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Blown Head Gasket Recovery (no longer) - Massive Engine Failure (!)
- Thread starter adf5565
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Any specific way I could check? I have the torque converter off and the input shaft looks and feels to be fine, not sure how much it’ll help pulling the pan but I could do that too. Just not sure what else to check being without a motor and not wanting to completely disassemble that too.
The hill was steep enough I was in 3rd in the 2450ish rpm range consistently according to the tiny tach, which is higher rpm than it usually runs at but should be well within limits.
UNIMOG-GUY
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Where’d the engine come from? Is there a warranty?
Got it through Leroy Diesel who orders it new through the GEP plant in Franklin Ohio. Picked it up there myself.
I’ll give them a call tomorrow, there isn’t a warrantee on the motor unless I paid an extra $1k or something like that for 1 year. Seemed unnecessary at the time but I guess not now. So I don’t have high hopes but I’ll see what happens.
Dang this entire thing makes me sad!! Got a new motor and it exploded. I have no idea why it did that...I'd think if you had a fuel issue the egt would have gone up a bunch, they react fast too.
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Yeah, I'm bummed too. I was just starting to think about a GEP because of this build. Hopefully something can be worked out with the vendor.
Finnegan1008
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I don’t know if it’s too soon to ask, but are you going to repower? Any idea what you’re going to replace it with?
I always thought the optimizer was the ultimate answer
I always thought the optimizer was the ultimate answer
Yeah me too. I haven't decided yet, it may just end up being a older used 6.2 just to get it running.
Question- am I correct in my evaluation that the head gasket did not fail? Granted I know nothing can be completely confirmed just by looking at pictures, but that there does not appear to be any signs of damage/failure? Especially to the point that would cause catastrophic failure? Pictures are in Post #10.
Question- am I correct in my evaluation that the head gasket did not fail? Granted I know nothing can be completely confirmed just by looking at pictures, but that there does not appear to be any signs of damage/failure? Especially to the point that would cause catastrophic failure? Pictures are in Post #10.
I don't see any indication of a blown head gasket. When they do fail on these engines it's at the rear water passage so that should be cylinders 7 and 8 that are affected. With multiple valve kisses and the brutal amount of damage, this has to have been an overspeed event.
UNIMOG-GUY
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What did Leroy say? I can’t believe they don’t offer any type of a warranty?!?!?
I dropped a 6.0 LQ9, 4L80E, NP-205 after my 6.2 locked up due to a blown oil cooler line and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a repower!
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Well sh*t happens, my one concern is that you said “ just left the camp site
a couple of minutes earlier “(paraphrasing by me) and I’m sure sure that you
gave your power plant a few minutes to warm up.
I have friends who will never own diesels again because of problems with them
but I have been with them and there 5 seconds of warm up concerned me.
we all know aluminum pistons iron block,etc, etc.
but I have to admit that is an unusual failure With your sequence of events.
a couple of minutes earlier “(paraphrasing by me) and I’m sure sure that you
gave your power plant a few minutes to warm up.
I have friends who will never own diesels again because of problems with them
but I have been with them and there 5 seconds of warm up concerned me.
we all know aluminum pistons iron block,etc, etc.
but I have to admit that is an unusual failure With your sequence of events.
cucvrus
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Balance is my main concern when mixing power plants in vehicles. I had a 1974 Dodge W200 with a 318. I bought a wrecked 1979 Dodge St Regis at the PA State Police auction. The wrecked car had a 360 with 23K on it and ran and drove. It was wrecked hard on the right side. It stole the car at the auction. I needed an engine for my Power Wagon. Cop Motor, Cop Shocks. You get the jest. Pulled the like brand-new engine and installed it into my Power Wagon. It had Power now and lived up to its name. It was stick shift and I just put the flywheel on the 360 engine and all the electrical parts. I know things were different and forget all the details. It ran well and I was happy. I went up state about 3 hours away and it made a droning sound all the time like a washing machine, and I ignored it as it was not that bad. I was in a little town at a stop sign and pulled out and it started to vibrate and rattle a bit. Thinking it was bad gas or something simple I proceeded to increase in speed about 65 MPH it got sketchy. It started back firing and rattling, and I kept going. And like a grenade went of it blew to pieces. in 5 seconds. I coasted to the side of the road. The oil was running out of the bottom, and it had an oil trail on the road leading to the truck. When I opened the hood smoke bellowed out as if it were on fire. I knew it was wasted at that point. I had EXXON travel towing insurance and had it towed home about 3 miles more than the insurance covered. but it was home. After getting it home I proceeded to pull the engine apart in the chassis. The oil pan had dents and tears everywhere. Looked like ballpark franks were cooked in it. After I pulled the engine, I took it to a machine shop. The man at the shop asks me if this came out of a Nascar race. I ask why. He said he never seen an engine so blown to pieces. The crank was busted at several places, and it had a windage tray in the bottom of the engine that was torn to bits. Nothing was good on the engine. Heads would have needed rebuilt, and the block was broken at several of the webs and side flange. Come to find out the 360 needed an external balancer weight on the flywheel that the 318 did not. something along the line of a 360 was externally balanced and a 318 was internally balanced. Don't quote me that was long time ago. I bought another rolled over Power Wagon that was an automatic and a 360 and lived happily ever after. I used all the drive line out of the newer Power Wagon. Good Luck. Sorry for your loss. I am pointing at a balance issue from what I see in the pictures.
I was idling at the camp for a few minutes before hitting the road, another 1-2 mins on the road before the hill, so it should've been warmed up enough.
I did talk to both Leroy Diesel and Quadstar Tuning (turbo supplier). Leroy stated GEP doesn't offer a warrantee so he doesn't either, and I didn't pay the $1k for the 6 month warrantee he offers. I was past that aways as it was around 10 months.
I was on the phone with Quadstar for about 45 minutes (and sent them pictures), and although it was a good conversation ended at the same result. Essentially while yes, their turbo boost is higher than stock turbo (but backpressure is the same, which is what they worry about), they've sold thousands of the Super 54 and have never seen/heard of a failure anything like this. Especially on a new GEP engine. I'm not a blind believer on what everyone tells me (especially when money is involved), but I tend to agree with them that this failure is well past the expected.
He did state that it looks like a wrist pin failure occurred, which I agree either that or the piston wrist pin boss. The only time they've supposedly seen that happen is either timing is way off or too much fuel at a low rpm. Probably no way to truly confirm. I had timing set with the IP lined up with the cover line and never had issues starting hot/cold/anywhere in between so while it may not have been perfect I think it was close. And with fueling, being set to stock 4911 settings (at least that's how i ordered it), they didn't think that should do it either. There were times I had relatively high EGTs (900-maybe close to 1000) at a lower RPM while the motor was working hard while in overdrive, but I sure hope that wouldn't have done it as overall shifting was normal and i would've expected the transmission to stay in OD in those situations anyways.
Some additional pics of the underside. Wrist pin is broken in half with 1 half broken into pieces.
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Hmm. Interesting thought. I've never noticed vibration issues but that doesn't mean much necessarily. I used the same flex plate that came with the 700r4 for the 6.2 which supposedly is fine. But at this point who knows. Maybe it wasn't balanced correctly. I appreciate the insight.
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Never seen a wrist pin broken in a “stock” configuration. I like you would
be pis*ed. and have ever right to be
spending some time looking at your photos, it really looks like there was an
obstruction in the cylinder. And with it running I don’t think you could put
that engine in a laboratory sitting and hydrauliclly lock it up with coolant
while in was running at anything above idle RPM.
I would start with a FOD (foreign object damage) scenero? Maybe somthing
got sucked in the intake?
obstruction in the cylinder. And with it running I don’t think you could put
that engine in a laboratory sitting and hydrauliclly lock it up with coolant
while in was running at anything above idle RPM.
I would start with a FOD (foreign object damage) scenero? Maybe somthing
got sucked in the intake?
The wrist pin bosses are pulled out of the bottom of the piston. That indicates to me that it failed under tension. We usually see this when a piston seizes. I see no indication of heat under the crown and the cylinder walls have no scuffing to indicate overheating. I don't think this engine seized. This still looks like an overspeed.
Good to know. I’ll have to figure out how to check the trans sooner than putting a different motor in. Maybe it did let go.
Also got the pistons out. There is some scuffing but I believe it’s from eating pieces of metal when the motor started to blow apart. There are small fragments of metal suck to the cylinder walls. The “scuff” on the crowns is carbon and can be scraped off.
