by Begle1 » Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:48 pm
I haven't installed the controller rig yet, but the turbo is working great, or at least it was before whatever happened the other day.
It all started when my Volkswagen Jetta lost 5th gear, and so I had to start driving my truck 120 miles each day.
The fifth day, I finally got around to checking the oil at the gas station and I was around 1" below the "low" mark. I went to Walmart on the way home that night, bought a gallon of 15w40 Rotella like I always use and put in 2.5 quarts. I didn't bother checking the dipstick again at that point.
As I drove away, my oil pressure picked up from near the bottom tick to up one tick higher. (I still don't have an accurate pressure gauge.) That's usually where it runs when it's cold in the morning, before it warms up. I got about 15 miles and all warmed-up, and it still was high. I think, "I probably over-filled it with oil and am going to pop a head-gasket."
So then I get to the big hill and hold it at 30-35 PSI boost, 1250 F EGT and 90 MPH for about a minute, almost get to the top and BOOM, lose power, oil pressure drops to zero, engine dies, black haze out the tail-pipe and a bunch of steam from the engine.
I pull to the side, a puddle of water/ coolant under the truck, it blew the cap off the coolant overflow bottle, EGT's stay over 1000 F for 10 minutes and I call AAA.
Next morning, I'm definitely low on coolant, I check the oil to see how much I over-filled it and see what the oil looks like, the oil looks totally normal and is right in the middle of the low and high marks.
So I don't know exactly what happened, but I imagine I'm going to see something when I pull the head-gasket.
I got a OEM headgasket and the A1 studs from RC. Can anybody recommend a valve spring compressor? I figure now'd be a good time to install those 60 pound valve springs I've had floating around in my garage for the last five years...
1990 D-250 Regular Cab: Tweaked injection pump, built transmission, a cataclysmic charlie foxtrot of electronics, the most intense street-ran water injection system in the country, and some more unique stuff.