I need help badly went to work with no power steering today, as i went across the RR tracks on the way to work felt like my pickup was jumping all around under the hood, then i noticed i had a strange loud popping noise coming from under the hood and out the passenger side exhaust. Got to work fine with no power steering, got that fixed finally, but still have the loud popping noise coming through the intake and the passenger side exhaust, like i dropped a cylinder. Loss of HP alot, lots of smoke coming from that exhaust side compared to the other side even idling. Any help to tell me if i dropped a cylinder or not would be greatly appreciated though and if i did how long could i run the motor with only running on 7 cylinders instead of 8 too. If i dropped a cylinder how will i find which one it is? Found another 6.9 diesel thats cheaper than a rebuild kit and alot less headache but which way would yall go if it was what im thinking it is. by the way its a 1985 Ford F350 Crew Cab dually 4 spd with about 191k miles on it and yes its a diesel wouldnt own anything else either. Any help would be greatly appreciated from yall guys that know this. Thanks Lance

 

Any chance you opend injector lines one at at time to see if one cylinder is dead and what one it is? It could be a blown head gasket, check the rad for bubbles, oil etc. and the oil for antifreeze and foaming etc.

 

havent checked the injectors one at a time, but no bubbles in radiator, or oil and no antifreeze or water in oil done checked that and if it was it would be running hot but instead its running alot cooler which is strange too. but going to check the glowplugs and injectors one at a time one for compression and the other to see if it dont miss a beat on the fuel too thanks anymore ideas too

 

hi Lance,
you may have an injector that took a crap and is running open all the time. this will be putting fuel into the oil because it isnt burning, simply slobbering into the cylinder. as above crack loose each injector line on top of the injectors and see which one makes no difference and go from there. also you can remove the oil fill cap and see if there is excessive smoke or pressure coming from there. when you find which cylinder is shorted out, remove valve cover and see if you dropped a valve or broke a rocker.. good luck and let us know what y'all find.

 

Sounds like you've dropped a cylinder, all right. That would explain the cooler running and the popping. Fewer cylinders firing = less heat load = lower operating temps. The popping would be an exhaust and an intake valve not closing. Either bent or stuck. The quickest way to find the dead cylinder is like 351M said, start cracking injector lines one at a time. Opening the line on a good cylinder will cause the idle to get even worse. When you crack open the line on your bad cylinder, there will be no change. Locate the bad cylinder and pull that valve cover. Check to see if the valves are physically moving. Watch the valves to see if they move up and down as much as their buddies. Also watch the rocker arms to see if they're moving as much as the other good cylinders. Let us know what you find.

 

k guys didnt pull the injector lines loose just pulled the valve cover off going to start it this morning got through taking it off at 3 am in the morning didnt want the cops called in on me though so wait until daylight and then see, all the rocker arms and stuff are intact so dont know yet what it will do once i crank it up, but i can get a used 6.9 diesel for 900 keep my old motor, 600 for labor to pull mine and put the other one in not including filters and fluid, new clutch for 550 plus 40 to put it in and magnaflux and all the flywheel basically 2100 dollars though or if this was yalls pickup would yall go with a 12Valve Cummins without the computer stuff and a ZF5 spd transmission or not just wondering i can get a 12V Cummins with only 21k miles on it for 2500 and then finding a good 5 spd to go onto it too. any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated right about now. thanks Lance

 

You can go with the cummins butyou will have to go to ford-cummins.com for a swap kit. I wouldjust replace what you have just for the simple fact that it is easier.

 

k ran the motor without the valve cover on everything seemed fine, pulled the glowplugs one at a time to see if there was soot or if any tips were burnt off, ive replaced them twice on this side of the motor in less than 6 months too, all was fine two had soot one had oil and the front one had oil and diesel on it. started it up and did the injectors one at a time and all was fine except the one closest to the front of the motor. so guys what does this mean? going to try to get a mechanic to come listen to it and see what he says too if i can get him to, another thing is if i can jsut get this thing to running its getting traded or sold asap too going to get something newer if possible lol well let me know what yall can tell me before i go to spending lots of money on things thanks yall Lance

 

Dave all the rocker arms and stuff are working just like the others its just the front glowplug had oil and diesel on it where the rest didnt and the front injector closest to the radiator same as glowplug didnt make any change when broke loose the injector cap compared to the rest so what does this mean on the front of the motor on this side everything under the valve cover worked fine like the rest all moved fine like the rest of them too. OK mystery sound again but what is this noise though????? Lance

 

Lance, it sounds to me that particular injector is bad. internally they are controlled by spring pressure to close the injector so combustion pressure wont go backwards. this spring also causes the injector to build fuel pressure. the orifice on the end of the injector is small holes which makes the spray so the fuel will ignite. If the spring is broken the injector wont work properly and the fuel will come out of the injector like the end of a garden hose and not ignite --- dead cylinder. Take the injector to a shop and have it tested OR before you do that, move that injector to a different hole and see if the miss follows. Beneath each injector is a copper "crush" washer. Make sure it comes out of the hole with the injector. You should be able to use it again just to test the injector if you move it to another hole. The injectors are torqued around 35 lbs/ft. Its not really tight because the crush washer seals it. The injectors dont spray into the cylinder directly, they into a precombustion chamber whre the glow plugs are also located. and that is why the glow plug is wet. Hope this helps you out. good luck.

 

Lance -

Bilder12 has a great idea - do the cheap stuff first. If it's a dead injector, you'll be out maybe $50. And your engine will be running again. After you swap injectors, the problem should follow the 'bad' injector to its new cylinder. If the problem stays with the front cylinder, then you're looking at something stuck on the valve seat, preventing the valve(s) from closing. That means a valve job. BTW, don't forget to replace the copper washers on each injector you remove. Also use a new piece of return hose. It seems like old hose never fully reseats. They either leak fuel or suck air. Or both. Keep us posted!

 

When you go to put it back together you might as well get an O ring kit to change all the o rings and return lines on that side. Seems like if you disturb one of them the rest start leaking within the week. Or at least that is my experience.

 

ill try the injector thing in the morning got a bad headache tonite seeing double and no i havent been drinking either lol but ill try the injector thing and see what happens and Dave the o-rings on the caps done found out u change one the others follow in the same day to a week so yeah if its only an injector ill replace all of them and then the o-rings again and all that stuff then go from there but ill check it out in the morning for sure. thanks guys hope this is all it is though Lance

 

Valve guides have been a big problem if they get to lose they can make it miss and pop sometimes rocker arms still move the valve and spring but they don't seat in the head. A good sign that they are bad is if they have alot of what looks like sluge on and in and around the spring for one or more of the cylinders. If you can get movememt of the valve at the top of spring form side to side. May need a vlave grind.

 

ok ive replaced the injector, that didnt help any, after getting it in , my dad had me crank it up and he put a wrench under the rocker arms on that cylinder and the popping noise got quiet under the hood but still alittle out the exhaust and still the smoke to go with it, take the wrench out and it slowly comes back to the popping noise until u put the wrench back under the rocker arms, took the rocker arms off and looked them over but nothing wrong with them and the springs wasnt broke or anything. called my brother in law and he thinks it could be something off in the head or a valve guide which means pulling the heads right? Another thing if i pull the rocker arms off the springs on that cylinder and cut the fuel off going to that injector and cylinder, it should quit popping right, just as long as i can get rid of it lol, or will this not work either. any help would be greatly appreciated. sorry it took so long to do anything to it but work work work is keeping me busy lately. lol