I did new Beehive valve springs and pushrods when the stock #7 intake valve spring broke and knocked a hole in the cylinder wall. Yes, the 2003's break valve springs. I saved the pieces for posterity. Also, I figured it was a good time to build the motor as it needed sleeved and new valves. It was apart, so why not? I did a full valve job on both heads, ported the exhaust side, went .020 on all cylinders, new pistons, rings, bearings, bolts, all of the typical rebuild needs. I used Portland Engine Rebuilders for the machine work, my Dad used them on his stuff for years and they are GOOD. My cousin had a 1964 mustang that they did the machine work on that ran high 12's without posi, and 3.00 rear gears. It was insane when he did the posi and shorter gears. Anyway...they know their stuff. They checked the head correctly and reseated the valves. Then I did the 268/272 Comp cam, throttle body spacer, headers, intake, blah blah blah.

So....I just checked the oil and found coolant on the dipstick. Dang. The coolant does not have oil in it, so that is good. I am disappointed that this is an interference motor.

Also, I pulled the #3 plugs again and found shavings on them. So, something has smacked something else in that cylinder. I'm thinking a valve hit a piston.
Double Dang. Looks like the head will get pulled regardless. I hope not too much damage has been done to the head to where it can't be fixed. If I have to replace the head, so be it.

 

sounds like a head gasket failure too...

I'm confused about what you said though... did you sleeve the block or just go .020 over?

You might have dropped a sleeve if you sleeved it....regardless shavings on the plug means time for a tear down.....

TAKE PICTURES!

 

The spring on the intake valve on #7 broke, the valve dropped into the cylinder and blew a hole in the cylinder wall, and in doing so, the valve also went thru the side of the piston on #7, on the very back of the motor, closest to the firewall. I had that one cylinder sleeved, then all of them were bored .020 over. Also, I had the crank checked for deflection, and replaced the damaged connecting rod. The way these are built, I don't see a sleeve dropping unless the machinist knows nothing about these motors and the water jacket design. It would not have a chance to drop on #3 anyway, where the problem has occurred. The only effected cylinder from the damage was #7. Everything else looked really good. It still had the cross hatching in the cylinder walls from the factory. Really good metal.

But, yes. Time for a tear down. When it happens, I will be sure to take pictures and share them with the group, let you know of the findings.

 

Okay, good stuff... keep us posted... I'd love to know whats up with this thing!

Lots of Pictures!

 

Hello, guys,

I have been considering what you said about coolant in the cylinder freezing. If the head gasket was going bad to begin with, and it ruptured when I turned off the motor, it could very well have leaked coolant into the cylinder. When I checked the coolant the other day, it seemed to be ok, but if it was not mixed properly it would have caused this problem from ice in the cylinder. I always buy antifreeze pre-mixed, but a "helper" of mine may have added water to top it off and added to much. I will do the antifreeze check and see if it correct.

My problem is over thinking everything. It's probably just a bad head gasket that will take 3-4 hours to fix on a Saturday. Besides the bad valve spring, this truck has been really reliable and great to drive. Handles good, rides really well, seats fit me well, awesome stereo, and it looks good too. FYI, the valve spring broke at 114,000 miles. I was getting ready to freshen up the motor anyway. Now it has about 118,000 miles on it, and when it runs, it flies! Still need to do the wiring harness/ECU swap from a 2005 that I got off eBay, then I will get it tuned properly.

First things first.

 

Better be safe than sorry, might as well give it a good once over when you have the heads off just to be safe.

If I was you I'd change the oil and see if there is any metal and/or coolant in there for sure.

Oh and just use a refractometer (pretty cheap at the autoparts store) to measure coolant concentration.

 

Hello gentlemen,

I finally was able to work on my truck Thursday. I was convinced a bad head gasket was part of it. It WAS part of the smoking under load issue. What I did not know was what had really caused the head gasket problem. There was no coolant in the oil, thank goodness, but things got worse as I pulled the head off of the block.

It turns out that cylinder #3 has been running lean. Really lean. The injector was not working properly. It broke the piston, that is, spawled out the top of the piston so that you can see the compression ring. I was really baffled about the spark plugs being bent shut, maybe from coolant or ice getting in the cylinder from the head gasket failure. I was wrong. It turns out that if you are running really, really lean, the plugs will get red hot and the compression in the cylinder will bend them shut. So, I pulled off the oil pan, and yanked out #1 and #3. #1 is dinged up because of the chunks from #3 getting blown back into the intake and getting sucked into #1. So, I will replace it since I am there. Here is a picture of the piston: (Or I have it posted in my profile area under "engine stuff")

 

Glad you found the problem.

I would suggest that you replace all of the bearings and make sure nothing else got banged up because of this.

What can also happen is if enough coolant gets in the cylinder and doesn't get burned off the engine will try to "compress" the coolant which is 100000 times harder to compress than air/fuel mixture, so it was either that or just the extreme lean condition that heated things up and caused a bad detonation that cracked that piston.

I'm surprised you didn't here any clanging or metal grinding noises from the piston.

Was there any metal shavings in the oil pan? If so, you might want to consider getting a new oil pump, and give the whole system a good flush with 1-3 quarts of clean oil before you fill it up and start it up again... Just a thought.

 

You are correct in what I will be doing... I have already ordered a new set of pistons, rings, and wrist pins, as well as bearings- just because I am there. The head is dinged up, but the valves are untouched (dodged the bullet there for sure) so I will do a quick bottom end on it. The head will go in for a check and repair at the same time I do the injectors. I was blown away that there was no shavings or chunks in the oil pan (really, really clean) also there was no moisture or coolant. I had checked the oil for coolant before and there was some evidence of it on the dipstick, but when I checked it again after I drove it to my buddy's shop there was no moisture at all. Maybe it evaporated? You wouldn't think so.

Tomorrow or Wednesday I will get the injectors checked and cleaned as needed, as well as the rest of the motor pulled apart and prepped for the new pistons. I figure I need to replace all of them to make sure they are not only matched, but, so I have a fresh start on them, too. Any thoughts on where to get rod bolts? The stock ones are the stretch type, dunno if I want to use that style again, any ideas? Thanks in advance for the input. After I get this stuff taken care of I will be one step closer to doing the wiring update, and go to the newer and more programmable ECU out of a 2005... I hope..

 

get the injectors flowtested as well and make sure you put the highest flowing injectors at the end of the rails and work your way to the least flowing towards the inlet of the rails...

Also replace the O-Rings on the injectors.

Make sure you check the pushrods, b/c if you broke a piston you don't know if it was b/c of too much pressure or too much heat, either way you could have bent a pushrod.

Check and recheck EVERYTHING up and down.

Spin the oil pump with some clean oil poured into the inlet of it to make sure there isn't any metal in there (can't hurt) otherwise just replace it if you want to avert the risk completely.