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Looks like you ingested something, and whatever was in there rattled around, scored the top of the piston, melted and slapped up against the intake valves. Did your turbo let go at any time prior to this?
Also forgot to ask.... Did you check your glow plug tips on those cylinders? Maybe the tips on those broke off and that's what was in there bouncing around. There was a certain brand of glow plug that used to do that.
had original glow plugs in the holes, and looked intact. Turbo shows signs of dusting, but I can't give you a full history of the truck, I bought it second hand, it came out of a fleet. It was used in the oilfield.
I know it is for two stroke gassers, but I think the information is still valid. I am pretty sure from the piston slop in the bore that there is ring damage and the article does list that as a possible cause of that kind of damage. I think we will find out more when we pull out those pistons.
Also forgot to ask.... Did you check your glow plug tips on those cylinders? Maybe the tips on those broke off and that's what was in there bouncing around. There was a certain brand of glow plug that used to do that.
but I can't give you a full history of the truck, I bought it second hand, it came out of a fleet. It was used in the oilfield.
Then at some point it is very possible that it ingested something, or they neglected it enough to have the piston rings give way. You can do quite a bit of damage to the 7.3L piston and the engine will keep on running. It's pretty common to disassemble on of those that are still running ok, and see small cracks all over the pistons. Usually those are the engines that have seen a lot of work in their lifetime, or have been run hard by the owner.
I guess I don't know what the cavitation damage looks like. Is that the swirl mark on the housing? Cause the rest of it looks clean. coolant looked new, but no guarantees it was the right kind. I just got home from first day on the new job, so I'm going to work on it some more and see if I can get to a point that I can take measurements.
Yes, Chad, that big swirl looking mark, run your fingertips over it and see if you can feel any pitting. If so then the SCA was not maintained in the coolant, there are other problems that cavitation can cause but the scars on your pistons dont come from that. have you pulled the pushrods yet, any of them bent? Were all INJECTOR tips present when pulled?
yeah pulled the push rods, they appeared fine, no obvious bends, though I haven't inspected carefully. Injectors were fine when I pulled them, but when the engine failed and I did a buzz test #5 sounded bad, so it has been replaced. So stay with me a sec......Engine has been dusted (as evidenced by turbo fins), and some research suggest that if the cylinder was fuel washed from a bad injector or o-rings that it would cause lubrication problems on the rings. I'm wandering how bad the bores are and if I'll need to sleeve them. Also can valve seats be repaired or is it new head time?