I'll be honest before pulling out I did not check the oil level and did notice some on the ground (it didn't look like that much). First mistake.

2nd mistake......as I was idling waiting for traffic to pull out of the gas station the oil psi was sitting LOW but did come up to the normal range under load.

About 3 miles down the road 65mph there was a loud bang, white smoke, and we lost power. Within about 45 seconds, the engine was dead. Oil DID NOT drop prior to or immediately after the bang.

Once on the side of the road, the engine did crank. I did not attempt to restart, only see if it would crank.

The bus has been towed to a mechanic who will look at it Monday, but to be honest - I think I ran it out of oil Please tell me I didn't and it's something else. I know gas engines but am clueless with diesels.

How much do you figure this is going to cost me?

 

White smoke out the tail pipe? Or white smoke out of the engine bay?

 

Out the back. Nothing out the front. Even when it first happened no smoke (from the engine bay) PSI and temps normal.

The engine didn't seize - it just seemed to wind down. Compression would be my first guess, but wouldn't it still run minus that cylinder? I would say timing belt, but the 7.3 idi doesn't have one.

It's at the shop now and they'll start tearing into it Tuesday. So I'll have an answer - I just want to have some heads up. I'm already prepared for $4000

 

Not sure how likely this is, but if the IP decided to seize, well, it could cause that. No rotating IP = no fuel = no power out of engine but it would crank just fine. And it could have definitely made a loud bang with the shaft shearing.

Otherwise, just be glad this is an IDI, which can be completely rebuilt for 3K. And(at least around here), you can pick up a running JY motor for $200-300.
If this were a newer 6.4, you could be looking at a *lot* more money than that...

 

In 4 years in the Los Angeles metro area, I've never seen a yard that had an IDI, let alone one that was running.

 

Here in Texas that's the price at a u-pull-it jy, now a craigs list motor will be 500-700

I got mine for free just by knowing a guy that had it laying around.

 

roadtrip to TX!

 

I think you might have better luck in agricultural areas of California than in LA Metro areas.

Also, my truck was apparently taken in as a trade by a dealership in California in about 2009 or 2010 who then shipped it to a dealer in Washington State to be sold. Possibly it was sold at a dealers auction with buyers from other states.

Probably due to the advent of stricter 'Diesel Laws' in California resulting in less sales demand for these older diesels on dealership 'used truck' lots That is PRIME REAL ESTATE and they'll only keep trucks parked there that they can sell quick and make a LOT of money. That could explain where some of the California IDI diesels went.

Sorry to stray from the original topic but also: did you finally identify and fix the excessive smoke problem? I hope so and if so, I missed it. Do you have a quick link to that discussion?

I don't know what to think about the loud bang and white smoke issue of this topic. People like Macrobb understand a lot more about the workings of injector pumps and first hand knowledge/experience in some operations of the engine as a whole than I do. His theory about the injection pump seizing up would certainly be something to investigate and rule out.

leardvr, if you keep following up with information and results of what you examine or try, I think that eventually you'll find a solution here. DO keep us posted in any event - especially if you find the problem.

 

what Rob said. My IP in my 89 seized last June. Just how you described.

 

just be warned most are ragged out, every now and then there is a viable canidate at a jy but most imho would just be a good core to rebuild, plus since its a you pull it yard you can dig in and make sure it's not trash.

Most probably end up there from air intrusion and bad injectors (;

 

I like to use car-part.com, it lets you search most junkyards without even leaving the house.

 

So we found the fuel line going to #7 had been cross threaded when the head was put on. That blew out and was pouring fuel all over the dog house and caused low fuel psi to all the cylinders. Fixed that problem but.......

With that fixed and enough fuel psi to all 8, two of them have no/low compression. We did an oil analysis and no metal was in there. No oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. I do have a ton of blow by.

I am not a diesel guy (this is my first) logic tells my crankcase psi is to high and that may have been why the fuel line blew out.

But why is the crankcase psi to high? Is that the issue or am I way off.

The mechanic has basically offered 2 fixes. Pull it and tear it down and see what we find. Or a new engine from Jasper. Any junk yard engines in the area are still in vehicles, have twice the mileage I have and come with a 90-day warranty. And you do not want to know what I was quoted for that job.

Mine has 86xxx total miles. Only about 300 from the time the head was done. Unfortunately, in the last 2 years, it's only driven about 500 miles total.

I'm open to ideas. I'm going to pick it up from the dealer (I know, I know) and take it to a local shop if I can find one with a diesel mechanic some locals trust. I wish I had the room to do the work, I just don't. Nor do I have any diesel experience.

Part of me is saying just drive the thing, keep oil and coolant in it and hope for the best. After all what's the worst that could happen?

 

No, it didn't. This isn't a common rail system; each line is individually presurized. You can run with one or two lines off or removed... just on fewer cylinders. The IP just squishes pistons together to make the pressure each individual injection event.

Should be able to get it to run, even with two dead cylinders. It'll be rough, but will run on that.
Plus, chances are that the compression will come back enough with it running, unless you've got a broken valve or connecting rod.
Blowby is expected with IDIs. Even with a new engine, it's massive. The rings are designed around lots of blowby and pressure between the various rings to improve seating. Don't worry about blowby.

[QUOTE=leardvr;17145672]
I am not a diesel guy (this is my first) logic tells my crankcase psi is to high and that may have been why the fuel line blew out.
[QUOTE=leardvr;17145672]
No, if something managed to block all the crankcase exits, I'd bet the front or rear main seal would blow out.
The injector line is operating in the 1500-1800PSI range, far higher than /anything/ else on the engine.

What's it sound like now? How is it doing?

 

I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. I was wondering if it may start running better with some mileage put on her too.

They claim 2 cylinders have (little or no PSI I can't recall which he said) died. I'm not sure which two either.

I'm aware blow by is normal in this engine. I had no idea the injector was running at 1500psi, holy smokes.

I'm going to try to put 100 miles or so on it tomorrow. I have 2 exits on the interstate that are 10 miles apart, just 5 miles from my house.....so I'm close if it ****s the bed. I'll let you know how it's running then.

 

This is on the low end for diesel engines. Modern diesels can be upwards of 25,000 PSI(I've seen reference to 44,000PSI even)!

Note that on ours, due to how the pressure only exists due to the "backpressure" of the injector, without an injector, the pressure will be really low.

The actual injection pressure is literally how much force the injector spring is holding the injector closed with, so as an injector wears, that pressure becomes lower.