or gas ) ?
Removal of plugs and then cranking can provide some info.
Good luck,

 

^^^^^
What I would try next. Pull 4-5 of the easy plugs and see what happens.

 

Alright I will try that today and see what it does. My question to that though, if that is the case. Hypothetically if it does start once I do that. What do I do next? Drain all my fluids?

 

Well you can check your oil now, is it normal, water, etc. Is the oil smelly, drain it and see it there is metal in it. If you find liquid in the cylinders then you have to identify it and where it came from. Look at the transmission oil, you can easily drain a little from the bottom of the pan.


Now you can also turn the motor over by hand and see if it sticks somewhere. You also mentioned when the whining started you were still able to drive the truck, pull off the road and all seemed normal except for the whining?


You'll find it, it's just a matter of crossing off one thing at a time. Hopefully nothing major.

 

I'll do all this today after I get off. And I'm not sure. I wasn't the one driving it when it happened. My buddy was. I just said I was the one driving for the reason of not having to explain the whole deal. I will talk to him today and make sure. But I'm pretty sure that besides the fact that it shutoff after pulling into the parking lot, that the whining was the only thing out of ordinary.

 

He says that nothing else besides the whining.

 

just wondering if your whining noise cam from your transmission? I have seen some transmission lock up and not let the engine turn over

 

Check your grounds.

An alternator will go into full-charge mode when it can't sense the voltage correctly causing it to whine or blow the regulator.

Using a volt meter (digital) connect it between the (-) of the battery and the engine block. Try to crank it and report what voltage you see. Then do it between the (+) side of the battery and the (+) side of the starter (big cable) - report back. If either of those tests shows more than a volt or two, you have a bad connection. Either ground if it was on the (-) side, or solenoid or bad cable or something else on the (+) side.

 

Does not sound like hydro to me. The engine would not turn slowly, or fire then die, it simply would not turn. At least, that has been my experience.

My Escort would not crank all of a sudden one morning. It would try and then stop, like it hit a wall. So I took out all four (wonderfully easy to get to, I must say) plugs and left them out for about a week and a half.

Put em in the other morning, and BAMMO! It started right up like nothing was ever wrong.

Something is interrupting your juice.