Engine shut off/locked up. Will not crank.

[JJensen]

Hey guys. Well I went to pick up my first Deuce yesterday. It started out great, but about 2 hours into the trip the truck quit running.

Well, it's a pretty long story. My fiance and I got there in my pickup at 4PM. Right when we pulled in we could tell how nice the truck was. It looked great. I looked it over some, and then fired it up. It started instantly, sounded great. We let if run for 15-20 mins while we continued to look over the truck. Then the actual owner of the truck and myself went for a short drive to his house and back. I picked up a winter front for the truck at his place. Keep in mind the truck ran the entire time. Then I drove it back to his friend's shop. We were there another 20-30 mins talking and doing paperwork, the truck ran this entire time. We left there at 5PM. I drove right at 2200-2300 RPM, oil pressure pegged at 60, coolant at 180-190. This truck had great power. It would hardly even slow down on hills, even though I didn't really increase the throttle much.

At about 615 we stopped to fuel up the dodge. At that time I got out a flashlight and looked everything over again on the M35 to make sure there were no leaks or anything else out of the norm. The only thing that I thought was a little off, was the amount of smoke coming out of the crankcase vent. It wasn't enough to cause concern, but I noticed that it was more than what it was before we started our drive home. We left the gas station and started on the on ramp to I70. When I started to accelerate in 3rd, I noticed in the mirrors that the truck had a lot of smoke coming out from underneath and I was greatly loosing power. I put it in 4th just because it was time to shift and I was still processing what was going on, and then something started squealing very loudly and that turned into a squeal/rattle. The truck lost all power at that point. I took it out of gear and the noise was the same. Gauges were all good. I started to pull over on the shoulder of I70 and then the noise got 10 times louder. I went to shot the truck off, but before I could something let go and it shut itself off. So, I towed it with the dodge to the next exit. Looked everything over. It had oil dripping out of the hole in the bell housing, and oil dripping out of the crankcase vent tube. Smoke everywhere. Engine wouldn't crank, it was locked up (not necessarily the engine, but something is preventing it from cranking).



So, now that it is home I have checked some things out. The oil is full, and very clean. It looks brand new, which seems odd to me. I know that it was new oil, but all diesels that I have ever had will blacken the oil almost instantly.



The coolant is clean, and full.

There is fluid dripping out of the hole in the bell housing. This fluid is very dark in color, I'm guessing it is the trans fluid, not engine oil.

I took the inlet off the turbo to see if it had seized up. I thought that if I had lost oil pressure (and the gauge was not reading correctly) that it would kill the turbo first. It has a little axial play, more than I would consider normal. The impeller has touched down on the housing slightly at some point, but the wheel isn't crashed. It spins freely.

Now all of the noise, smoke and engine shutting off happened in about 15 seconds. The squealing could have been the belts, but I think it was a metallic grinding/squealing. Then there was a loud rattle and then something came apart. When it did, it instantly killed the engine. I just barely bumped the start switch to confirm that then engine was locked up.

So...my thoughts are that it could have had something in the clutch assembly let go, and it cracked the trans case.

What do you guys think? Is this where I should start? Could/should I pull the starter to see if I can see any shrapnel in the bell housing?

If it was an oil issue or an engine bearing issue, I would think that I would have seen metal flake in the oil.

Also, could the injection pump have locked up? I wouldn't have thought that it would have ran as long as it did, the way that it did.

The noise seemed to be coming from the trans tunnel area, but I had my ear muffs on. I quickly took them off so that I could hear what was going on, but the engine became locked up seconds later.

I'm off to a bad start with my long posts, but I try to get all the information out there in the first post.

So where should I start? Thank you in advance for any help. I really appreciate it.

 

[dabtl]

Sounds like a new engine will be needed. Sorry.

 

[treessw]

I am with dabtl, as a worst case scenario with out being there to hear or witness first hand I would be prepared for that. Look on the bright side though, now you have a GREAT source for parts and another reason to own one more MV

Sorry about your luck

 

[Chevyman_15237]

I would put a socket and breaker bar on the crankshaft pulley, see if the motor turns. If you can't get it to move by hand i'd say you crapped a bearing / locked it up / or something of the sort... If it does turn, it could possibly be in the tranny or transfer case.

 

[m816Buch]

sorry for the bad start............drain the oil and see if small bits come out, probably going to have to pull the oil pan to see..........if it happened that quickly you my not have metal shavings all thru the oil..........may try turning engine backwards manually to see if it will even move

 

[JJensen]

I'm reading through other threads, and now realize that there is an inspection cover on the bell (like most vehicles) I completely over looked this today some how. All of the noise and rattling sure didn't seem like the engine, but it could very well be. There are no new inspection holes in the block LOL.

I'm going to obviously drain the engine oil and see what it looks like. I'm going to also look in the inspection cover to see if I can see anything obvious.

 

[glcaines]

You may not be able to see much through the inspection cover. Assuming you don't, try to turn the crankshaft backwards with a breaker bar. I would also go ahead and drop the pan. You may have spun a bearing.

 

[JJensen]

I would put a socket and breaker bar on the crankshaft pulley, see if the motor turns. If you can't get it to move by hand i'd say you crapped a bearing / locked it up / or something of the sort... If it does turn, it could possibly be in the tranny or transfer case.

I can try that, but the starter obviously has a lot of torque and it won't turn over the engine. I had the trans in neutral when the actual parts breakage and lock up occurred.

If the clutch assembly let go, it could have broke and wedged up in the bell right???

Honestly, if it is the engine I don't really care. I mean I would have rather gotten to drive it a while before replacing the engine, but I won't be overly upset about it either.

BTW, thanks for all the great input. I wish the truck was in my garage right now. I'd be working on it between posts. Unfortunately it is about 45 mins away from my house. I will be able to get back out there in the few days.

 

[Billy Bobbed]

I hope nobody turned the fuel up and you didnt have a pyro meter,and smoked the engine.You said it had plenty of power thats not good.

 

[Pooch1128]

It's diffently hard to tell from where I'm at and not there, but it kinda sounds like problem in transfer case/torque converter/flywheel, IMHO... but the smoke you notice as me wondering if it was the crankcase...HHMMMMM...hope all turns out well..

 

[JJensen]

You may not be able to see much through the inspection cover. Assuming you don't, try to turn the crankshaft backwards with a breaker bar. I would also go ahead and drop the pan. You may have spun a bearing.

OK, will do.

 

[glcaines]

I just had another thought. You might want to try removing the belts. It could be that something locked up, such as the pump, alternator, etc. and the squealing you heard was the belt slipping. The smoke you mentioned could have been from the belt slipping and burning, putting out the smoke. I had that happen with a locked up alternator once on a car.

 

[JJensen]

I hope nobody turned the fuel up and you didnt have a pyro meter,and smoked the engine.You said it had plenty of power,tach at 2200 to 2300,sounds like the fuel was turned up.

You could be right. There is no EGT in the truck. I didn't even think to ask about it being "turned up". Stupid on my part. The guys didn't seem like the type to want that, but you never know. They took them to parades and such. It did have plenty of power though. I was thinking about how people said that they didn't have much power and this one ran great. Now it definitely wanted to be shifted at 2100-2300, it wasn't continuing to try to really pull quickly past there. But, it really didn't lose power or slow down on hills. It just trucked right up them.

Now that I am replaying everything, I remember one of the guys saying that "these trucks" really suck on hills. The owner said "not this one". "this one doesn't slow down at all".

 

[nk14zp]

Sounds like a spun bearing.

 

[SixSpeed]

It's diffently hard to tell from where I'm at and not there, but it kinda sounds like problem in transfer case/torque converter/flywheel, IMHO... but the smoke you notice as me wondering if it was the crankcase...HHMMMMM...hope all turns out well..

I just had another thought. You might want to try removing the belts. It could be that something locked up, such as the pump, alternator, etc. and the squealing you heard was the belt slipping. The smoke you mentioned could have been from the belt slipping and burning, putting out the smoke. I had that happen with a locked up alternator once on a car.

Both POSSIBLE I suppose. Easy to eliminate them as potential causes though.

Good luck! Sorry to hear about the misfortune.

 

[JJensen]

I just had another thought. You might want to try removing the belts. It could be that something locked up, such as the pump, alternator, etc. and the squealing you heard was the belt slipping. The smoke you mentioned could have been from the belt slipping and burning, putting out the smoke. I had that happen with a locked up alternator once on a car.

Ya, very good thought. Stick with the basics first. All of the replies are viable.

There was a very large amount of smoke. I just asked my fiance that was directly behind the deuce in my pickup. She said it smelled like burnt rubber like a burnout.

I'll take the belts off, see if the engine cranks, and also try to turn all the accessories by hand.

___

I don't know what accessory would rattle and squeal as loud as this did. The air compressor maybe?

 

[SixSpeed]

Ya, very good thought. Stick with the basics first. All of the replies are viable.

There was a very large amount of smoke. I just asked my fiance that was directly behind the deuce in my pickup. She said it smelled like burnt rubber like a burnout.

I'll take the belts off, see if the engine cranks, and also try to turn all the accessories by hand.

Definitely where I would start!

 

[runk]

Note that as the transmission gets hot (like after 30 mins at freeway(ish) speeds, in my case) a lot of them will puke oil out the front shaft "seal" into the clutch bell housing if they have been filled to the recommended level. A bunch of threads on this. Biggest problem is possible contamination of the clutch face. So, the oil out of the bell housing might not be that big a deal either.

Put the transfer case in nutral, and see if the short shaft between the transmission and transfer turns. WIth a helper, try the clutch and shifting the trans through the gears.

Good luck.

 

[Flyingvan911]

Ouch. That suck, especially right after picking it up. Good luck. I hope it's something simple.

 

[G-Force]

#5 cylinder rod bearing went bad.....why #5...because its my favorite number.
drain the oil into clean 5 gallon buckets (ya see......the #5 again) and then check for metal.
If you find metal (which I'm afraid you will) then drop the pan. If it was a belt driven part that failed I would think it would be the air compressor failed. But I'm still leaning towards bottom end failure......oh yeah...sorry for your loss.....would this be a warranty issue????