1 year of ownership + 22k miles driven

[thefrey]

Figured I'd make this post to celebrate 1 year of ownership, 22k miles driven + give a huge thanks to everybody so far on this forum.

This thing has been both great to drive and a massive headache. I had no idea how deep things would get when I purchased it originally. I bought it for cheap though, so what else can I expect... I learned fairly quickly that if I didn't own this, it proooobably would've been junked by now LOL.

Everything from not being able to drive it for the first month because of tires, doing deep detail cosmetically, many trips to the junkyard, fixing lots of random things, thinking I had metal shavings in my oil, dealing with a collapsed lifter, and pulling a brain tumor out of the engine (a broken piston), this thing has given me a wild trip.

Here's all the things I can think of that I've done myself:
- Install, rewire & repaint 3rd brake light/rear spoiler (didn’t have one)
- Rewire headlight clip
- Install gas struts for rear window
- Install new rear window button
- fixed broken rear window defroster tab
- Re-installed random missing trim pieces in cab
- New license plate, brake, parking, headlight and other bulbs
- Took off passenger side running board. They were the automatic ones and one of them was broken off and the passenger side was stuck down
- New tires
- Fixed rear windshield wiper
- Oil pressure switch
- Fixed broken windshield washer lines
- Programmed 2 new key fobs. Didn’t come with any
- new oil cooler line
- fixed door handles
- driver side engine mount
- new alternator
- dropped the oil pan 2x (me no likey)
- new radiator
- new upstream o2 sensors
- new blower motor
- DOD delete
- new piston
- new oil pump
- new timing chain + sprockets/VVT

Apart from all of the work I've done, knock on wood, this thing has only left me stranded once for a collapsed lifter (well, twice if you consider an alternator going out).


Thank you everybody for all of your input and wealth of knowledge you have shared on this forum. I wouldn't have been able to do nearly as much as I have done without ya'll.

The journey and experience I have learned from owning this car has been way more than I could have imagined, but the experience was invaluable and I am glad I got to learn how to do so much stuff. Glad I could learn it at a young age.

Here's to many more miles.

 

[West 1]

You put a lot of work into bringing that rig back to life. Can I ask what happened to your broken piston and curious what your hot idle oil pressure is with the new oil pump. Nice to see you revived rather than buried that rig.

 

[thefrey]

You put a lot of work into bringing that rig back to life. Can I ask what happened to your broken piston and curious what your hot idle oil pressure is with the new oil pump. Nice to see you revived rather than buried that rig.

Found the piston like this. How it happened, I am not sure. There are a couple of theories. It may have been the source of a ticking that I have been chasing for a long time, though. Sounded just like lifter tick. Or, I did have lifter tick and the piston was just a cherry on top.

I put a new one in and put it back together.


New Melling HV oil pump has my hot idle at about 22-25psi. Up from probably 12-17psi. I consistently gained at least 10psi everywhere while warm. My cold start went from 45 to 70+ so for an older engine I will take it. I did plug the relief in the oil pan.

 

[West 1]

Wow, I fixed an Escalade that had dropped a valve seat hanging the valve open and the valve head hit the piston and cracked it. Cylinder was fine. New piston and rings plus valve job had it running like new.

Your damage looks to me like detonation damage. If something was dropped into that cylinder that broke the piston you will have contact damage in the cylinder head at the exact spot where the piston damage is.

Detonation is early combusiton, the fuel charge lights off before the spark plug ignites. In detonation the fuel explodes as the piston is still going up with 7 other pistons driving it. That creates huge cylinder pressure which can fracture a piston, break rings and do connecting rod bearing damage.

Normal cylinder pressure at wide open throttle might reach 600 PSI. Detonation has been measured at well over 3600 PSI.

Causes of detonation are:
Lean Burn, not enough fuel in that cylinder
Advanced timing, we don’t see that on these fuel injected vehicles
Cheap gas. Low octane fuel burns erratically and leaves hot spots in the head chamber, the hot spots glow red and act like a spark plug igniting your fuel early

A partially plugged injector can feed fuel but not enough giving you lean burn.
A vacuum leak can lean out a cylinder.

When you find damage like yours always look for the cause or the new piston may have the same problem after install.

You had the heads off so all your intake gaskets are new and all your vacuum hoses were removed so you were able to see any issues.

Glad it is running perfectly for you now.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Found the piston like this. How it happened, I am not sure. There are a couple of theories. It may have been the source of a ticking that I have been chasing for a long time, though. Sounded just like lifter tick. Or, I did have lifter tick and the piston was just a cherry on top.
View attachment 475825View attachment 475826View attachment 475827View attachment 475828

I put a new one in and put it back together.


New Melling HV oil pump has my hot idle at about 22-25psi. Up from probably 12-17psi. I consistently gained at least 10psi everywhere while warm. My cold start went from 45 to 70+ so for an older engine I will take it. I did plug the relief in the oil pan.

If you live in a northern climate like I do, I suggest that on cold days, you remote start your truck and let it idle for a bit, until the oil warms up a bit. You want to Avoid oil pressures over 80 psi. That is what I do.

 

[Charlie207]

Found the piston like this. How it happened, I am not sure. There are a couple of theories. It may have been the source of a ticking that I have been chasing for a long time, though. Sounded just like lifter tick. Or, I did have lifter tick and the piston was just a cherry on top.
View attachment 475825View attachment 475826View attachment 475827View attachment 475828

I put a new one in and put it back together.


New Melling HV oil pump has my hot idle at about 22-25psi. Up from probably 12-17psi. I consistently gained at least 10psi everywhere while warm. My cold start went from 45 to 70+ so for an older engine I will take it. I did plug the relief in the oil pan.

That's actually wild.

 

[thefrey]

Wow, I fixed an Escalade that had dropped a valve seat hanging the valve open and the valve head hit the piston and cracked it. Cylinder was fine. New piston and rings plus valve job had it running like new.

Your damage looks to me like detonation damage. If something was dropped into that cylinder that broke the piston you will have contact damage in the cylinder head at the exact spot where the piston damage is.

Detonation is early combusiton, the fuel charge lights off before the spark plug ignites. In detonation the fuel explodes as the piston is still going up with 7 other pistons driving it. That creates huge cylinder pressure which can fracture a piston, break rings and do connecting rod bearing damage.

Normal cylinder pressure at wide open throttle might reach 600 PSI. Detonation has been measured at well over 3600 PSI.

Causes of detonation are:
Lean Burn, not enough fuel in that cylinder
Advanced timing, we don’t see that on these fuel injected vehicles
Cheap gas. Low octane fuel burns erratically and leaves hot spots in the head chamber, the hot spots glow red and act like a spark plug igniting your fuel early

A partially plugged injector can feed fuel but not enough giving you lean burn.
A vacuum leak can lean out a cylinder.

When you find damage like yours always look for the cause or the new piston may have the same problem after install.

You had the heads off so all your intake gaskets are new and all your vacuum hoses were removed so you were able to see any issues.

Glad it is running perfectly for you now.

I really didn't see anything concerning as far as intake or vacuum hoses. Maybe coincidence, but when I did have a lifter collapse, it was on the same cylinder. Something that does concern me is the exhaust valve color on that cylinder. Not quite sure what the issue is, if there is one. I am thinking it might be a fuel injector issue? I checked the valve and valve seat while it was off and there was no issues. Only thing making me scratch my head is the exhaust valve color.

I don't know if it's normal or what. Or if the piston being cracked somehow caused the valve color to be different... I really didn't see any change in color on the spark plugs.

I would say that it is something fuel related, though. Seemed like the piston had a little bit of melted metal near the crack.

 

[West 1]

If you blow up the view of your chamber in the head where the exhaust valve is grey you see carbon deposits building up in that cylinder. That would be extra oil in the burn due to the damaged rings. I think it is odd that your exhaust valves are Orange like they are seeing water or coolant in the chamber. Did the engine use coolant before it broke?

 

[thefrey]

If you blow up the view of your chamber in the head where the exhaust valve is grey you see carbon deposits building up in that cylinder. That would be extra oil in the burn due to the damaged rings. I think it is odd that your exhaust valves are Orange like they are seeing water or coolant in the chamber. Did the engine use coolant before it broke?

The engine used no coolant, and no oil (or large amounts) as far as I am aware. It was an AFM cylinder, though. What is a more normal exhaust valve color?

I was running e85 for about 1500 miles before I tore the heads off. Maybe that has something to do with it?

 

[West 1]

The exhaust valves may look that way after running E85, I don't have any experience with E85 engines. My son runs it in his Twin Turbo Corvette for the octane it offers but I have not seen an E85 engine torn down yet. The one cylinder was not running the same for sure and it had the broken / damaged piston so something is off there.

 

[fredcook]

Here's all the things I can think of that I've done myself:
- Install, rewire & repaint 3rd brake light/rear spoiler (didn’t have one)
- Rewire headlight clip
- Install gas struts for rear window
- Install new rear window button
- fixed broken rear window defroster tab
- Re-installed random missing trim pieces in cab
- New license plate, brake, parking, headlight and other bulbs
- Took off passenger side running board. They were the automatic ones and one of them was broken off and the passenger side was stuck down
- New tires
- Fixed rear windshield wiper
- Oil pressure switch
- Fixed broken windshield washer lines
- Programmed 2 new key fobs. Didn’t come with any
- new oil cooler line
- fixed door handles
- driver side engine mount
- new alternator
- dropped the oil pan 2x (me no likey)
- new radiator
- new upstream o2 sensors
- new blower motor
- DOD delete
- new piston
- new oil pump
- new timing chain + sprockets/VVT

WOW that's a lot of stuff in one year. You should be good for some time now. You've done more than I have on our 265k 2008 and 160k 2013 combined! We bought both of these new.

 

[thefrey]

WOW that's a lot of stuff in one year. You should be good for some time now. You've done more than I have on our 265k 2008 and 160k 2013 combined! We bought both of these new.

I think I am the victim of what I would consider the snowplow effect. Had a lot of maintenance to catch up on lol