Isuzu powered FJ140 (2 Viewers)

[kowalski]

Where's the crud coming from? Did you look in the fuel tank before you left?

If the tank had varnish from bad gas, this will be an ongoing issue. The new diesel fuel is a great solvent and melts the varnish off the inner tank and the crap will plug filters.

If the tank was clean, then the crap was introduced when buying fuel. I try to buy fuel at stations with high turnover of fuel, so it will be fresh and minimum chance of water in it. Plus don't buy fuel if the tanker is delivering fuel, as this stirs up any water and crap in the storage tank.

With the stock tank, you can drain most water and crud out the drain hole if you let it sit over night. Take a big sample in white bucket and see what you find.

With you heading to MX, I suggest buying a Baja Funnel to pre-filter your fuel. Fairly cheap and work well to keep the junk out.

baja funnel filter - Google Search

Safe travels

The tank was clean inside when I left, I made sure to take a peak. I put 11,000km on the swap before leaving as well, I believe the crud came from a shady fill up in a nowhere town. I made the mistake of trusting the place after seeing several trucks filling up there, it was shortly before getting to Moab, so it does make logical sense.

I have the newer style Manafree 38 gallon tank, it has a good drain point if I ever need to drain it. I have put another 800km on it since I replaced the filter and have not had any issues, the clear bowl on the Racor filter has nothing in it either. THank you for the suggestions though, Jeremy put me onto the Baja funnel, I just did not suspect that I would need it until Mexico....

He has a 55 gallon tank not the stock one. agreed on the varnish, I had all sort's of stuff come loose when I swapped
to diesel.

I suggested before he left and belive he got a Baja filter funnel already.

Mike I would get 5 of the Racor fuel water filters as this is your first filter and likely to clog much more than the main engine filter is as it's getting fuel right out of the tank and is your first line of defence.

Did you ever get some of the small in line diesel filters I suggested? Napa sells them and they are likely much cheaper and easier to change plus they are see through. they only filter at 130mu but it's a good indictator of what is getting to the other filter's.

I will be getting at least 5 Racor filters, I suspect getting them in Mexico and even further south will be difficult at best. The nice part is I have already had to order a valve cover gasket in a nowhere town, and parts for the motor were only 1 day out from the local mechanic.

I looked at the small in line filters, but I stuck with the Racor and the Isuzu main filter. THe price i got for the inline filter was $15, and the Racor was $28 and I figure the Racor will easily out last 2 of the in line filters, and I have the isuzu filter to catch anything that gets by the Racor. Now that I have gotten the stock Racor filter off changing the filters will be easy + the racor has the clear bowl for inspection and draining.

After putting a turbo on my n/a 2L it starved itself of diesel. The injection pump couldn't keep up so I just added a 12v inline fuel pump with a relay that triggers on with the ignition.

Probably not your problem but these pumps are a dime a dozen at any parts store. Plus I never have to prime my system. Does it automatically.

I looked at the 12v feed pumps but opted because its working great the way it is so i would just be adding another possible failure point with no real gain. PLus I have read of issues with over pressuring the feed for the IP pump or the 12v pumps being a restriction due to inaccurate flow ratings.

With clean filters I have no issues getting all the fuel I need!

I got the bosch primer pump. It works great and I have never had any issue priming after 20 or so pumps.

 

[kowalski]

Another interesting piece of information is fuel filters come wrapped in plastic which is great for keeping dust out...

Just realized oil filters do not come wrapped, which seems crazy. Had to throw out all my spare oil filters after Moab... Red earth was literally everywhere, took me and my wife a solid 3 hours to clean the inside of the truck after. The plus to this is it has never been this clean before!

Going to put my new spare oil filters in zip lock bags from now on.

 

[gerg]

I like wix filters as they filter 18 microns which is pretty fine for a full flow filter. They come wrapped.

 

[kowalski]

I like wix filters as they filter 18 microns which is pretty fine for a full flow filter. They come wrapped.

These were all Wix filters... The Wix oil filters did not come wrapped for some reason though.

 

[gerg]

Weird. Your right not to trust an unwrapped filter. Could be terrible. Opening up a system like that always has risks. That's why you should never trust a filter change to another person you don't know...like a quickie changearoo place. Who knows what gets used.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

911***

Mike is broken down 20kms from the Mexico border on the US side. Looks like he has lost a piston or broken rings. Engine will not run and when I does it blows all the oil out the crank case breather.

He is getting towed to San Deago now. Any recommendations of shops to take it too? I sent him the list on SoCal shops on mud here and the local Isuzu dealer. Even a cruiser guy willing to let him use some space to dig into it?

Post here or Pm me and I will forward to him.

 

[kowalski]

911***

Mike is broken down 20kms from the Mexico border on the US side. Looks like he has lost a piston or broken rings. Engine will not run and when I does it blows all the oil out the crank case breather.

He is getting towed to San Deago now. Any recommendations of shops to take it too? I sent him the list on SoCal shops on mud here and the local Isuzu dealer. Even a cruiser guy willing to let him use some space to dig into it?

Post here or Pm me and I will forward to him.

Thank you Jeremy,

we are at Draco Isuzu now, but they are not open until Monday.


Truck runs very rough, very little power. Blows clouds of blue smoke, and there is oil puking out the breather tube and oil getting blown out the dip stick.

We were going up a pretty long hill holding EGT's at 1,100 then all of a sudden I noticed it give up a bit then egt's went to 1,300 before I backed off the throttle and pulled over. No unusual noises so I am hoping its only rings... By the time I pulled over we had smoked out the highway with blue smoke. It still starts but its seems to only be running on 2 or 3 cylinders.

the motor quit as I pulled off the highway but the egt gauge read 800, I figured the damage was already done to the motor so I started it back up to idle it down to 400 to try and save the turbo.

Guess we are sleeping in their parking lot for the weekend...

 

[gerg]

Gahh!

 

[kowalski]

Gahh!

There are 2 positive sides I'm trying to keep in my mind.

1. we didn't actually make it to mexico before this happened. If this happened in Mexico I'm not sure we would be as safe or fortunate sa we are now...

2. Draco Isuzu seems to have a really good reputation, so hopefully that will hold true when the truck actually goes in for repairs...


Hopefully most of the parts are salvageable... I'm not super interested in doing a complete enginge rebuild after 17,000km...

 

[gerg]

Hmm yeah I was thanking the good Lord you weren't in ol Mexico too. Let me know what you need if I can help. Only thing that sticks in my mind is ring gap perhaps? Sure does sound like broken ring or a cracked piston. I'm really hoping it will be localized to one cylinder.
God bless
g

 

[kowalski]

Hmm yeah I was thanking the good Lord you weren't in ol Mexico too. Let me know what you need if I can help. Only thing that sticks in my mind is ring gap perhaps? Sure does sound like broken ring or a cracked piston. I'm really hoping it will be localized to one cylinder.
God bless
g

Agreed, I'm just a bit frustrated because I had the Lordco Machine shop check that when it was in for balancing. I had debated replacing the pistons and sleeves due to 1 blemish in 1 cylinder but he talked me out of replacing it. I wont know more until the week starts as the dealer is cllsed on weekends.

I haven't pushing it at all, I haven't been heavy on the throttle at all. I have let it warm up and cool down before and after each trip. Oil is still very clean after 7,000km, just picked up oil to do a change too.

I thought after 17,000km we were well past the catastrophic failure due to rebuild error point too.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

If you where in Mexico I think this would be a much diffrent story.

Glad that Isuzu dealer has good reviews. Hopefully they can get you sorted. I have a feeling this will be at least sleeves and pistons.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Sorry to hear. That sucks, especially for it to happen during a trip.

I thought after 17,000km we were well past the catastrophic failure due to rebuild error point too.

something I've found with any rebuild or engine swap I've done, if I hear an odd noise, or something fails, I always second guess what's been done

 

[cruisedeisel]

Bunk marbles. On the bright side, your making one hell of a story to tell. I hope all goes well and the shop treats you well.

 

[doug720]

Mike,

Sorry to hear of the problems...

If needed, I live near LAX in Los Angeles and have a pretty well equipped shop (where I did my swap) you are welcome to use. I also have my spare 4BD2 on the bench getting ready to assembly, so I have all the parts on hand if needed.

One thing to look at, and the problem that killed the spare motor I bought was a bad injector. This engine was a brand new rebuild, but an injector was bad and dumped fuel in the cylinder, which caused a piston break.

Hope the problem is minor and the dealer gets you back on the road ASAP, but keep me in mind.

Doug

 

[kowalski]

Mike,

Sorry to hear of the problems...

If needed, I live near LAX in Los Angeles and have a pretty well equipped shop (where I did my swap) you are welcome to use. I also have my spare 4BD2 on the bench getting ready to assembly, so I have all the parts on hand if needed.

One thing to look at, and the problem that killed the spare motor I bought was a bad injector. This engine was a brand new rebuild, but an injector was bad and dumped fuel in the cylinder, which caused a piston break.

Hope the problem is minor and the dealer gets you back on the road ASAP, but keep me in mind.

Doug

Thank you, I Jeremy and I were thinking the same thing aobut a dripping injector... Depending on the quote I get from this pace to fix it I might get it towed up there and take you up on the offer! thank you so much!

 

[doug720]

Hoping it's simple.

 

[gerg]

Hmm like jetting a hole in it? Nasty. Still though that might be best case scinerio as it would be fairly easy to replace that stuff and the liner might just need a hone to break in new rings with the new piston. I am going to have to pay more attention to my injectors when I switch to DI. IDI engines can go decades on crappy injectors.

 

[doug720]

The spare 4BD2 I bought is IDI, and the failed injector melted the piston then it broke. So it can happen to an IDI too.

 

[gerg]

Hmm I see. I wonder if this had anything to do with all the crap he has in the tank with the plugged fuel filters?
g