i have an 01 ram 1500 with a 5.9 and one day i decide that im going to get some ss gibson headers to match my gibson exhaust... so me being only 17 this is my first time installing headers.. so i decide to do it at my friends house cause hes got all the tools, hes also the kid that has parties all the time and this starting off to be a weekend project that wasnt so good. me and my friends with our limited knowledge we start trying to take stuff off like unhook the flanges that connect to the y-pipe and try to unbolt the exhaust manifold.. we get them all off and at the time that there is an engine with open exhaust ports is about the time people started to show up to start drinking(orange juice..?) but thats all besides the point because idk if that was the problem with having a million people near me while working on my truckbut the next day we finish up and go to start it and it started but there was a problem that could have been 1 of 3 things, 1 air was leaking out of the headers, 2 firing order was off cause of bad spark plugs, or 3 something was in there. so for the next 3 days or so we spent time taking them on and off trying different things to see if it was the air leakage and also replaced spark plugs and wires... then we tried it once and all i hear is click...click...click... everytime i turn the key.. so me and the older expierienced guy who came over to see wat was wrong were just like... ****... engines ceased up.. we get it towed the the older more expierienced guys house and we take the head off.. and wat do we see... no #6 piston, only a connecting rod, we take a closer look and theres wats left of the piston at the bottom shattered to peices.. it wasnt a good feeling wat so ever.. so seeing theres no reason to fix the only 79000 mile engine i bought a used one from a local parts store with 82000 miles for 900 with a 100 dollar core... so when we finally got it we had to buy a new water pump, dist cap nd rotor nd then swap over the starter and alternator... we spent about 20 hours doing the full engine swap and im not going to lie that was the only bright side of the whole ordeal because i learned so much from doing it and i was a lot of fun... but other than that it was bad.. but we got it all back in and buttoned up and started right up.. i was very happy that day and i thought this would be a good story to share with all of you.. im going to try to up a picture in but idk if it will work or not... k it wont work cause there from my cell phone and there in bmp format.. how do i change it so i can post them???

 

I'd be interested to see them. If you are using Windows, open the pictures one at a timein windows picture and fax viewer. This should be the default viewer when you click on a picture. Down on the bottom click the next to last button on the right. This will open the picture in windows paint. When it opens, go to the file menu, and click "save as....". When the dialog box opens, pick where you want to save it, name it, then the last box where it says "save as type" select jpeg. Then click save. If the picture is real big you may also need to resize it. In paint, go to image, then stretch and skew.

 

k i did all that stuff how do i get it into the post? i clicked the upload here thing nd did it all but it didnt show up in the post..

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oh...! it did work.. ill get the rest

 

these are the others

 

as you can see in the first 2, after the engine was out it was used as an ash trey for the rest of the swap

 

so now how did u pull that one off u drop something in the cylinder

 

no thats the thing.. me nor anyone else that was envolved knows how it really happend.. we never had the valve cover or head off while putting the headers on, somehow nd we dont know butthe only way it could have got in there is from the exhaust port.. its really weird.. i got a pic of the thread marks on top of the cylinder near the valves.. ill post it soon

 

man that sucks. was the valve broke too ?
i wouldn't think something small enough to fall through the valve opening (like a nut) would do that much damage. it would rattle around and make a terrible noise. i'm wondering if something bigger got in there and broke the valve and it fell in. i can't think of anything that would do that except an accidental tool fell in, or heaven forbid - sabotage/vandalism. how good of friends are your party buddies ?

 

yea it was def a bolt that fell in and a pretty big one by the looks of the threads and i dont have a clue how it found its way in.. the thing was i didnt know something could actually get in there and after starting it so many times it finally just shattered it.. no honestly dont think that anyone would do that on purpose.. i mean its a possibility that someone was in there nd accidently made something fall in but ill never know..

here is the pic of the head.. you can see threads and also how the spark plug got bent..

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