blown engine

[Rawze]

Well the cooling nozzle is certainly missing. did someone take it out before the picture was taken?

Also the piston has turned in the sleeve.

[Running rough]

...did the liner break off around the mid stop???

[Rawze]

Something caused that piston to turn sideways. Could have been ...

* A.Overheating from lack of proper oil flow or pressure, or excess boost/oxygen levels (overheated piston).

* B.excess wrist pin wear (detonation/too far advanced timing/bad injector spray pattern/oil flow issues).

* C.dropped intake valve, considering the direction it is twisted (broken intake spring/burnt valve/contamination). There would be evidence of this if it were the cause. In this case, it is not likely. Just thought I would include it.

* D.broken oil ring that finally caused it to seize up.

* spun bearing, causing the rod want to turn at its top as it seized up.


Take your pick.
======

It definitely looks like the crank pulled the sleeve down out of the block when the piston turned sideways. Block is likely toast right along with the crank. You can tell it also spun the bearing. If it were a piston problem alone, the bearing would not have spun like that.

I am only trying to provide information for others to learn and consider. It completely sucks when someone looses an engine. No one wants it to happen so it becomes important information for others to read and follow if there is any way it could have been prevented.

It was mentioned in earlier posts that there was oil pressure loss issues. I found this post as well...
http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...8#pid15118
Looking back at it again, It almost sounds like it could have been sucking air from the seal at the oil intake piping during startup? - not sure. Any air getting/mixing into in the oil system will cause a catastrophic failure like a spun bearing etc.

As far as loosing oil pressure before you shimmed it, that very well could have been a cracked or loose oil cooling nozzle, excess wear in a wrist pin or rod bearing, or other component. It is doubtful it was a cooling nozzle but more likely either air getting into the intake of the oil pump or lower than normal pressure from a hammered crank bearing. I am leaning more towards a hammered bearing but I would not rule out the chances an oil pump issue as a primary cause either.

Now combine that with claims that it would occasionally peak 42-psi boost at times + torque up at around 1950+ ft lbs + engine has a lot of miles on it, and this puts it at higher and higher risk.

Personally, with only the information provided, it looks like the spun bearing happened first, overheating the oil as it was trying to weld itself. After a bit, it then got so hot, it swelled up around the crank, caught tight, then turned the piston in the sleeve with all the side-loading, then the sideways piston yanked the sleeve down ripping it out of its mid-stop. This theory holds the most water when considering how you described those final moments. The question now is what other risk factors were at play here ...

More risk = more chance of something going wrong. The engine previously had a bad program in it from DS according to previous posts + it had been spiking 42+ psi boost pressure on occasion. Combine that and you have a recipe for several issues including hammering of the crank bearings at some point in its life. That may very well be the thing that started the process of failure and hence the eventual lower then normal oil pressures long before the bearing finally spun.

In the end, it comes down to how much risk can someone afford?. Myself, I want to keep all the money I make instead of taking any kind of risk with my equipment that will potentially shorten its life. People wishing to turn up older equipment, put performance tunes by big name companies or push higher than recommended boost levels through one of these things to squeeze more out of one should Keep that in mind when considering that bit of extra torque or HP. I am a proponent of slowing down, using less fuel, and all the other things that keeps money in your pocket and not having to put it back into my truck every time I turn around. For this, I am very happy with my 450hp and 1750 torque, lugging around my 80,000 lbs.

- May your new engine provide you with a million miles of problem free service,.. but Certainly, I would recommend you set the torque and HP within that zone of safety and make damn well sure you have good programming and that it can make no more than about 36-psi of boost peak. I would also recommend you have the programming looked at to ensure it is not making more hp/torque than what it claims to be.

[slowpoke]

once i get the truck back from the dealer, going to bobtail home and not take out till i get it reprogrammed. will need help with that. i appreciate all your help thanks.

[redbeard]

Really appreciate all this dialogue. Sometimes we need a little kick to see the light.

I feel for guys like slowpoke that have to dig so deep into ther wallet to fix there problems.

I also feel in these days of manufacturers integrated drive line systems, Cummins needs to loosen the core acceptance standards to show some loyalty to the brand. It sure would go a long ways towards specing a new truck for me with them as my “partner” as opposed to some money grabbing sob’s kicking me when down