I broke my truck again

[John DiMartino]

I am having a streek of bad luck lately.I was on my way to the NE Hooters meet yesterday on I84,to meet up with Pelican,and i was just cruising along fine,when I got the urge to play with my HP a little,and stretch its legs.There are a lot of long grades going east on 84,I was rolling into the throttle,fueling box on:D ,but not on level 5 only level 4;) .So I was flirting with 50-55psi maybe 10 times in 20 minutes.I got off to met Pelican and heard my heater core gurgling,a glance at the temp guage showed everything normal,and I still had heat.After parking we took a peek,and antifreeze had blown out the overflow.I dont know how much I lost,so after a brief cooldown I shut it off,and it puked another quart or 2 out. I made it home last night after adding a gallon of antifreeze,and as I got off my exit the temp guage started to climb towards 200 again,so a quick top of got me home.
Last night a good friend and fellow Dodge owner helped me pull it apart in the shop.I can see the channel cut by the compression into the cooling passage.There was no visable damage to the fire rings.If I go down to the shop today ill shoot some pics of the gasket,and rings for those who arent familair with them,and want to see them.
This stuff can and will happen when you push it hard,but my setups should have held 80psi easily.I had been hitting 67-69 psi last week with a different set of injectors,but when it blew I was only flirting with 55psi tops.Now Im getting to the point where Im ready to return it to single turbo(did I say that),to keep the gasket intact. I cant afford to have this truck down,and now were getting snow this week,it figures. I have 2 theorys on why it failed ,one is the head studds are stretched and just cannot keep the clamping force on the gasket/rings under high boost(this is the most likey),and the second is the deck surface of the block is warped slightly.I have a brand new head on it now I didnt straight edge it last night,but I dont think its the problem. Now when i put it together Im going to baby this thing til spring for fear of blowing it again.(that is SO hard for me to do).

[gslam88]

John,

I am sorry to hear about your truck being down again. Not the best timing for it.... but no reason to go to such drastic measures as to revert it to a single turbo.... Its kinda like yelling to a guy on a ledge just about to jump... Don't do it.. it's just not worth it...

As far as why it happened... you did mill the block with the new head correct? and if the head bolts are not holding it and you upgraded them to 14mm then maybe something else is arye??

Maybe its time to swap out the Cummins for say a Cat 3406 C-16 motor for some real brute muscle a 600hp 2050lbs of torque stock motor…. The only problem that I see is the weight… almost 2700lbs for the motor… don’t think your truck could handle that weight easily… but I could be wrong.. oh and that would mean the tranny and drive shaft . rear end would go to???

Well if there is an answer we are all sure you will find it


Pete

[John DiMartino]

Thanks Pete,there is an anwser,but it involves pulling the motor,stripping it down getting 14mm studds cut in the block ,milling the block,reaming the head bolt holes,and reassembling it all.Its a 3 day job easily and i just do not have the time/space now to do it,the cost should be around 2K just an estimate.The part is i shouldnt be having these problems now that im drug free.

[phoenix827]

Just curious here, How do you have your turbo's hooked up? Parallel or series? Is it possible you are pushing more boost then the guage is seeing? (ie gauge is only seeing one turbo)

[John DiMartino]

My turbos are in compound,and the boost is measured at the intake horn going into the motor so im measuring the boost the engine is seeing.In sure that if i were to measure it at the turbos it would be a tiny bit higher,since there is some loss thru the intercooler and piping.Somewhere there are pics floating around of my twins. I can try to dig them up later.

[phoenix827]

Originally posted by John DiMartino
My turbos are in compound, :confused: As in one feeding into the other one? That explains the 50+ lbs of boost!!:burnout

[John DiMartino]

This is not the system I have on my truck.But you can see how it works. Mine uses a bigger turbo on top,and different wastgating,The wastegate plumbing is messy,mine has it all internally. This system works the same though. The top turbo does 99% of the work(just like stock),until about 20-25psi of boost,then the wastegate dumps the boost.By then the bottom turbo is rolling strong and it takes over,supplying the majority of boost to the top turbo.The top turbo does about 20psi worth of worth when rolling WOT.http://www.texasdieselworks.com/Compounds.htm

[Big Nate's Plowing]

what pump are you running John? did Piers get his hands on it ?

[John DiMartino]

I had a streak of good luck today so far.The parts got here at 10:15 this morning i was able to get the truck into the shop ,cleaned off by 200pm.I had it running by 730,i looked outside and it was whiteout! I got done just in time.Its snowing like 2-3" an hr right now. Im very glad to have the Dodge running again,I got both plows on and Im tired,but ready to go.

[Prosno]

John buddy, you must be beat. Its amazing how we do what we have to just to keep going in business. Let us know how you make out in this storm and good luck bud.

[76chevyman]

Im glad you got it running in time for the snow. I was woundering that today while i was plowing, and im glad you didint have to lose out on the storm. Hope you have run with the blizzard and side wing

Rich:burnout

[gslam88]

John


I though the last time the truck was down you were using "limping along" in the blazer....you did not want to use the back up truck if the dodge was up and running huh???

Gee I think I can understand.....


Did you get any sleep at all with the storm....

If you keep breaking and fixing the dodge... your not going to have any time for customers or plowing..... or work....





Pete


Hopefully all is ok up north!!!

[76chevyman]

Maybe we should put a govenor init for him so he doesnt have to break it all the time with all the power:burnout LOL

Rich:burnout

[gslam88]

Rich,


I think if we limited him to say 50% of his power... he would lose his mind.... it would be like driving a stock truck to him....

I love it... lets see if we can con him to going to Hooters... while distracted at the women.. .install it on his truck....

What do you say guys....???


Pete

[John DiMartino]

Pete,I am sorry to say I have stock injectors in my truck now:rolleyes: .This is terrible im severly fuel limited now! the trucks a dog,but hopefully it will stay togther til i can get the job done right then i can play again. Im keeping the boost below 20PSI(not easy) It is together and running but the fire rings arent 100%.

[76chevyman]

Im sure if i give Jiggly $50 she will keep John mind busy so we can goveren his truck LMFAO
But he may have lost enough power as it is with the stock injectors. If we take anymore he may think he has a ford:eek:

Rich:burnout:

[gslam88]

John,


If you break you truck again I am sorry to say... we will have to force you to driving only your blazer... it stock has a plow and you can get to work and take care of your customers for plowing....
And we will seal up the engine area so that you can't modify it in any way....

If you break that... welll its time for us to break out the really bad news and put you in a 1973 AMC Gremlin....

So its time to behave and be a good boy for a while...


Don't make me come up there and swap your truck out!!!!!



Pete


Things could get messy soon ..........

[phoenix827]

Hmm, Will a CTD fit under the hood of that?:grinz

[Joe]

John-Did the fire rings fail? Or did you have other problems?