So I was 3 hours into my trip home, an hour left, stopped to get some grub and then noticed my engine doing this.



I have all my new Speedhut gauges in and nothing was out of the usual. when it started I did notice higher water temp though. I didn't notice it though till I pulled over, it may have been doing it on the highway but I hadn't noticed possibly. I checked the coolant though and added about 2 gallons. If I rev it it becomes more noticeable.

I had to go to Home depot to before leaving this stop so I drove over, and looked under the hood again, noticed some diesel pooling around the IP. This was my first clue.

After leaving town I started to notice some other behavior. My EGT sensor is mounted at the union of the Y pipe and only reads max about 400 so far. I watched it hit 600 then looked behind me and saw a huge cloud of smoke, bigger than I've ever seen her make. We were going up hill but it did not seem normal at all since I had gone up plenty of hills this trip.

Kept driving, I also would really lug the engine if I let it anywhere below 2000 rpm, again it would start to smoke like a siv, but if I got it up to 2000 + it would act better. Not sure if the noise went away or it just got to fast it was harder to notice the rhythm.

Climbing the mountain at the last little bit I watched my EGTs get all the way up to 800. Not sure what the temps are at the headers, but I have been estimating a 300 degree difference, so that would have meant 1100 degress !

Anyway, I made it an hour to my families. I am still planning on driving it to the junkyard in the morning. But it is most likely gonna get left behind till another weekend when I can come back and fix it.

I am assuming IP but I don't want to lead the witness.

Thoughts,
Devin

 

Pull the valve cover. It sounds like a loose intake rocker to me.
The chuffing is the valve basically getting sucked down by the piston as it goes down, instead of being pushed by the rocker.

At least, that's what it was when that noise happened to me.

Alternately, it could be a bent pushrod, which might cause the same thing to a lesser degree. Again, it would be an intake side thing.
Might even be a collapsed lifter or something. Again, pull whichever valve cover sounds like it's got the issue and take a look.

 

Yup, valve covers. It could be as simple as something he said, or it could be a stuck valve, or something along those lines that will require getting the heads done.

That's the situation with my IDI right now.

 

I would start cracking injector lines or do a compression check to find out what cylinders are affected ... compression check is best.

Coolant loss, Heating, Chuffing, Smoking, My vote is head gasket.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Yours is different ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

It is! But it could also be that, and I'm just giving him the worst case scenario...

 

O-yea, What color is the smoke?

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Ha, white. Most all the time...sorry, I know you're right! Just trying to be helpful, but helpful and not knowing what you're doing are two things that should never go together

 

I was asking the OP.

Already know what yours needs ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Oh, I thought you were asking me! And yeah, I'm getting both of the heads done on mine, tranny will have to wait...

 

Looks black to me.

I'm gonna go out now and remove the valve cover and look for issues. I should be able to do that then run the engine with out issues right?

I'm also gonna try and crack injectors one by one and listen for lack of difference.

I had my in laws who were traveling from Mass back to Vermont grab the new injector pump from my wife at our house, that way incase I do decide to swap it, its here.

Devin

 

Looks white to me until you over fueled it, then it went grey!

Smell the smoke as it's idling, I'd bet it has a slight sweet smell to it.

Open the radiator cap whats the water doing when it's completely full to the top of the neck and motor running?
Is it surging and pulsing ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Couldn't tell by smell.



Devin

 

So I've added a few gallons of coolant since I left home where it was full, I'm beginning to come around to head gasket. I am gonna try Blue Devil cause I've heard good things about that.

But what about the high EGTs, rough running, pooling fuel near my IP, I think my IP is also toast which maybe futhered the degradation of my head gasket?

I know it's a shot in the dark but I'm just not sure these are all symptoms' of a blown head gasket.

Devin

 

Try to find where the fuel is coming from at the IP. There should be three possible options:
1. Loose high pressure line. If it's leaking from one or more lines, you'll definitely get rough running due to having a retarded injection(or no injection) on the leaking cylenders
2. Inspection port on the side. The rubber seal can leak here, especially as that port is only on with two screws. This goes into the housing, though, so a less likely chance of rough running.
3. Weep hole right at the front bottom of the IP, just before it goes into the gear housing.
If the internal umbrella seal starts to leak, fuel will come out here and make it's way back down the valley pan. Fixing this requires a complete disassembly of the IP to fix, and a seal kit that's around $30. Again, though, this is housing fuel, and while it might cause surging when first started up due to air in the return side of the IP, once the engine has warmed up it should have no affect other than lower fuel economy.