rebuild vs swap decisions

[Rawze]

Ironsled is over at Mr. hags. I got a chance to go over there and lend a hand in evaluation of his engine.

When he arrived, it ran, but sounded like it was missing badly on one cylinder, similar to dropped valve sound. After a bit though, it started sounding like it was running on only couple 3 cylinders and skipping badly. -- no smoke. -- Could also tell turbo was ramped way up.

Turbo arm was definatetly stuck in a high position. Failed all tests with my turbo test box and indicated it was locked up, would not move properly.

We relieved pressure from the exhaust behind egr cooler and between turbo / manifold. Also opened up the intake manifold so engine could breathe to see if it would run normally.

(cover off, while running) Valves looked all like they were operating correctly, no engine brake solenoids were sticky,.. everything looked normal when idling on top end... yet it was still laboring heavily on only a couple cylinders and would hardly run at all.

-- Next day:

I used his laptop to look at codes,.. engine was failing injector 1,3, and 5. It had shut them off. That explains the laboring and poor run condition.

Was just looking at top of valves and wiggled the wiring harness, seemed odd that it was 1,3,5 and not some other combination... went to unlock the twist-lock on the injector harness where it goes into the head to inspect the pins and the whole plug just fell into my hand. -- It obviously was not plugged in properly, and obviously was not locked in place. Looks like it has been this way for a while too when looking at the dirt and dust on it.

Plugged it in and the engine sounded really good, but still had that puff puff on one cylinder sound. it also fails a rail leak test badly.

took off the manifold completely to see what cylinder(s) were acting up, possibly not firing, or valve issues, and cranked it up. <- engine ran really well actually. No more popping sound, no more puff puff, ran very well considering all other things. no smoking, no smoke, etc.

-- Some investigation reveals that he had a block plate installed, and it had broken and gotten sucked into the exhaust manifold between cylinder 1 and 2. Cylinder 1 could not breathe properly with the manifold in place. Some exhaust was getting past it but not much.

- So far, the turbo needs to be re-built. - It is at YTS for that, and I think Hag is going to run the overhead valve adjustments and test the engine for why the rail will not hold pressure.

After a new turbo, some proper fixes for his manifold, and re-flashing his ecm with a good program (engine has a bad de-mandate program in it)... i think it will be fine. No signs that it needs an inframe at all so far if you ask me... but it will be checked thoroughly just in case.

I can say this.. This guy is a hard worker, and is gung-ho towards doing his own work. sometimes I think it gets him in a bit of trouble though, some things (like rebuilding the guts of a VGT turbo) should be left to someone who can do a proper job who has proper equipment. - I think he is realizing this now, and that is great.

Have enjoyed hanging out with this guy, The beer is flowing...LOL