Depressing Day!

Bryce Frazier

Well-known Member
Finished putting the new injectors in the 2001 Duramax yesterday, truck was FINALLY done. Drove it around for awhile, ran great, preformed great, no problems, couldn't be happier.

Went out to start it this morning to move it and it hydro locked and broke a rod.................

After a lot of yelling, screaming, cussing, and maybe even a little crying, I just walked away from it. What a GREAT way to start your day!

Anyways, everything has to come back apart, and the engine has to come out of it. yay...

Rant over.
 
You'd better have lots of money and a well-paying need/use for a newer diesel pickup BEFORE you buy it.

Also, sadly, they are not very forgiving of botched attempts at repair.
 
I feel for you,but I've said for quite a while now that those things are just for kids who want to make a lot of smoke and noise. Now I can add,kids with deep pockets and a spare vehicle.

I got rid of my old diesel pickup about a month ago and I'll never have another one.
 
Wow, bothed attempts at repair huh? I like to think I can do a little better than that.

This was my first time ever working on a diesel, and still think I did pretty well. I don't know what went wrong, and while it is somewhat catastrophic, it is still fixable.

I bought this truck with the intention of keeping it as a puller, because that's what they were built for, however once I was done with the injectors, I would have been able to sell it for around $15,000 here, which would have made me about $5000.
 
I'm not in it for the smoke and noise, I just think they are a really good, hard pulling engine. I have my 1995 with the 5.7 in it I drive all the time ( and plan on continuing to do so). Also am half owner (with my dad) of a 2000 GMC as well that is a VERY nice truck. I bought this truck right, and had a lot of money room to dump some into it to get it fixed. Just wanted to have it around as a trailer puller, which we do a LOT of!! ;)
 
kinda curious how you know all this by going out to try and start it. one thing with the diesel engine they must be taken care of . not just jump in and pedal to the metal cold engine in the winter. seen many screwed up that way in the fords. i have a 2006 duramax i bought new and have 350,000k on it and not a bit of problems. i also would never buy a used diesel without knowing its history. they are very good pulling engine and i haved pulled a lot of loads with mine. only complaint i have is they need a larger rad for pulling. treat them right and they dont give problems. all im saying is with a used unit you dont have any guarantee what your getting.
 
How do you know it hydra locked? Did you pull the glow plugs and get liquid? I just put injecters in my 2003 and have a similar problem. We replaced the injecters then in two days drove it with a trailer about 500 miles. It ran great. The next morning when I started it the truck ran rough. I called out to my youngest son and he walked over and the truck engine seized up while we were sitting in it. We put it in the shop and pulled the glow plugs and got no fluid(diesel or antifreeze). We got at the front crankshaft pulley and we can turn it over but it is hard.Not sure what we are going to find when we tear it down but it did have plenty of oil pressure (at least to the gauge). This was a totally stock truck that had never been chipped and still had all the factory emission stuff. We had just bought it from California.My oldest son has one that is chipped, with oversized turbo and rode hard and put away wet and he never has problems. I wasn't sure I wanted a diesel but we do pull a trailer alot and there are lots of them out on the road as work trucks. Tom
 
"Wow, bothed attempts at repair huh? I like to think I can do a little better than that."

Bryce, I wasn't being entirely critical of you, but if AFTER injector replacement it had liquid in a cylinder, it doesn't necessarily indicate a particularly successful or skilled repair job.

Again, without criticism of you, it takes a lot of skill, luck, and possible divine intervention to keep oil, diesel fuel, and coolant all where they belong in a modern pickup truck diesel engine. There's a LOT to go wrong, fail/warp/leak/plug up, etc. and high-dollar repairs are common.
 
Had 200k on my 5.4 with no troubles and didn't burn oil and ran good still. Truck was just rusty or I
would still have it.
 
Really? That is like almost exactly what happened here. I fired it off yesterday after we finished the repair, warmed it up for a good 10 or 15 min, then drove it around the neighbor hood for probably 15 -20 min. Pulled into the yard, and it kind of missed a few times? Figured I had air in the fuel system a little or something, and before I knew it, it was running fine again?

Pulled it into the shop and parked it.

This morning when I went to it, it BARELY cranked, fired, knocked, and I shut it off, but there were 4 bad knocks in a row, now it only turns about 1/3rd of a turn and locks up. That is with a wrench on the front pulley. I did pull all of the glow plugs, and never found any fluid, however one of them was bent/broke. It was the 3rd back, drivers side. We suspect that is the rod that broke and it sent the piston up a little higher than it should have, and bent the element on the end of the glow plug. Let me know what you find, and I will do the same. Bryce
 
I feel for you Bryce, but you do have a few things going for you. It's in your shop, it's not the machine that's earning your living, and its a fair sight cheaper than a heavy truck engine.

I've been back on the road about a week ago after getting the engine rebuilt in my 2015 Western Star. It cost 3k for towing it to my favored dealership, 33k for a complete inframe including new pistons, liners, head, injectors, manifold, and turbo, plus nearly 7k to fix the computer issues that caused the meltdown to begin with. Granted, those prices are in Canadian dollars, but you get the picture. Also lost nearly 2 weeks of work.

You'll come out of it a poorer, but wiser man. I know I sure did.
 

Sometimes you get the bear,, and sometimes the bear gets you..

I think we have all been there, so we are hoping it comes out well for you. fingers crossed on this end.
 
Lyndon, the last ISX 565 Cummins we did at
the dealer I used to work for was around 50
grand; you ain't kidding that they ain't
cheap!
 
Lyndon, No block ventilation luckily. Oil
cooler failure roached the main bearings/
crank with coolant, in turn grinding
everything else up in there lol. All new
parts though!
 
I'm sure glad these things are just for kids sure Is funny how much work I've gotten out of mine while averaging 12.5 to 13 mpg at freeway speed
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Well Bryce, that's too bad. I've had similar things happen. Not quite like that, but I know what you mean. I was putting the main shaft/pinion and countershaft back into a 450 IH I was working on when my dad came over. I had the countershaft back in and was getting ready to put the gears back on the main shaft. I had to leave for a little bit to go help my dad. I don't know what I was thinking, must have not been thinking, but when I got back to it, I slid 1st gear down the main shaft and then dropped all the others on. Got the rest of the stuff together, and slid the tractor back together, bolted it all up. Went to put the top cover on the trans, noticed I had put 1st gear on the shaft backwards. Lots of cussing for a bit, then I just decided to get after it, it wasn't going to work that way, or tear itself apart. I split it again, pulled the main shaft back out, slid all the gears off, flipped first gear, was going back together, and dropped the shaft with all the gears onto my finger which got stuck in between the shaft and the casting where the mainshaft bearing support goes. Well, that machined casting was as sharp as a razor on edge, and it just about cut through the joint of my middle finger. By now I was ready to be done, so I wrapped some tape around it, got the shaft in and slid it back together, then dropped the trans top cover down and bolted it up. By the time I was done, I had blood over every tool I'd used and all over that transmission. The anger within myself for such a stupid mistake made me just stick it out until it was a sealed up, moving unit again, which was my original goal. Sure it took much longer than I wanted to stay at the shop, but it was done correctly this time. Live and learn. I'll never laugh about that one though, I already have one finger I can't bend due to cutting it off when I was real little, and I couldn't bend that middle finger for a couple months, it really screwed that joint up.
 
Big bummer! Sorry to hear about this.

I am curious tho, any pics been posted of the truck? Seen your posts about but haven't noticed any pics yet.
 
I had mine for 26 years. Ran the heck out of it,but when I bought it,gas engines had carburetors and distributors. The newer gassers are a whole different animal. If you have a good use for a diesel,you'll get no argument from me,but how many of them really get used hard? Most are just used for transportation by guys who want to make smoke and noise.
 
I hear you there. I've been that kid - sort of. Had diesels and now have a gasser and so far very happy. Sam
 
(quoted from post at 06:06:19 04/24/17) I had mine for 26 years. Ran the heck out of it,but when I bought it,gas engines had carburetors and distributors. The newer gassers are a whole different animal. If you have a good use for a diesel,you'll get no argument from me,but how many of them really get used hard? Most are just used for transportation by guys who want to make smoke and noise.

Yes your probably right most of them just like to put big tires on and blow smoke but i actually use em for what they were built for I even owned one gm diesel re man motor lasted 100k and developed blow buy that looked like a steam engine when you pulled the oil cap off I sold that one for Parts
 

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