truck has died yet again!
Well, engine number 2 has had a fatal mishap. If you remember a few weeks ago I posted about blowing the head gasket on the truck, well it got worse on my way home from work yesterday. I had just gotten onto the interstate when the motor went to ticking and knocking, then started blowing white smoke, so I hit the next exit ramp I came to hoping to make it to a parking lot close by, but the truck started running hot, so I pulled of onto the shoulder and shut it off. When I did there was a puddle of scummy water and oil on the pavement under the truck and running out of the exhaust pipe. Someone stopped and asked if I needed help, and I said yeah, I need a good cheap tow truck drive, and he gave me a business card. Called wrecker #1 and the driver told me it would cost about $120 to get the truck to the house, and it would take him about 20 minutes to get there, so I said "ok, see you when you get here". While waiting for wrecker # 1 wrecker #2 pulled up asked me if I needed a tow, I said "well I have a tow truck on the way but what would you charge to tow me to my house" . He said a $100 even, so I told him to load it up, call wrecker #1 and told him that I had found a cheaper tow and that he was there now. So now the truck is home. Today after we got home from Miriam to the doctor for her 6 month check up ( she is now 11 lbs 7 ozs) I started taking the engine apart to see how much damage there was going to be.
I started by taking the exhaust manifolds off to get them out of the way, then the carbuerator. Then I enlisted Katie's help in getting the #1 piston to TDC (top dead center) so that getting the distributior back in correctly would not be a pain in the butt, then I removed said distributior, and then the intake manifold. When the intake came off, I had a sinking feeling because I saw bits of shiney metal in the valley between the heads. Then I took off the valve covers and saw that the exhaust valve on the #5 cyclindar was missing and that the spring ang collar was laying loose on the top of the head, tot a real bad feeling. At this point I stopped and called Advanced auto parts, the part store I had bought the head from a few weeks agao) and explain what has happened and that it looks like the valve stem had broken and that I was going to have to get the head exchanged on warrenty. The manager says not a problem that he will have me a new cylindar head in the morning and that they would also give me a new head gasket set. Not to bad, so I go back out and takethe head off and this is what I saw:
At this point I stopped and called the parts store back and say well it looks like when the valve messed up it took out the piston as well. manager says not a problem that he could cover a piston in the warrenty as well. I asked about getting things like the cylindar bored and honed if it was messed up, or even worse if it was messed up beyond repair, what would I need to do. He said that anything like that would have to go through the vendor that supplied the head. So I decide to see how bad the damage is and with Katies help ( as a spotter), I start turning the motor by the fly wheel, and she told me that the busted piston was not moving, so I rolled it back to #1 TDC again and got back out from under the truck, and just for giggles crawled into the engine compartment and bumped the piston with my hand and it slid most of the way back down the cylindar, and I was able to see this:
Called the parts store once again and told the manager that the block was bead and o\would need to be replaced, and asked what kind of info I would need to bring in with the head to get everything covered. He said that I would need a written estimate from a shop on what it would cost to swap out the engine. I called a local shop that I have used a few times explained the sitution and got a price just for the labor, $1428.00! Took the pictures, and went to the shop picked up the labor quote, went to Wal-mart printed the pictures, then went to the parts store. Droped everything off, KAtie and I went back to wal-mart to do some grocery shopping. While we were shopping the manager from the parts store calls back and says that since I had installed the head myself that the vendor was not wanting to cover all of the damage done, he gave me their number and I call them. After about 10 mintues of some lady telling me that there was no way that a vale stem could just break I finally told her that yes they could, they do, and I had one that did. I also told her that while I did not know what cause the valve stem and the spring to seperate that they did, and that I had installed the head properly. She told me that I would have to take the head, all of the rocker arms, push rods and what ever pieces of the valve assembly that I had found to the store and submit a claim through the store. I told her that I had alreay removed the rocker arms from the head and taken the head to the store, but that I knew which rocker arm and puch rod were on the bad valve and that I would bag those seperat from the rest and take them to the store. When Katie and I got home I bagged up the requested parts and went back to the parts store to drop them off. I also talked to the manager for a bit about when the head would get sent back, and how long it would take for me to hear back about if they would pay to cover all of the damage or not. he told me that it would be Monday before he would be able to ship the head back to the vendor, and it would probably take a few weeks. I hope that when the vendor sees the head they will say that yes it was a faulty head that caused all of the damage ( because the truck was running fine until yesterday), and that they will cover the cost of a new short block (this is just the block, crank and cam shaft and 8 pistons) and replace the faulty head and all of the parts that I had to send back with it , or hopefully a new long block ( short block plus heads, timing gears and chain, lifters, push rods and rocker arms), or even better a new turn key engine ( this is a complete engine ready to drop in bolt up, wire and crank). I will most likely end up getting either option 1 or option 2, which I would be happy with either.
I started by taking the exhaust manifolds off to get them out of the way, then the carbuerator. Then I enlisted Katie's help in getting the #1 piston to TDC (top dead center) so that getting the distributior back in correctly would not be a pain in the butt, then I removed said distributior, and then the intake manifold. When the intake came off, I had a sinking feeling because I saw bits of shiney metal in the valley between the heads. Then I took off the valve covers and saw that the exhaust valve on the #5 cyclindar was missing and that the spring ang collar was laying loose on the top of the head, tot a real bad feeling. At this point I stopped and called Advanced auto parts, the part store I had bought the head from a few weeks agao) and explain what has happened and that it looks like the valve stem had broken and that I was going to have to get the head exchanged on warrenty. The manager says not a problem that he will have me a new cylindar head in the morning and that they would also give me a new head gasket set. Not to bad, so I go back out and takethe head off and this is what I saw:
At this point I stopped and called the parts store back and say well it looks like when the valve messed up it took out the piston as well. manager says not a problem that he could cover a piston in the warrenty as well. I asked about getting things like the cylindar bored and honed if it was messed up, or even worse if it was messed up beyond repair, what would I need to do. He said that anything like that would have to go through the vendor that supplied the head. So I decide to see how bad the damage is and with Katies help ( as a spotter), I start turning the motor by the fly wheel, and she told me that the busted piston was not moving, so I rolled it back to #1 TDC again and got back out from under the truck, and just for giggles crawled into the engine compartment and bumped the piston with my hand and it slid most of the way back down the cylindar, and I was able to see this:
Called the parts store once again and told the manager that the block was bead and o\would need to be replaced, and asked what kind of info I would need to bring in with the head to get everything covered. He said that I would need a written estimate from a shop on what it would cost to swap out the engine. I called a local shop that I have used a few times explained the sitution and got a price just for the labor, $1428.00! Took the pictures, and went to the shop picked up the labor quote, went to Wal-mart printed the pictures, then went to the parts store. Droped everything off, KAtie and I went back to wal-mart to do some grocery shopping. While we were shopping the manager from the parts store calls back and says that since I had installed the head myself that the vendor was not wanting to cover all of the damage done, he gave me their number and I call them. After about 10 mintues of some lady telling me that there was no way that a vale stem could just break I finally told her that yes they could, they do, and I had one that did. I also told her that while I did not know what cause the valve stem and the spring to seperate that they did, and that I had installed the head properly. She told me that I would have to take the head, all of the rocker arms, push rods and what ever pieces of the valve assembly that I had found to the store and submit a claim through the store. I told her that I had alreay removed the rocker arms from the head and taken the head to the store, but that I knew which rocker arm and puch rod were on the bad valve and that I would bag those seperat from the rest and take them to the store. When Katie and I got home I bagged up the requested parts and went back to the parts store to drop them off. I also talked to the manager for a bit about when the head would get sent back, and how long it would take for me to hear back about if they would pay to cover all of the damage or not. he told me that it would be Monday before he would be able to ship the head back to the vendor, and it would probably take a few weeks. I hope that when the vendor sees the head they will say that yes it was a faulty head that caused all of the damage ( because the truck was running fine until yesterday), and that they will cover the cost of a new short block (this is just the block, crank and cam shaft and 8 pistons) and replace the faulty head and all of the parts that I had to send back with it , or hopefully a new long block ( short block plus heads, timing gears and chain, lifters, push rods and rocker arms), or even better a new turn key engine ( this is a complete engine ready to drop in bolt up, wire and crank). I will most likely end up getting either option 1 or option 2, which I would be happy with either.