Locked Engine... In Depth Discussion

[Laferty]

Hey guys. I have been searching about hydrolocked engines and there is not a actual write up about the situation with a 6.0 that I have been able to find. Bits and pieces of information here and there. Since I seem to be in this situation and was planning on doing a full write up when doing my heads in March, I will start this write up instead.

2006 F350 CCLB Lariat:
After work I went to leave and after the truck turned over it was smoking white and lopping/bucking like crazy. I killed it and tried it again, hoping it was just a fluke thing. It cranked weaker and almost started the second time but just died out. Probably pretty dumb to try a third time but guess what... I decided to. Cranked what seemed to be a few turns and then locked up. Now upon trying to start it It just clicks and no turn over at all. I Left it on a charger overnight and the batteries never gave me a issue before. So I am pretty sure it is not a starter or electrical problem. The heads were leaking a little causing me to lose coolant out of the bottle but I was hoping it would last until March as stated before. My theory is that it was just the last leg of the gaskets life going into work and overnight coolant just dripped into cylinder/s overnight and gave me the big weenie in the morning.

I have read about removing glow plugs and evacuating the cylinders of whatever fluid is in them and cranking the engine over. I am confused on a few parts of the process.

My plan with this thread is for it to be my question section to tap into everyone's knowledge and to create a good thread to be used by many in the future. As a side benefit, I may come up here to rant when I have spent hours upon hours to no avail. Truck will be getting towed tomorrow and I am not sure of when I will be able to start wrenching on it but it will only be 1-2 day delay until I can and I will take a lot of pictures to share.

Much appreciation to everyone in advance who chimes in and let the discussion begin....

[michaelaiman]

The heads were leaking a little? Time to tear it apart! Continuing to run with blown head gasket is asking for more and expensive problems. The reason I would evacuate is to remove any coolant from the cylinders to avoid corrosion issues if you cant get to it. Remove all glow plugs and use the starter wire found on the passenger side fender to turn the engine over.

[Laferty]

So your saying to just hard wire the starter to turn the engine over? So I will have to do a tear down like normal but just not drain the engine oil because I will be turning the engine over, correct? And will just taking the excess fluids out of the cylinders fix the problem? No other steps other then just removing the fluids?

[twoicebergs]

If you suspect water in the cylinder don't crank, start or drive it. If it were to start, things will bend or break. Evacuating the cylinder is a good idea via pulling the glow plugs on the bad side. You basically guess a side and go to it. As luck goes, you will pick the good side first! You will have no idea how bad the leak is, so drain the block and coolant system before you add some lube (WD40) or oil to the culprit cylinders. Pull the FICM relay and crank a few revolutions. Try to pull the injector(s) as soon as possible. You don't want the nozzles to be damaged. You can put it away for a few days, until you can start to open it up. Don't wait too long or you may create more work. It is best to tear it down right away, if you can. It would be a good idea to let the nozzles sit in a nozzle cleaning solution for a while before you wrap them up for storage or send them off for testing. Unless your oil was contaminated with water, you could leave it in until you are ready to close it up. However, any cheap oil is better that having water in your oil. If you are quick to tear it down, a little water in the oil is no problem, since it will sit at the low points.

There is a wire that is already there for hooking a crank trigger to. I haven't had to find it. You should be able to find it with a search, or someone who has used it will chime in.

[michaelaiman]

Here is a video kinda showing where the wire is. It has enough slack that you dont need a crank trigger.

6.0 powerstroke even crank good compression - YouTube

6.0 powerstroke even crank good compression - YouTube

[michaelaiman]

Here are some thoughts from a guy who knows these trucks like the back of his own hand...

HOW LONG CAN I RUN ON BLOWN HEAD GASKETS? - YouTube

HOW LONG CAN I RUN ON BLOWN HEAD GASKETS? - YouTube

[05_PSD_Erik]

Originally Posted by michaelaiman

Here are some thoughts from a guy who knows these trucks like the back of his own hand...HOW LONG CAN I RUN ON BLOWN HEAD GASKETS? - YouTube

No offense meant to the poster of this, but Bill (the powerstrokehelp guy) is generally considered an idiot.... I did not watch this video, but I have seen some of his vids before.

Basically, if you have or suspect blown HGs, get into the engine asap and do not run or drive it until repairs are made. Like was said above, the more you try to push it, the worse and more extensive the damge can become, quickly! Like bent/broken rods or a windowed block

[kaya@bernhausen]

why does everybody hate on that powerstrokehelp dude so much? seems like everytime a link is posted with him, someone calls him an idiot.
not saying one way or the other. i'm just curious what's behind that.

to the op, i don't think i have ever seen head gaskets that leak coolant into the cylinders. not to say it isn't possible, but it's usually combustion gases that leak out and pressurize the cooling system, causing it to "puke".
it sounds more like you're dealing with a blown egr cooler. do you have a delete done?

[05_PSD_Erik]

Originally Posted by kaya@bernhausen

why does everybody hate on that powerstrokehelp dude so much? seems like everytime a link is posted with him, someone calls him an idiot.
not saying one way or the other. i'm just curious what's behind that.

Sorry to derail OP, but watch some of the videos, the guy says when you change your engine oil, you need to open the HPOP and take a suction gun and change that oil specifically (it's all the same engine oil) and other little gems like that. Some of his stuff is fairly sound (i.e. common knowledge on a PSD engine) but a lot of his ideas and things are way out there.

Sorry for the derail, again.

[Laferty]

Thought you all would get a laugh out of these pics. Guys at work took time to hang these signs.
Finally got it towed and will start on it Tuesday morning. I suspected the egr cooler and did do a delete on that as well as the IPR coolant filter kit. Switched to EL-C coolant also and replaced the oil cooler. Temps were doing fine but was still losing coolant out of the degas bottle so I pretty much knew it was the head gaskets. No matter what caused it I am here so I just need to figure out the most sensible steps to take to fixing it. I am going to do studs and oem gaskets. Do I just tear it all down and remove the heads and try turning the engine by hand to check it out? I will then be able to have a visual on the pistons and such and in the process of getting down there will see what locked it up. Or should I do the minimum to evacuate the fluids and get it running again and then dive in for gaskets and studs? I dont think that is the way to go. I have never delt with a locked engine before though.