Builds 4bt cummins 96 FZJ

[2fpower]

I feel stupid, you drove this beast to my house last night, and I was so preoccupied with my project, I did not check it out!

I got out of the shop just in time to hear it going down the drive. It sounded great!!

 

[cjmoon]

it’s old news I just keep polished it. At this point portals are way more exciting!!!

 

[cjmoon]

Well... don’t know what to say,this is becoming an all to often scene. Head pulled again. Started pushing fluid out 500miles after the last head gausket.

For the cliff notes version: blew head gausket massively fall of 2016. My fault pushing advanced timing, like 25deg with dynamic advance and 40psi plus boost on stock set up. Rebuild and throw the book at it. ARP studs injectors new aftermarket head new pistons rings rods.... the typical waterfall. Pull the timing back to stock with rebuild but with M&H timing advance still have injection pump issues limiting boost to about 25psi. 5000miles in a hard 3000k through CO with trailer and load overheating on the passes like monarch slowly reducing speed and stopping a mile from the top to cool. In summer 2017. New injection pump fall 2017 and boost is back to limited 32. Blowing coolent within 2 weeks in the fall of 2017. That sucks probably just my trip to CO catching up with me right? Let’s slap a new head gausket and thermostat in.... 500 miles and right back to blown state of pushing coolent slight miss.

so your caught up on the last few pages and pics.

Re torque the head. Yes I understand it’s too late but now more curious than anything. Coolent over pressure and miss is much less. It has a noticeable miss below 1800rpm and above 25psi. Interesting. Since the last head gausket didn’t show much I figured I’d keep the radiator full and run it like it’s stollen for a month. 1000 miles more and s*** gausket looks identical. No Notable blown spot.

Drop head off at a we’ll know shop last week and there clam is surface finish is too rough and it’s warped. There clam is after market heads (see it a ton on ford 6.0) have issues.

Not sure we’re to go now. do I pull the block and have the deck checked?

 

[Mr Cimarron]

How does your #4 cylinder wall look? On the 5.9 #6 is the one that get the hottest.
If it was me I would pull the block or your going to be second guessing yourself.

 

[scottryana]

Man I hate to see this, I can only imagine how frustrating this can be. Especially when you did your research and picked what is supposed to be a pretty bulletproof engine. If the truck can sit for a while I might look around for a spare engine and do the rebuild out of the truck so you have eyes and measurements on every critical piece and part.

 

[cjmoon]

How does your #4 cylinder wall look? On the 5.9 #6 is the one that get the hottest.
If it was me I would pull the block or your going to be second guessing yourself.

#4 looks great no noteable wear I put new pistons rings and hone 7k miles ago.

I even have a block sitting in the garage but it needs sleeved which is not really something I want to due. It would sit a long time as I’m not going to put that kind of money into it right now. I might have a line on borrowing some nice block deck inspection tools. Hoping it pans out as pulling the engine isn’t on my short list of projects either.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I haven't had any of these issues, and drive it as hard as I can. I haven't overheated mine though.

Do you have a machinist's straight edge? If you clean the block real well, and have a true straight edge within .001", you can use feeler gauges to check the block yourself.

Did you have the head checked the last time you replaced the head gasket? Maybe the head warped last time and this time it blew because you put a warped head back on.

 

[cjmoon]

That’s what I was hoping to borrow.

No I throw the dice thinking new head before 5k I just screwed something up let’s see what happens. I lost I’m not blaming cummins or bashing reliability. I tend to try and skate the edge of cheap. Which is funny because for work as an engineer I don’t. If money is avalible. I’m all in. It’s all about a balanced budget if you don’t use it you lose it. Personally it’s more of an experiment of how much can I gain with very little input. Repurpose and reuse when ever possible.

 

[cjmoon]

Head is back .004” warped and noted rough finish. Should have followed my gut when I got the new head a year and a half ago. Looked bad running my finger over it no catch at all. In a stock motor it Prabably works just fine but when I’m pushed 30+ it just isn’t going to hack it.

Block checked good so it’s all come my back together. I guess I’ll do the couple heat cycles and Retorque. many do it on the net and swear by the 3 times process. Remove each stud individually clean relube and retorque move in to the next stud.

 

[Jgunner]

Da50 comes to mind as far as finish. High boost gas engines use that and mls or copper gaskets. Mls i think is better.

 

[scottryana]

Close. 50 ra or less for Cometic, and 60 or less for Felpro MLS.

Da50 comes to mind as far as finish. High boost gas engines use that and mls or copper gaskets. Mls i think is better.

 

[Jgunner]

Close. 50 ra or less for Cometic, and 60 or less for Felpro MLS.

Ahhhh, thats right. Knew it sounded odd. Thanks for the correction.

 

[cjmoon]

Been back together for a week. I’ve been pussy footing it around 20psi max to do head retorque. Did that tonight one stud at a time clean stud and relube with arp grease and retorque. After torquing originally to 125ftlbs. The highest back out torque was 108ftlbs... not sure what to think of that. As I worked out from the center unbolting torque dropped to low 90’s. Tried backing out one in the middle after finishing and 140 would not back it out. Using digital torque wrench so I could watch.

Guess I’ll do a round 3 in a few days. I’ve seen a bunch of back and forth on this practice with the diesel forums. With these results I’d have to agree with the practice.

New fans and radiator also. GPI aluminum from China eBay. Have a separate thread with details and comparision to a Ron Davis USA made. Ron Davis quality as expected is very nice.

 

[cjmoon]

I can’t seem to get any love from the cruiser this year. I’ve wrecked my flex plate. At idle it sounds like a gaggle of monkeys with wrenches beating on steel pipes. Right off idle no sound at all runs great. Inspection trying to find said monkeys I found this...

 

[bryson]

Oh. That sucks.

 

[cjmoon]

Oh. That sucks.

In frustration I sent Dustin aka duiser off-road aka diesel adapters aka allmaras machine shop an email asking how much a new flex plate would cost and I’ll get and escrow account opened up right away. I’d guess I’ll be on my own in making a replacement as this is one of his early models that uses his own in house flex vs a dodge part like his newest version.

 

[cody c]

I went through two or three flex plates related to a less than perfect bellhousing adapter (what I believe is the cause).

Then I went to the NV4500 with the AA adapter to split case. That whole assembly has been a bit leaky, now looking to go to the adapter posted in the diesel section to a full time case (I prefer full time where we get snow on the roads as much of the year as we tend to in Calgary).

Anyway, I was bleeding money every time a flex plate went, it got old quick, not that the NV4500 and adapter were cheap.

Edit: I should say I much prefer the NV4500. It's not as quick or simple as an auto around the city, I like how it idles in different gears, much prefer gearing down over using the brakes in many circumstances, can tow-start it if needed vs. the auto. For the most part I've never missed the auto, though I do enjoy the simplicity of the wife's 4runner when I get in it in contrast.

 

[mjosoba]

Hey, I think we have the same adapter. If you can’t get him to make you one, and want an unmolested one to reverse engineer, you’re welcome to borrow mine. PM me if you are interested and I’ll give you my number. I’m just down in Wichita.

 

[cjmoon]

We’ll after finally letting it sink in that my trip to the Rocky’s would be cruiser less, I put it on the back burner. Finally got back on this horse.

At least the external flywheel pilot is long enough so a spacer and flex plate should be good.

My plan is a 4130 plate thickness TBD??? options .08” same as this original plate
.09”
.125”

Planning on some holes to allow better flex like every other flex plate in the world. Plate will be water jetted out to reduce any stresses. Thought about laser and having it machined. With out doing post anneling/normalizing water seems like best route.

 

[mjosoba]

Man that thing is trashed. Did you ever hear back from Dustin?