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NH2112
07-06-2008, 18:58
I recently spent a couple months going through one of our "pushbacks" from front to back, sending the 6.2l out for a rebuild & to have main web cracks repaired, making a new wiring harness to replace the bird's nest, etc. Got the engine back ($3400 spent rebuilding a 6.2l when I tried to convince the boss to just put a 4BT3.9 in instead), got everything wired up and working, broke in the engine according to rebuilder's instructions....and I have a fuel knock. A bad fuel knock.

*Found the knock in #3, swapped injectors between 1 & 3, and the knock followed the injector.
*Got new injector from diesel shop, put it in #1, and there's still a knock that goes away when injector line is loosened.
*Pulled glow plug and found half the tip was missing (brand new 60G.)
*Checked compression on #1, got 410psi so there's no crack in the piston crown and the valves aren't bent from the glow plug tip going through them.
*Tried fitting my borescope through glow plug hole to see if the tip was in the cylinder but it's too big.
*Boss had me check compression on all 8, range was from 400 to 420psi.

My next step when I get the time is to pull the head off and see if there's anything obvious that would account for the knock. The injector is brand new so I'm ruling that out for now - it started knocking immediately upon installation, all I had to do was put the tranny in gear with the park brake on and the load on the engine caused it to knock. Idling in neutral there was no knocking. Could the glow plug tip have embedded itself in the piston crown? Would I hear a sound from the tip striking the head? Would this raise the compression ratio enough to ignite the fuel too early? If so, if I retarded the timing a few degrees should the knock go away or quiet down? I need to find out relatively quickly before we put too many hours on the engine (boss said to just run it for now) just in case it's something the rebuilder screwed up. As of yesterday it had about 12 hours on the rebuild.

Any ideas here? Thanks in advance! I still wish I'd been given the go-ahead to source a 4BT3.9 w/SAE #3 bellhousing. As much as I like the 6.2l I don't really think it's a good choice for a 30,000lb vehicle pushing airliners around. We have to get it rebuilt every 2 or 3 years, and I think the Cummins won't have that problem.

rhsub
07-06-2008, 20:13
I would try switching 1 & 3 injectors back again, if the knock follows the injector that will rule out engine mechanicals, wouldn't be the first time a new part is junk. If knock stays with cylinder it sounds like a crank shaft problem
Good luck doesn't sound like you've much lately:eek:
Ron

NH2112
07-06-2008, 20:58
Nah, this isn't that bad. If it's a problem from the rebuilder that means plenty of OT for me to pull the engine back out then reinstall it :) The worst part is the half hour it takes to jack the heavy SOB up high enough to roll underneath with a creeper.

NH2112
07-08-2008, 18:08
Well I did a little more investigating today because the knock was a LOT worse, and here's what I found:

This is the 2nd glow plug to do this
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee245/NH2112/Glowplug.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee245/NH2112/Injector1.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee245/NH2112/Injector2.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee245/NH2112/Injector3.jpg


So I got the head ready to come off, all that's left is to crawl underneath and unbolt the exhaust then remove the head bolts. I'm not really sure what to expect when the head comes off, I can't imagine a glow plug tip causing that kind of damage to an injector but I guess nothing's off the table now. Hopefully it's something the rebuilder did so I can get back to working on this pig!

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee245/NH2112/Pushback1.jpg

john8662
07-09-2008, 15:58
Bad fuel injector caused this. Injector is what burned off the plug.

That sure happned in short order though...

NH2112
07-09-2008, 19:41
It was 3 bad injectors then, because the one in the pic is a replacement for the injector that I determined was bad last week. Yesterday I found #1 and #3 glow plugs broken as well. This morning after I got the head off #1 and #3 precups just fell right out. The heads were new, the rebuilder came up to have a look at the engine and is going to replace the head. Now I have to remove #1 & #3 pistons & rods and rehone the cylinders because bits of glow plug got trapped between the pistons & cylinder walls and wiped away the cross-hatching in 1/4"-3/8" wide strips. No scoring, at least! Bad part is I'll most likely have to pull the engine because the pan can't slide back far enough to clear the oil pump due to the bellhousing adapter being right there. At least it's supposed to be dry and only in the 70s tomorrow - that and the seabreeze we always have will make for a good work day :)

NH2112
07-22-2008, 18:05
Well I think everything's taken care of. The rebuilder sent a guy up to do the work in our shop with the engine on a stand. #3 rod bearing was lunched, too, with a nice score all the way down into the copper (the engine has 17 hours.) So he checked the crank and said it was still OK, honed the cylinders, installed new rod bearings, and reassembled the engine. I got it bolted in the chassis on Sat (fun doing this by yourself with a forklift!)

I finished the install this morning (I'll have to try to remember to get some pics of the setup tomorrow) and was pouring coolant in when I noticed a leak from the coolant crossover. I figured it was just a cut gasket so the crossover came off - in 2 pieces. One of the ears with the bolt holes had broken, and of course they're not available any more. So, if I can't get one from a friend tomorrow I'll just drill a few shallow holes in each piece for the epoxy to bite on to and glue it back together. Once it's running I have to test out my emergency brake booster circuit (you don't want to lose boost if the engine dies while you're pushing an Embraer or A320!) then put it back in service and hopefully not see it for a long time. Then it's time to learn how to use the free CAD program I downloaded and draw up a schematic for it - I made a complete wiring harness from scratch for the thing, to replace the bird's nest that was in there before, and while I think understanding it is rather intuitive due to my use of the same wire color for an entire circuit, it's always nice to have a schematic.