Bent Exhaust Pushrods

[Goody68]

Good Morning, I am a newbie on here and want to say hello. I would like some help with an ISX12 (11.9) build date 10/2011. This is not a truck owned by our company, we are a helping a friend out. The original issue I had them bring the truck here for was low pressure at idle and some metal in the oil pan. As they were driving the truck here it died out on them and was towed the rest of the distance. First thing I did was check for codes and found a couple codes for cam/crank timing. I checked the sensors and all was good. Swapped them out anyhow being they were cheap enough. Looking around I see these engines are prone to the cam gear slipping. I decided to pull the valve cover and I found all the exhaust push rods were bent, the intake pushrods all seem to be ok. I find it a little weird that only the exhaust rods bent, but again this motor is totally new to me, never worked on one. I would appreciate some input from members familiar with this engine on what their thoughts are and what step I should take next. What would be some causes of just bent exhaust pushrods. Thanks in advance for any help.

[tree98]

How many miles/hours are on it?

What type of truck is it, garbage truck, dump truck, etc. ?

Is it demandated?

Was any work done to it recently?

[Goody68]

Yes it is a garbage truck and from what I know there has been no recent work done. From what I can see the truck has not been demarcated.

[Rawze]

cam gar only tends to slip when people do not do regular tune-up work like running the overhead valve adjustment every 2 years.

that, or they installed it wrong after replacement etc... and it slips.

what you describe sounds like severe neglect and no one doing any overhead valve adjustments or any regular maintenance to them properly outside of changing the da$mn oil. .. and likely nothing else like regular sensor replacements as they get dirty, yearly EGR-tune-up work, etc. .. but instead, only chasing the check engine lights when the entire engine and emmissions system is in need of proper preventative maintenance and service.

people complain like all h#ell about these modern engines.. but they do nothing towards keeping the engine and emissions systems healthy it until its far too late. Then they go blame the equipment instead of the vehicle owner looking in the mirror.

[Goody68]

So let me get your personal opinion, should I just try throwing in a set of new pushrods and see what happens, or at least see if starts or do you feel that there is more damage such as bent valves?

[Bengy88]

If you have it tore down enough to put push rods in it then it’s easy enough to pull the injectors and use regulated shop air with a rubber tip blow nozzle to check for valve damage

[windowrattler]

I'd be concerned about possible valve damage. Bengy has the right idea to check cylinder leakage and maybe boroscope the pistons to see if they contacted the valves.

You mention that originally it came in for "low pressure and metal in the oil pan". I'm assuming low oil pressure? Low oil pressure will effect the cylinder head oiling. Check for the signs of excess heat along the cam journals. I've seen pictures of it burning the paint off the valve cover from lack of lubrication at the cam and spinning a bearing. My thoughts on this are if the camshaft does have a lack of oil there would be more force on the cam gear to cause it to perhaps slip.

[Btech]

If it had all the exhaust pushrods bent cam timing needs to be verified before just putting new pushrods in and seeing what happens. this can be some with dial indicators and pulling #1 injector.
Valves will need to be checked as well, if the pushrods are bent like that valves contacted the pistons.

And with the original complaint of low pressure and metal in the oil, would likely indicate bearings are bad somewhere in the motor may it be rod, main, cam, or all of them. cam itself could be flaking off as well, seems this engine has been neglected pretty bad in its life.

[Goody68]

I just want to mention too that from reading some of the responses this is not the overhead cam engine, this engine is the other style with the cam down in the block, whether this changes anything or not I am not sure, just wanted to add that.