Just bought a new to me 6.4l KR with 106k on it. I'm new to Diesels, but I know some of ya'll are pretty good at hearing problems in an engine, so thought i'd throw a video up. has a warranty so trying to make sure I get anything checked out asap if there's any issues.

later
C

 

Sounds like a 6.4 in high idle. It's easier (for me at least) to pick out any unusual sounds when at a normal idle. These 6.4s can also sound healthy when there are underlying problems. If you're willing to post another video of it at a normal hot idle, take the oil fill cap off while it's running so we can see what kind of blowby it has. It WILL have some visible blowby, but the real test is when you place the oil cap back on without turning it, to see if there's excessive crankcase pressure.

if you do not have emissions testing in your state, deleting the DPF helps the reliability and longevity considerably. You will have to go with aftermarket tuning if you do this. Stay away from the higher power tunes, as too much timing will crack pistons.

 

Thanks, i'll do that... I have a bit of time off over the next week with the Holidays and all. So far she feels great, and everything looks like she was well taken care of by the previous owner. It's obviously a guess, but so far it looks like all routine maintenance would have been done, and it only has 106k on it. I'll be looking at the water separator, coolant, and fuel filter over the next week or so as well.

I don't typically put many miles on my trucks anymore not being daily drivers, but i'd like to catch any issues it might have during my warrant period.

Thanks
C

 

Took another vid tonight as I was curious. I have an ever so slight amount of suction on the cap there, and it was about 30 degrees out.

Something else I noticed... Not sure if this is normal or not, but as long as the gear was in P it would only high idle. If I left it in park, but put my foot on the brake it'll low idle. If I put it in neutral, it'll low idle as well and that's when I took the video. I'm new to diesels so not sure if that's normal or not, I don't recall any of my Gasers acting like that.

The last diesel I drove was an 84 Ford Escort!

Later
C

 

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the visual blowby seems to be a bit on the high side for the miles, but i wouldnt call it excessive. More importantly, its kind of hard to see in the video, but there doesn't seem to be any pressure behind it, which is what really matters.

i couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary. It has a better/smoother idle than most of the 6.4s I've been around. I don't have very good speakers, but i didnt hear any excess valvetrain noise or intake thumping associated with valvetrain issues. The only thing that needs to be addressed that i could see is the oil filter and cap for it. Your oil filter cap is the taller style, meaning it is aftermarket, which is definitely not recommended on these, much like the 6.0. I would replace the oil filter AND cap with motorcraft.

 

Yeah, there is no pressure coming from the filler at all, there is an ever so slight bit of suction. I can leave the filler cap on and it will just sit there and I can feel the tiny bit of suction when I try to pull it off. I'm assuming sucking is better than blowing.

Cap for 2008 Ford F-350 Super Duty|3C3Z-6766-CA : Genuine Factory OEM Parts & Accessories | TascaParts.com

This the right cap?

Thanks for all the advice in advance... I don't put a lot of miles on my truck, but we do like to travel so will be putting distance on it with my wife and kid.

Later
C

 

the engine sounds fine to me. I do not hear any valve train issues and do not hear the thomp thomp associated with either a dropped rocker, worn tip, or lifter issues.

 

yep, that's the right cap.

Good luck with the 6.4. They are beasts when healthy, but healthy ones are few and far between. $10k+ repairs are unfortunately all too common on these. From what little I've heard/seen, it seems you have a healthy one. Keep up on the maintentance and cross your fingers, because when these things break, so does your wallet. You're off to a good start and if you read up on what to do and what not to do, you can severly decrease your odds of expensive failures.

I'm not trying to scare you away from your truck. Just know that these machines do NOT tolerate neglect and there are things and have to do or avoid to keep them healthy.

just an example of the most important stuff:
draining the fuel/water seperator once a month or so.
checking the oil periodically for oil loss or "making oil", which means you are getting fuel dilution
making sure you give the DPF a chance to regen when it needs to, which requires 20+ minutes of freeway running.
oil changes at 5k intervals and fuel filters at 10k.
additional gauges are highly recommended. The most practical/economic way is a bluetooth obd2 plugin with an app, such as torque pro (android). This will allow you to see DPF status, oil/coolant temps and temp spread, EGR valve position (they make a lot more soot with a sticky EGR valve)
the gauges don't need to be in use all the time, but will let you know when it's time to let the DPF do its thing on the freeway. If you get frequent or constant regens, it is also a great way to tell if it's a bad sensor or fuel system problem.

 

ok, got the cap replaced... it was a napa non replaceable anyways, not sure i've ever seen one that said do not reuse, but oh well.. Drained out approximately 19quarts of oil. Filled it back up and she runs pretty strong.

I use torque all the time... and figured I should be looking for dpf regen already, but not sure entirely what to expect. I've verified with Torque and the info buttons, that my Catalyst 1/2 tend to jump up to around 1000 degrees, plus or minus and i'm in a DPF regen state.

I haven't been able to figure out how often is too often? One on the highway recently took about 10-15 miles, so close to your 20 minute estimate.

BEFORE the oil change though, I am getting a little bit of white smoke occasionally. Doesn't seem limited to a dpf regen though. I've noticed it after about a 45 minute long drive in mixed highway and stop\go... and then this morning noticed white smoke immediately on a cold start for about 1 minute or so.

I wasn't watching the egr position, but guess i'll pull that up and check it to.

Thanks in advance for any patience while I learn a thing or two, or three, or for.

Later
C

 

If it is under warranty then just go get it checked out. couldn't hurt to get some info from your dealer.

 

That's the plan, just trying to learn as much as I can in the mean time

Later
C