GL Engines- Sometimes you win and sometimes you loose

[Warthog]

I have purchaced a few surplus engines from GL over the last couple of years. I only pay close to scrap prices as you never know what you will get.

One of the engines went to Barrman for a M715 transplant a couple of years ago. He is finally installing it and it turns out to be a fresh rebuild. His M715 should be back on the road soon.

Last year I purchased a 2006 GEP 6.5L. Turned out it has a dead cylinder. Haven't taken it apart to see whats wrong. The outside of the engine looks brand new

A couple of months ago I purchased a 2004 GEP 6.5L from Missouri GL. Finally got a chance to test it out today.

Time to ground hop in the can.

Removed the glowplugs and wrenched the engine over 5 or 6 revolutions. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Installed my modifed support bracket, a gear reduction starter, oil filter and bypass and hooked up the batteries. Removed the tach drive and primed the oil pump.

Time to test the starter. Spun the engine over a few times without GPs with no incident.

Now time to check compression. Checked each cylinder with 6 to 7 compression strokes

1 - 280
2 - 400
3 - 400
4 - 400
5 - 400
6 - 400
7 - 400
8 - zero

Oh crud here we go again. Another dead cylinder.

With no strange noises I decided to go ahead and attempt a startup. So I hooked up the fuel lines and spun the engine over a few times to bleed the air out of the lines.

Time to install the glowplugs and wire them up. Hooked up the IP fuel shutoff. Fingers crossed.

10 seconds of glowplug heat, wait, and another 10 seconds. (it was 37 today so I was helping them out)

Time to roll some coals.

Hit the starter and white smoke, another 10 seconds of glowplugs, hit the starter again. It attempted tp start but didn't. Hit the starter again and just a clunk. Checked the cables and tried again. Clunk.

Start looking over everything and found this:




I guess I have an expensive boat anchor.

Maybe Barrman will give me the engine back.

 

[swbradley1]

At least mine started and ran. Granted, it knocked a little.........

Any parts you can use?

 

[jw4x4]

I think the oil sampling valve is in a different place in my 6.2 . This thread title is spot-on. A crapshoot @ best. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes the bug.

 

[marchplumber]

Oil sampling valve? ROFLMAO!
Sorry about your luck! Thanks for sharing though!!! Great reminder that you can't judge a book by it's cover!
God bless,
Tony

 

[ryan77]

Can u JB weld it???

 

[ranchhopper]

The heads are probably worth what you paid for the engine most of the time they just put new ones on instead of surfacing them.

 

[Warthog]

Pulled the heads and they look fine.

The #1 cylinder was wet. No liquid pooled.

The exhaust pushrod was bent.

All the cylinders walls looked good.

I wonder if the injector stuck open and hydro locked the piston (wrong conclusion upon further inspection)

I'll pull the pan this weekend and finish the autopsy.

 

[epitts]

I picked up two 6.2's last week, have not messed with them yet.

 

[Hasdrubal]

At least you guys have access to motors. I would love to buy a good tight 6.2 if anyone ever has one up for sale. Mine runs good, but has used oil since i got it and has a fair bit of blow by. There's nothing up here. All the junkyards sell theirs to the city works departments. My only option here is to get mine rebuilt. If they take it apart and find a cracked head or main bearing web..I'd be #@*&$#.

 

[Stonepicker1]

Pulled the heads and they look fine.

The #1 cylinder was wet. No liquid pooled.

The intake pushrod was bent.

All the cylinders walls looked good.

I wonder if the injector stuck open and hydro locked the piston

I'll pull the pan this weekend and finish the autopsy.

Sounds so familiar. Bad injector in my new GEP 6.5L melted the glow plug and damaged the piston.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...outh-Florida-Rebuild&highlight=dually+florida

 

[kenz5380]

I'm interested to hear what happened with this engine. Keep us posted!

 

[ranchhopper]

I bought two brand new rebuilds from fort riley the tag read excessive blow by they had not been run in yet so the rings hadnt seated yet I put them in trucks and after they had been run in they are still running great.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

"Loose" rhymes with "goose", and it looks like yours is cooked! Well, the engine, anyway.

 

[soule64]

I got this one a few months ago. Looked brand new from the outside but had two dead cylinders. Tore it down and found two bent pushrods and some water damage in the heads. The cylinders still had hone marks and rockers had lithium grease on them - fresh assembly lube everywhere. took it down to the block, re-honed all cylinders and replaced all bearings, gaskets, 6 lifters and all pushrods. Tore the heads down, valves were straight but added new seals and cleaned off the water damage, new head gaskets and bolts. IP looks new, 12v with a 2008 data tag. CUCV manifolds came with it, never had any heat on them. Finished assembly last weekend, has good compression now on all cylinders. Still need to test fire it, then push it in the back of the garage for a spare.

 

[Warthog]

Well I had time to pull the oil pan today.

Not a preaty site.

Crankshaft is toast, unless they can turn it way down. Dont think they make a bearing that oversized.

#1 connecting rod is toast. Nice wave in it. Cap is bent. At least I think it is the cap.

The block is also toast. Multiple chunks out of the wall on #1 and #2.

From the preliminay diagnoses, one of the nuts from the connecting rod came off (I havent found it yet) and caused the engine to knock. The other bolt held.

They pull the engine, I buy it and start messing with it. Since the second bolt is still in place, turning by hand and cranking with the plugs out kept the bolt where it was. No excesive noises.

Put the plugs in and light the fire, the second bolt snaps in to and puts a nice oil sampling window in the pan.

At least I have an updated IP pump, 7 spare pistons and a set of heads. Now to teardown the other GEP and see what is wrong with it.

Anyone need a good boat anchor?

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Ouch.

 

[kapnklug]

Yowza. Well thanks for the info, convinced me to never buy a motor from GL. Boat anchors are not in my budget.

 

[dagsurplus]

I curious as to what approach you would use, with 20-20 hindsight, to test this engine. In other words, if you had this to do all over again, GL engine in the can, would you pull the pan before attempting start or even before checking compression?

 

[Warthog]

Pulling the oil pan first is a great idea but isn't alway practical.

In this instance I firmly believe that the damage was already done to the crankshaft. The broken pieces of the block look like old breaks. Pulling the pan first would have saved the hole in the pan but more than likely nothing else.

The steps I usually take and used this time are: (also hooking up oil lines, fuel, starter, etc)

1 - remove plugs and manually check rotation of crankshaft, checking for unusual noises
2 - remove vaccuum pump/tach sender and prime oil pump
3 - with plugs removed, use starter to check spinning and oil preasure
4 - check compression
5 - if everything looks and sounds good, then install glowplugs and test fire

In this case everything checked out, but I think the damage was already done, I just pushed it over the edge.

 

[o1951]

That should buff out, no problem.

Like you wisely said - never pay more than scrap for them.
Well anyhow- you got a set of injectors, IP, glowplugs, some rods & pistons and perhaps good heads. Scrap the block, the rest should cover your cost and time.