wondering what would have caused this

[linadin]

had a few minor issues with the truck. it had started having a rough idle. and a little white smoke on start up. I took it in to have it looked at and this is what they found. Looking at the pictures from what i can see it looks like the block is cracked between number 3 and 4 cylinder.         

[gearhead]

What does the liner height look like. First the gasket was blown then the compression from the engine ate the metal away. That,s a shame because the block is damaged.

[linadin]

they checked liner height said it was fine. the good thing is they found this 1 day before the warranty ran out so hopeing it will be covered. will find out later this week what they will do. what is wierd is it gave no warning its started in the morning and took it to the shop at noon. I had thought i lost a injector.

[Brock]

You heated up your motor is my guess. Lost you coolant one day perhaps? Then from there like gearhead said.......

Just my guess, I'm a driver.... not a mechanic.

[gearhead]

It didn't get that way over night.That gasket probably has been blown for at least a month.

[linadin]

funny thing is have not pullled anything over 15k since the head was put on last feb. truck has never been over 200 deg water temp. ext temp hit 400 a few times. but i always waited for it to drop below 300 before i shut it down. coolant has not dropped at all. i run dedicated in nc,sc,va,ga very few hills i have put about 2k miles on it a week. i am starting to think they may have done something to the head gasket when they put the new head on. engine does have over 800k mile on it was planing on having a overhaul done next Jan. Just glad it still had a warranty still funny it acted up the day before the warranty ran out normally things happen just after the warranty goes out

[Nilao]

Improper head torque procedure allowed the head to its seal maybe?

[Unilevers]

a 2350? i ask because i have 2 other trucks here with identical issues. Both have ruined the blocks beyond repair and now need complete engines. both blew out between 3/4.

i can see in the ones here that this did not happen overnight. these were fleet trucks and were drove hard and continued for 2 weeks after the complaints of pressurizing coolant were heard. i call it the cutting torch effect. Cummins couldnt figure out what went wrong so they brought the trucks to me. protrusion was 9-10 thou which is too low for abused engines. I also ran the history on these 2 engines and the head had been off twice already under warranty and this was round 3. Measured the headbolts around 3/4 and they were not within spec for length anymore.

all these issues added up to complete failure, and cost this guy 1 complete reman 2350 engine and a brand new block. Both of the duty cycles were in the 60% plus range aswell - so this guy had worse case scenario. these engines have the wrong gearing (3.90's) and drivers with not enough maintenance and too high of duty cycles. they will fail again soon.

on the plus side we bought a brand new block right from cummins with the liners in it. measured em and all are at 14-15 thou. they are learning.

[linadin]

this is a 871. but it was also between 3 and 4. i am still thinking it was something they did when they put the new head on last feb. it only has about 70k miles since. i am already takeing them to court over a clutch they put in incorrectly so it would not suprise me if it was inproper torqe or even damageing the head gasket as they were putting the new one in.