A few of you know my journey with The Monster and it's headgasket issue, so I'll condense it for those who don't:

-Purchased October 2013
-Headgaskets, oil cooler, egr delete, performed by shop November 2013
-Summer 2016 cooling fan is almost constantly on, coolant starts puking
-November 2017 found metal goop on the drain plug
-December 2017 pulled the heads off and found they weren't machined.....period. Called the shop owner and he had my heads machined and checked.
-December 2018 started reassembling the truck

What I've done so far:

-Stoned the block on both sides and have the deck immaculate with no flat or high spots
-Drained the oil out of the block after a year of it sitting. The first thing that came out was coolant, it was so bad I thought I accidentally drained the transmission.
-I haven't drained the coolant out of either side of the block because I want the brake cleaner and penetrating oil I've been spraying on the block to drain out with the coolant.
-I have everything I need for the job, the only thing I'm missing is coolant.

What I plan on doing:

-Draining the lines and installing a new fuel pump and fuel filters
-I'm almost certain that after sitting for so long, there will be contaminants in the cooling system that need to be flushed out, so I have an oil cooler set aside.
-New seals on everything, I have the Felpro kit for the entire top and everything I touch.
-8 gallons of fresh oil and 2 oil filters
-Fresh coolant
-New camshaft position sensor (mine was good but something told me to get a new one)
-New AC compressor, accumulator, orifice tube
-Reusing my studs, they were checked and were all in spec.
-I plan on evacuating the 1/4 tank of diesel left in the tank and filling it with new diesel.

What I have questions about:

Should I start by filling the block with water to flush out the cooling system?

Is there anything else I should consider? The truck has been sitting for a little over a year

 

Getting there!! Didn't you have lower end issues because of an extended oil change?

 

Just popping back in for a minute.

Somewhere I started a thread about cooling system cleaning of my out-of-truck block.

While using the Restore rust removing cleaner would sound ideal, it's basically Citric Acid BTW, it and CA need to get up to a minimum of around 175F for it to work properly. Not going to happen without a running truck. You can use Apple Cider Vinegar since it's an acid, and I did, but then you have to seriously rinse it out and neutralize it with baking soda, I did that too. The problem is it flash rusts unless you do everything perfect. Then I moved to Evapo-Rust, cheapest at Amazon which worked very well but it does leave a carbon trail. it all takes trial and error.

To do it with both the heads and block I used the aluminum plates I made to pressure test the heads. Ports were included as I knew I was going to do this. For the block I used the original head bolts and plastic standoffs, but later just used 3/4" sockets to be able to squeeze better.







It doesn't show all the fittings, hose and other block offs. But it worked well, one side at a time. Probably easier with a front cover so both sides are done at the same time.

 

Where did the metal goop come from?

 

I didn't see it mentioned but a new Crank sensor would be a good idea too. And anything else that's a pain to change like coolant pump, belt(s), tensioner(s) ect...

 

Allegedly it's from the main bearings. but no one can confirm.

That had crossed my mind too, especially since I'm replacing the AC compressor it sits behind. Belt is good, wasn't that old when the truck was taken apart, but may consider the tensioner.

 

Bearings are not magnetic if the "goop" was attached to the magnet.

Edit - Unless you go really, really deep into the shell.

 

Everybody kept saying "Main Bearings" but no one could give me a confident answer. The engine builders I talked to wouldn't confirm anything and if anything, just wanted another engine build out of it. I talked to J&K, South Houston Engine, Asheville, no one could give me a straight answer and kept waffling. This is why I'm willing to bet that nothing is too terribly wrong and it just came from running Schaffers oil too long. This is why I'm putting it back together and running it.

 

Oil analysis might indicate the answer of the goop constituents if you still have enough oil to sample.

 

 

Wish I still had a sample of it, the only place I can pull some of what's left is to pull the oil cooler, but with it being over a year old, I'm not sure it'll tell much.

 

Bummer. That still might give you an idea though. If you still had the oil and goop, I would separate out the coolant water, shake the oil and pull two samples. The second sample I'd mix with the goop and send them in as samples 1 and 2. But if there were higher than usual wear on the bearings, seems like the oil anywhere in the system would show increased levels of bearing constituents.

Another thought, are you sure there is no oil left in the block? I've always heard a significant amount of oil is left after a drain. If there is any still left in there, tilting the block might get you some or perhaps feeding a tube and vacuuming it out would as well. If you haven't already drained 100% of the block oil, could rotate on an engine stand to mix it before draining. You can get a Wix oil analysis kit from O'Reilly's for $19 + tax. Would also think there could be some increased metal oxide from any rust but the bearing constituents would be the main thing you would look at in the analysis report anyways. Other thought is, that since coolant entered the system, there could be constituents from that too. Per a book I have on diesel engines, bearing wear shows up as lead, silver, tin and aluminum, liner and ring wear as iron and chromium; valve wear as nickel; and bushings as copper. Silicon and aluminum suggest air filter failure. But again, with coolant in the mix, for instance, silicon could also be elevated from that contamination. Some interpretation there. Mainly, I'd look for the bearing element levels.

Edit to add: On second thought, the residual oil from the block probably overthinking on my part since the proportions would be all skewed in the sample.

 

WTF? An analysis is done based on the percentage of materials in the oil. Its why you're supposed to run the motor before pulling an analysis. How is a homebrew going to tell anything?

 

Yeah, I'd already edited my response before you replied. I got to thinking about it and realized the proportions would be out of whack if he tried to extract what was left in the block now. Anyways, the only real way to confirm the bearings is to inspect them. But assuming that the oil in the cooler was in circulation, perhaps it could have given some basis if it weren't so old. As for homebrew, if you're talking about the second sample with the goop I mentioned, it would give an idea of what was mainly in that goop. I'm not sure if the analysis testing requires some fluidity, which is why I mentioned the idea of mixing it with a little oil. The goop would overwhelm the sample and he'd have the first to compare it to.

 

watching and hoping...