Stuck in Elko!

[DrivingZiggy]

I'm stranded in Elko, Nevada, whilst my truck is in the shop for several days. I'm at the Stockmen's hotel/casino, $30 per night. No frills.

[Big_Dave]

Now what'd ya do to your truck? :p :wtf:

[DrivingZiggy]

I'm not sure yet. It over heated going up hill for a couple of minutes. But since the display only said "Check Diagnostics", and it quit as I crested the hill, I figgered it was because the coolant reservoir was low. So I filled it.

But then after sitting--not idling--for a couple of hours waiting for the fire fighters to do their thing on the prairie, they made us go the other way. About 50 miles down the road, it began running rough.

When I was finally able to get towed ($500), the tech at the Detroit Diesel shop said that all he could tell me was that I had a cylinder that wasn't firing. So we figured it was probably an injector.

But there was no room in the shop and I was 11th on the list. But a tech was able to go out to the parking lot and do a little bit and discover that there was anti-freeze coming out of the exhaust. Probably means head gasket. But the worser of it is that the head is also destroyed and since he can't get it into the shop until something comes out of the shop, he can't tell me if I dropped a valve or two or if it's a piston that came apart.

So I still don't know if they're gonna be replacing the head and doing an inframe or what. I also don't know yet if whatever happened is going to be covered under warranty.

I'm in limbo.

[Big_Dave]

:yikes:

I hope the motel has a good bar or hopefully there's a good bar within walking distance. :cheers: :cheers:

Hopefully the damage isn't as bad as it sounds. :wacko:

[DrivingZiggy]

They finally got the truck into a space in the shop Friday. Bad news is that the guy working on it is also the service manager, so he has to stop working and answer the phone every couple of minutes. But they finally got the head off just before closing last night.

Here's a picture of the #6 injector. I asked him what would cause the spring to break like that (look near the top) and his answer was, "Impact".
http://drivingziggy.com///Injector6.jpg
This is the #5 injector. It appears to be broken in about the same place, and he told me that was common and it may have been broken for quite some time.
http://drivingziggy.com///Injector5.jpg

But those aren't the kind of pictures you want to see!

Here are 2 of the valves. Notice that one of them is, uhhhhhhhh, incomplete.
http://drivingziggy.com///Valves.jpg


What about the combustion chamber? Yup, that's a valve wedged in there sideways. But Ziggy, what happened to the other 2 valve's heads? You guessed it! Through the turbo and out the exhaust.
http://drivingziggy.com///CombustionChamber.jpg
So that means: new head, new turbo, 2 new injectors. Now they're also suspecting that when the piston came all the way to the top and discovered that it had lost some clearance, that it continued going up anyway. That means probably a bent rod. So they have to do the #6 hole also.

Now, since there were no "overspeed" codes in the computer, it looks like it's all warranty except the #5 injector. They cannot see that the damage to the #5 was caused by the rest, so it looks like something "normal". Okay, so I'll have to pay a few hundred for that. Of course, I won't know anything for sure until Monday when they're able to contact Detroit Diesel. But the service manager is "pretty damn sure" it will be warranty work.

So it looks like I'll be here at least until Tuesday.

[Big_Dave]

A little advice.............

Since they got it tore down that far already, have them do a COMPLETE inframe!

Seriously! I know it's more costly, but at least with an inframe you get a manufacturers warranty on the work that was done.

I'd NEVER settle for just fixing '1 or 2 holes'.

Just some food for thought. :cool: :cheers:

[Big_Dave]

Four years ago when my motor started dumping coolant into the oil pan, they found out that the O-rings around the #1 liner had gone bad.

Even though everything else 'looked good' (as far as wear & tear), I told them to go ahead and do the entire motor.

That way, if I had a problem (of the same type), 6 months down the road, it would be covered under warranty. Why pay for motor tear down twice? "wtf:

No sense taking a motor down for the same thing a short time later.........true?

[DrivingZiggy]

Thanks, Dave. I'll look into it.

[DrivingZiggy]

Okay, I finally got the call.

Hole #6, Injector #6, head, turbo, labor all covered under warranty.

It will cost me about $4000 to get the other 5 holes done--including injectors. So I told them to go ahead and do it.

The kinda strange part will be the warranty. On all of the stuff they are repairing under warranty, the warranty will only run until October which is when the original warranty runs out. For the stuff I'm paying for, the warranty will be 1 year.

So I'll have the peace of mind that comes with having a brand new engine.

[DrivingZiggy]

Well, the cylinder sleeves didn't show up this morning, so it's one more day.

[saddletramp]

Union carrier must be bringing your parts! :harhar:

Honestly though, I hope they get you up and running soon and the new motor will give you many miles ahead with no problems! :)

[DrivingZiggy]

Yeah! Probably even UPS. :harhar: :harhar: :harhar:

So I called the shop just now to see. And (WATCH OUT SADDLETRAMP) the service manager told me that if they were coming UPS they would have been there already. So he thinks they're coming FedEx and FedEx doesn't ever give them any time that they'll be there. So it could be this afternoon--which would put us in jeopardy of not getting out again today.

[saddletramp]

Trust me, even WE can screw up a good weenie roast!! Just ask the many customers who had shipments sitting in 2 trailers in McDermitt Nevada for a day and a half cause some ninwit forgot to dispatch a driver to go pick them up. :wtf:
They were listed on the computer as sitting there and everyone blew them off. Left Reno Monday night, arrived in Spokane last night; 36 hours for 14 hours transit time.....

Were lookin good now! :yikes:

[Big_Dave]

36 hours for 14 hours transit time.....
Oops! :wow: :p :rofl:

[DrivingZiggy]

Had another setback today. As he's assembling the second one, he discovers that I have the "old style" rods. The new ones have a hole that carries the oil up to the pin.

I decided that I want the new ones. Every little bit helps--and I don't want to do this again for a looooooong time! Their shop in Salt Lake City has 'em, so they'll be in in the morning.

Look for pics in the "Round Table" area.