My friends truck blew up today. A couple of years ago I rebuilt the engine for him. Had the block sleeved on a cracked cylinder and put new rings and bearings in it. It ran pretty good I thought. It always got a little warm. The gauge would go up to the A or L in NORMAL and the idiot light would come on when you would go over 55mph. It ran about 3500 rpms at 60 mph. C6 and very low geared rear end. Today he was driving it on one of many 300 mile trips to get flowers for his flower business. He said he could hear a slapping then he pulled off and listened and couldnt hear it. Then he got back on 565 in huntsville and it flew apart. Oil and coolant for 100 yds on the road and a oil all over the side of the block. Engine locked down. When you hit the key you can hear the starter kick in and the amp gauge drops a lot. He got a ride back here and we got a wrecker and went down there and brought her home. I guess tomorrow I will get a flashlight and see if I can see any protrusions above the starter or behind the motor mount. Im pretty sure its toast. I wonder if a 460 will bolt up to the diesel C6 and bolt into the truck. I tried everything to get that IDI to stop overheating. Water pump, fan clutch, radiator, motorcraft thermostat, checked for collapsing hoses, checked temp of the oil cooler and it was same as water temp. Somebody said i prolly put the head gaskets on upside down or on the wrong side. I think it was the constant redlining that killed it. Diesels have heavy pistons and they dont like to change direction very fast.

 

Gas and diesel have different bellhousings, so you are into a tranny swap as well if you want to go that route.

Sounds like it's toast, I have to wonder why he would drive a truck geared that low on the highway all the time, why not change some gearing to drop the RPMs?

Why was the cylinder cracked in the first place, I would be more apt to wonder if it had succumbed to cavitation instead of it being a crack. Sleeving these engines doesn't seem to be very successful either in the long run unfortunately.

 

Why did you sleeve a cracked block in the first place? People that have successfully built sleeved engines tell me to never use a block that is cavitated or cracked.

 

A diesel will run on the governor all day and night no problem.

Weld em, bore em, sleeve em, been done (I'd say millions of times) successfully.

I personally have done a couple aluminum Donovan blocks.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

The cylinder pausibly got cracked using starting aid because right after doing so is when it happened. Had trouble starting it after putting in reman injectors. We sprayed some in and it started and white smoke was rolling out of the pipe. Took all the glow plugs out and antifreeze geiser came out of number 1. It ran ok before that except for a misfire. The truck is a U-haul intown moving truck. Its equiped with an overspeed buzzer and light. All that was disconnected when he got it and I tried to figure out how to wire it back up but couldnt. One possible non overspeed cause of throwing a rod would be the fact that i lost one of the rod nuts and used one from a small block 350. It fit perfectly but the IDI was 12 point and chevrolet was 6 point. I forgot which one I put it on. I guess ill find out when i pull the oil pan.

 

The "took the glow plugs out and coolant was a geyser out of #1 glow plug hole" was before you sleeved the cylinder?

 

yeah dave thats why i rebuilt it the first time. Had a 3 inch crack on the non thrust side of number one cylinder, running up and down. I piddled with it a little bit today. I stuck a water hose in the radiator and crawled under it. Didnt take me long to find the hole. The first freeze plug on the passenger side was gone and metal chunks inside the hole i cant get ahold of one. After turning off the water i had half a dipstick of oil in it. I drained all the water off the bottom of the oil and then when the oil started coming out i heard chunks falling in the pan. Chunks of aluminum. Looks like a piston. Good news is we found a good motor. From a 94 f350 80K. I know this truck and it runs great. You can reach in and just touch the key and it starts up. No smoke. Has a serpentine belt vs my buddies truck has bout 4 vbelts tho. I think hes gonna trade another truck for the motor. I know one thing its gonna be hard to take the torque converter nuts off when i cant turn the crank. I dont wanna bend anything inside the TC either. Might have to pull motor and tranny as one. Oh yeah, same cylinder that was sleeved is the one that flew apart. Prolly a broken piston and mangled up mess in there.

 

should be able to find a good running 6.9 block for about the same as a complete 460 just takes a lil more patience with the looking

 

I'd say the bore had no bottom and it slipped the sleeve ... Most common failure with shops that don't know how to do sleeves properly.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~