Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Truck's Puking Tar & Locking Up

[SConklin]

I don't know if this is related to previous fuel/oil issues, but I had my truck parked facing downhill in my driveway, and I went to start it, and the starter turned the motor, then it just stopped with a large bump, and rocked the truck. I kept trying it, to the same thing - turn over, bam, then quit. I tried keeping the key turned, and the starter very, very slowly, turned over again, and eventually (after 20 seconds of this or so, started to get the RPM's to rise, very rough. Finally, the truck became self sustaining, and idles again. When I looked outside the truck, it had puked out huge globs of tar-like oil, very thick. It also puked it out of somewhere in the front, but I'm unable to tell where from - it is not drippping, or leaking anymore, and there was already residual oil from a main seal leak that I had fixed - which makes locating the other stuff dificult.

I don't know how it could spew out the front and back, unless there were a leak upfront somewhere in the exhaust system.

Any ideas? I just replaced the fuel injectors/o-rings, and shims, and it has brand new oil. The truck has a VP44 going south, but it still runs with a stumble and typical related issues. I just drove it about 2000 miles the past couple weeks, and it never did anything like this.

I did have, previous to the trip, an oil leak from one of the turbos because of a bad drain setup, but that was fixed...

Any ideas? The truck runs now, but that's not to say that the problem is fixed. I'm sure it will reappear. Also, the truck is not drinking any oil (that I've noticed so far... I'll keep checking).

Skyler

 

[MRose]

You hydro-locked a cylinder with oil. I'd suspect the injector o-rings since you just had them out, and probably the #1 cyl. Had enough oil under the valve cover to seep through while being pointed down hill. Dosen't take much oil with a diesel to hydro-lock. Any lesser of a motor you would have heard more then "bam. " Pretzeled a rod on a 460 from the same thing. Lucky your motor lived. I'm no diesel mechanic but have alot of years on engines and this seems pretty simple to diagnose, cure is park level so the oil drains and reinspect/replace your o-rings/shims.

 

[MRose]

Oh yeah, the oil from the front of the motor, probably your head gasket letting go. They say 55lbs is the max boost on our motor, bet you saw 100 plus psi when you hit the starter, if not more. Sounds like most guys loose their head gaskets on the #1 cylinder and sounds like thats the one you hydro-locked. Sorry. Helped my buddy replace injectors on his old pjoke, before he got a 12v, oil drains into the cylinders when you pull the injectors. Procedure is to pull the glow plugs and cycle the motor, blowing the oil out. He forgot to pull the plugs on his side, hit the starter and WHAM! Hydro-lock, figured out the problem and pull the rest of the glow plugs. Hit the starter, wow! When the oil came out it blew a 6" hole in the under hood insulation, stripped the paint of the metal, and made a oil cloud that filled a 6 car shop and covered his bosses 67' mustang. And that was with the glow plug pulled. Not hard to imagine what happens when you don't have a escape path for the oil, it finds one.