So I was driving home from work, just after starting from a stop light, and heard a pop and started getting a lot of smoke. I wasn't sure where the smoke was coming from, but it sounded almost like a belt broke and was slapping around, but was pretty loud and sounded like some other stuff was going on internally. Pulled into a parking lot immediately and turned it off and the smoke stopped, which was good because it was getting worse and worse and I thought it may be a fire.

Pop the hood, no broken belts, no fluids leaking from the engine, coolent reservoir is full and oil seems decent on the dipstick. Look at the muffler and hear fluid boiling in the muffler. Also had a little Liquid coming from one of the joints on the exhaust pipe upstream of the muffler. Seems like water with soot, but not sure.

I tried to start it again with the hood open, it started but the initial crank was slow like there is some resistance... But it did start up and I turned it off very quick.

Getting towed to a local diesel shop, but curious of any suggestions?

Of course this happens as I'm leaving to prep
For a job interview!

 

I think the turbo let go..Sounds very familiar to when mine went south. What color was the exhaust smoke?

 

Moved to the 7.3L PSD forum.

Stewart

 

"violent reservoir"? What did you meant by that or was it a typo? Remove your intake and take a look at you turbo wheel and feel if there's any excessive movement on the wheel.

 

Smoke was white. Turbo is the 38r, will have to
Check to see if that was it. I have been hearing a different sound and thought it may be coming from the turbo, cant really describe it other than a weird woosh here and there.

It has an exhaust brake on it down stream of the turbo, which I don't like nor use. Could that be adding stress to the turbo?

If the turbo let go, why would there be water coming from the exhaust? I can't figure that one out.

Fixed the typo.

From what I've found on the forums, head gasket and injector cups seem like the water source, but I didn't see any foaming in the oil, and will have to smell the coolent to see if fuel is getting in there.

 

It sounds like you could possibly have a loose injector and an injector cup gave way. Since you shut down fast, there may or may not be an obvious sign of fuel in the degas bottle. That "pop" could have been combustion gasses reaching the coolant and the cap may have reacted rather aggressively - but this doesn't sound like a boot pop.

A boot pop doesn't happen at a stop light - it happens at WOT. The resistance to start could be a pretty big cup blowout, allowing enough coolant into the cylinder to risk hydrolocking.

If this the case, I think you did good to shut 'er down. If you are handy with tools and good at following instructions, we can walk you through getting access to the cups for inspection and replacing them if needed. If you just want the shop to do it, many shops won't do cups in the vehicle - they want to pull the engine.

 

I'm going to let the shop take a look today, I'll be out of town for the day anyways, and depending what they find or definitely what they quote, will determine what my plan is. I do most work on our vehicles, so not afraid to replace the cups or injectors if that's the problem.

 

They will likely pull the glow plugs and turn the engine to see if they get Ol' Faithful. It's then a matter of pulling one injector and inspecting the cup.

 

Sounds good. Is there any concern of water in the cylinder? If so, is rust a concern?

 

A quick flow of coolant into the cylinder isn't a good thing, a surprise hydrolock can ruin your day. You caught it quick and shut down, so you did everything right. This is all under the assumption I've diagnosed this accurately - which I could easily be wrong from afar. Corrosion in the cylinder wouldn't be an issue unless this wasn't resolved quickly.

 

Got a call from the shop that my #4 injector busted, spraying fuel into the cylinder, which went through the system and out the exhaust... So it was diesel fuel that I heard boiling in the muffler.

Thank God it was diesel and not unleaded or that woulda been quite a fire. Lucky.

Hopefully it gets fixed and the compression check doesn't find any more damage.

 

Yeah! That sounds far more minor than hydrolocking.

Now... how does an injector break? Did it leave debris in the cylinder?

 

No debris, they said it must have disintegrated and gone through the exhaust. Checked the turbo blades and found no damage. Here's a pic of the injector.

Picked it up today, so far so good. Glad this was it.