I was looking for a couple months for an un-rotted super duty in my price range, which is tough in new england. I happend to see a listing for a 99 F-350 V-10, extended cab 4x4, just over 100k miles for 4.5K. Took a look and was amazed to see mint sheetmetal, with no rust. Owner was a horse lady, never plowed, just used to move horses with a small gooseneck trailer.

Even though the truck had leaky manifolds I bought it immediately, and the horror began.

Tried to replace the manifolds with Gibson headers, EVERY single stud snapped off in the head. Figuring the rest of the truck was in good shape, I bought a set of rebuilt PI heads and a junkyard PI manifold. Pulled the engine and cleaned everything, new gaskets/seals/PS pump/water pump/timing set. Also replaced all brake lines with new SS, calipers,rotors etc.

All new stainless exhaust, Volant CAI, and tuner from 5 star. The truck has 4.30 gears, along with the PI heads on a non PI block bumped the compression a half point. Should be a great tow setup.

Really tried to take my time and make everything nice since the body was in such great shape. Got the engine in friday afternoon, all hooked up and double checked everything. Primed the fuel pump twice and she started instantly and sounded perfect at idle, with solid oil pressure. After running a couple mins I tapped the gas and it reved nice and clean to 1600 rpms, with the oil pressure rising as expected.

At this point I shut it down and went in for dinner, so happy with the way the engine sounded through the headers and new exhaust.

Came out after dinner and tried to start it again, the engine banged as soon as I touch the starter and make a sickening thump sound and would not start.

I pulled the plugs on the drivers side and looked at each with a bore scope, the middle plug was soaked with gas, and the piston mysteriously did not move when I turned the engine by the balancer.....


I guess the injector leaked while I was eating supper, flooded the cylinder and caused hydrolock when I went to start it?

I pulled the engine yesterday and my worst fear confirmed, grenaded connecting rod. All the bearings look mint otherwise.

 

Now I have to decide what to do. I can't find any rebuilt short blocks for sale, and a long block is 3-4k.

I haven't pulled the head yet, maybe the cylinder wasn't damaged and a new piston and rod could be used?

I am shocked the rod would blow so easily, just from the starter, on an otherwise healthy motor. Here is another bearing for reference.

 

Bad luck. Can you just try a new rod? How hard to pull the pan?

 

Engine is out, Pan is already off, but i need to pull the head to get the piston out and check the cylinder wall.

 

Ouch. Definitely hydrolock.

It wasn't the starter that grenaded the rod. The other cylinders started to fire before that one locked up.

 

This story is a thing of my nightmares.
A randomly failing fuel injector ruining an engine.

I fear these types of failures on a regular basis. (Mostly because I rely on my van for work, and I can't afford the repair, nor the downtime).

No offense guy, but better you than me.

At least it isn't holding you back from feeding your family.

 

Your head will likely be fine as the valves were closed so that this damage could happen. Hopefully, you just need a rod and a gasket kit.

Send your injectors to Marren injection down in CT. Injectors are all Tim's guys do! It's not a side thing all they do is clean and rebuild injectors. They know their stuff and are price reasonable. True story I was having a problem with a injected race car, i had cleaned the injectors with a kit from e-bay, swapped out fuel pumps twice even swapped injector rails with Throttle bodies nothing worked, spent $$ on a dyno it showed slight lean but not bad, dyno guy suggested swap injectors I sent then to Marren and a week later back to same dyno. Net gain 100hp and now i could pull to red line. Cheapest HP I ever got was pro-cleaned injectors.

 

I do see a listing for a whole 99 v10 with 99,000 listed with "bad exhaust studs" showing in Bridgwater for $1200 listed as Grade A so should be decent runner. there are cheaper units but lot more miles.
Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

No conection with the site or any of the yards ect. but i have used it alot in the past.

 

Thanks, I will look into that engine, bridgewater is fairly close to me.

 

Any luck finding a good motor to swap?

 

I don't think a injector can leak enough to hydrolock a cylinder. Injectors are above fuel tank and siphon won't happen. There should be about 45cc volume at TDC and injectors are 200 cc at 43 psi. At 0 psi even stuck open won't hydo lock I don't think.

Odds of intake valve on that one injector being open is small.....but not unlikely. If intake valve was closed the motor would have had to injest about 55 to 60 cc of gas to hydro lock. Again not probable since intake valve is only open for a fraction of a second and fuel is heavier than air so air would be sucked in faster than the gas.

Suggest you look at the head, or gasket for issues. Maybe someone drilled out exhaust studs too much and penatrated coolant passage. I have a feeling it's cracked and water got in.

Or something solid fell into clyinder while replacing head and or intake.

 

Did you pull the spark plug for that cylinder? If it was fuel leaking to the cylinder and hydrolocking the plug should be bright and shiny compared to the others.

 

Unless the cylinder wall is damaged put it back togather with new rod, piston, bearing and rings. Make sure it was fuel and not coolant.