First impressions with my new engine...

[arveetek]

I've been driving the truck for about two days now. Runs like a champ!

Before I pulled the motor, the engine was starting okay in the morning, but the smoke screen it layed down was absolutely ridiculous! The white/blue smoke would completely envelope the truck, and it would continue smoking some even when fully warmed up.

This morning I started it up, jumped out of the truck to look at the tailpipe, and I could detect no smoke whatsoever! Granted, the ambient temperature is warmer, but still! I'm using the exact same 60G glow plugs and plug controller that I had with the old engine. They were in good shape, so I didn't replace them. I just let the plugs glow for about 10 seconds, hit the key, and bam! She's running in the first revolution of the crank with no smoke out the pipe.

I do have black smoke, though. But only when I mash on the go pedal! From a standing start I can mash the pedal and a large cloud of black smoke comes pouring out, but just until the turbo spools up, and then it's gone! And so is the truck! Man, this thing will push you back into the seat, that's for sure. I thought it was running great before, but I can't wait to get a load on this engine and see how she pulls. I didn't have any black smoke before the rebuild, and I had turned the pump up quite a bit.

I can't hear the timing gear drive set. I've read that some people think they're noisy, but I can't hear it at all unless I take the oil fill cap off, and then there's a slight gear noise.

The engine seems to be running a bit hotter on the water temp, but that's normal for a new engine. I can't detect any real changes on EGT or boost as yet. Still hitting around 14 psi, but I haven't run it really hard yet.

I'm so glad to be getting past this rebuild stage and actually having a truck I can drive again! I tell you what, this truck has come so far from it's original C code naturally aspirated days, it's not even funny. It's no longer a gutless fuel pincher, that's for sure. I just hope my mpg doesn't drop TOO much! :D

Casey

[bmiszuk]

Casey, glad to hear everything is working well! I know the despair when you're in a project and it seems like both the spending and the work will never end. But once it's all back together and running, there's no comparison especially knowing that you did it yourself.

Don't forget to post some costs, if you don't mind. The information would be useful to others considering a rebuild.

Congrats!

Bob

[aloharovers]

Congrats Casey!

Just don't let the urge to mash the skinny pedal over come sanity during the break in period.

Did so myself years ago with a sports car. Expensive mistake smile.gif

[humding]

I just got my customised 6.2 NA from the diesel depot running over the weekend. Wow, what a difference over the last one which a company in th UK badly rebuilt for me previously. I would normally do rebuilds myself but as parts are scare to non existant on this side of the pond I reckoned it was a better option to get the complete unit. My only problem was the timescale involved. My old engine cracked the main bearing webs at the end of January and it has taken until now to get it built, shipped over and fitted. I would definately recommend Jamie at the diesel depot to anybody who wants the job done right

[arveetek]

Well, I've put on a few hundred miles, but I've had a few problems along the way.

First off, just a couple of days after getting it running, the radiator sprung a leak. It was a few more days of down time until I got that fixed. Wasn't too expensive, just frustrating.

Next it started having a miss at idle, which has slowly gotten worse. It only appears after the engine is hot, idles fine when cold. Today it's much worse, with the whole truck shaking when idling in gear. I've cracked each injection line, and each cylinder reacts the same, making the engine run worse....no cylinder seems worse than any other. I've adjusted the timing from one end of the scale to to the other, where it's retarded to the point of having hardly any diesel rattle, to the point of it sounding like a PowerStroke, but the miss/stumble is still there. I've adjusted the idle speed up and down, but it hasn't helped any.

I also here a slight "tssst tssst" sound when running down the road, in time with the valve train or injectors. At first I thought it was perhaps an exhaust leak, because it didn't sound metallic. I couldn't find any exhaust leak anywhere on the system, so today I used my "stethoscope" to try and track the sound down, and I think it's a lifter! :mad: It's barely audible, not like before I pulled the engine, but there's something there that's not supposed to be there. I believe I have a lifter or valve not working correctly around the #5 cylinder causing a cylinder to act differently than the others. I can't figure out anything else it can be. WIth all the work I did to even out the piston heights, install new injectors, and install the timing gears, this thing ought to run perfectly smooth! But it idles much worse than before the rebuild.

Now to top it all off, I've got a U-joint going out! Arrrgh! I don't know how many times I've regretted starting this project. I'm really wishing now I had just sold the thing and bought something else. After $3000 and 3 months, it appears I'm right back where I started at! An engine with a bad lifter! And it idles worse than before! Granted, there's more power, but I don't even like to drive it the way it's running.

Any grand ideas?

Casey :(

[78Chev]

Sorry to hear this. I feel your pain, Casey. I have mine completely torn down - couldn't find the knock/tick. But I could tell it was not good. I somehow had a buildup of carbon on #7 that I think was part of the knock (how it got there is still a mystery), but the wrist pins are also bad on half of the pistons. And when I took off the rod caps holy cow. They were worn and grooved - and the crank has some deep grooves in it. Ruined. Fortunately I have another crank that I just had polished - STD bearings. My Mahle pistons are .040 over so I'm hoping a light hone will still keep the piston-cylinder clearance within spec. The #7 piston was rubbing on the side of the cylinder at the top. At least I'll get to check what the piston clearence is.

Anyway, I fought this thing for a long time. And it was a new rebuild too. Swapped lifters. Nope. Checked valves. Nope. I think the thing basically tore itself apart. I believe I was running it way too advanced for too long - the pump I got when lined up on the front cover turned out to be 18 degrees advanced. I believe that, and accidently lugging it a couple of times when the tranny did not shift out of lockup/overdrive when it should have, are the culprits behind this. I also think that the wrist pins - like in Stray Cat's scenario - might also have played a role. But who knows. I just love getting to rebuild a fresh rebuild.

After I get this thing back together I'm not going to run it 5 minutes before I see where the timing is. I might not even hook up the HPCA on first start. I'm totaly gunshy with this engine.

So here's hoping your problem is easy and something simple. This miss could be a drip at the IP from one of the lines. Hard to find cuz the heat in the valley evaporates the drip pretty fast. After I put new (read expensive) IP pipes on it the miss went away. (But not the stupid knock...).

Like I said, I feel your pain. Good luck, Casey.
Randy

[john8662]

Whats up with the trouble with lifters? I'm on my second set of replacement lifters, this is after the originals afterall. I get the ticking under a load, or just when hitting the accelerator. My engine behaves just like yours, idles decent with no load, but in gear, I hate to drive it, I can't stand to be shook.

What brand of lifters did you use out of curiousity?

So far I've used SBI (supposedly made by Eaton) and Melling. Is there a bad lifter epidemic or something?

I know this for sure, I'm in the process of building an engine test stand complete with gauges and a radiator that will use an oil cooler. I want to test a new engine on the stand before ever putting it in the truck. Let the thing run several hours before using the engine. It's just too much work to find problems like these with the engine installed. I'll probably leave intake and valve covers off just to watch everything.

[arveetek]

Thanks for the encourangement, guys. I just had to rant a little there...

Randy, thanks for the tip on the possible leak at the lines connected to the rear of the IP...I hadn't considered that. I might have to pull the intake manifold to find out for sure. That's a very distinct possibility....

John, I used Sealed Power lifters. If I do have a lifter problem, I don't know what I'll do....I don't even want to think about pulling the valve covers, let alone trying to change the lifters....I am SO tired of wrenching on this thing...I'm just plum tired of it.

I know I'll love it when I get it running right...it's just that it already SHOULD be running right!

I heard a later model 6.5L Chevy running tonight in the parking lot of a tractor pull I went to, and it sounded so smooth...I just wish my engine was running that smoothly.

Casey

[arveetek]

I checked the lines at the rear of the pump this morning, and everything checked out okay. I got to wondering if perhaps I had a valve that wasn't closing all the way, but after talking over the situation with my father, I'm starting to lean towards a bad injector.

Everything that could be a possible problem is brand new, so there shouldn't be a problem. However, something isn't right, and it's getting worse. The engine was stumbling when cold this morning. Before, it hadn't shown up until after the engine was warm.

I'm thinking now that one the injectors isn't firing quite right. I don't see that it could be a compression problem, a burnt valve, or a broken ring, etc. The engine ran smooth as could be before the rebuild, with worn out injectors, pump, timing chain, failed lifter and broken ring. I'm thinking that the bad injector isn't spraying right. Perhaps that might explain the "tsst tsst" sound I'm hearing, it's almost like a squeaking sound.

Cracking the injection lines makes each cylinder drop out completely, and each cylinder seems to make the same difference on this test, but I don't think there's one injector that's not firing, just one not spraying quite right.

I had one injector that was leaking after inital start up. It was leaking where the injector body separates. I had to take it out, put it in a vise, and tighten it up in order to get it to stop dripping fuel. Perhaps that's a sign of a bad injector? I've had injectors leak like that before, but not fresh reman units. I think I'll call Tim at Accurate Diesel (whom I purchased the injectors from) and see what he thinks.

Casey

[john8662]

Loose body on the injector, I'd sure suspect that one. I've never had that problem with reman or new injectors.

[arveetek]

I believe I have fixed the miss problem!

I tried tracking down which cylinder was missing this morning, and I finally decided that it was #5. I sped the engine up a little, and that helped tracking it down by cracking the injection lines open. #5 didn't seem to cut out as bad as the others. I pulled #5 and #7 out, swapped them around, and then hooked the injection lines back up. I then had a massive leak between the injection line and #7 injector. At first, fuel was squirting everywhere. After really cranking it down, I got it down to a dribble. I previously had a leak there once before, but I thought I had fixed it. I decided I needed to swap that pair of lines out, and that's when it hit me! I had mixed and matched the injection lines!

I originally had long body 6.2L injectors. When I installed the short body 6.5L turbo injectors, I used the the injection lines off a van engine I had, which also used short body injectors. However, the lines for #5 and #7 didn't seem to fit quite right, so I used a pair off the original long body engine. It didn't dawn on me until today that perhaps the lines from the long body engine were of a different length than the short body engine. That means I could have had 6 lines of one length, and 2 of another. That would certainly cause the engine to run rough.

Whether the lines are of different length, I really couldn't tell. All I know is that after installing the short body set, it ran just fine. No more miss. It could have been a leaking line, but I don't think so. All the lines were dry when this miss started happening.

I had to bend the short body lines to clear the valve cover bracket. The other 6 lines fit just fine. I should have realized this when I assembled the engine, but I didn't think about keeping a matched set of lines together.

Casey

[john8662]

Glad you confessed!!

Casey, you're messing with my mind here, mixing and matching lines, using injectors that leak at the body... :D

Oh, what did Tim say about the injector?

Glad you've found this out, hope this ends up being the fix! But your dead on with the different line lenghts causing problems, they are balanced because they are all the same length. I'm also glad you haven't given up on this project!

[arveetek]

Originally posted by john8662:


Oh, what did Tim say about the injector?

He said it shouldn't have affected the way the injector operates. However, since I've told him about it, he said if it starts leaking again he'll ship me another one. That's fine with me. I just didn't want to wait until a few months down the road and have the injector start leaking again and then call him. At least now he knows it leaked at initial startup. He said he was quite surprised that it leaked, he hasn't had that happen before on a fresh injector. All injectors are run a stand for a few hours, he said, before being shipped.

I'm definitely glad I learned of AccurateDiesel.com. Tim's a great guy to deal with and he saved me a load of money over what the local Stanadyne shop wanted for my upgrades.

Casey

[78Chev]

Ditto about Tim from accurate diesel. A super guy. Very responsive and answers phone and email questions promptly - very knowledgeable. Fair prices. I like supporting small businesses like that.