2011 Engine Failure - Loud Knock and a Miss

[LilRichard]

So heading back from a track weekend with my race trailer in tow Sunday, doing about 60MPH, when I start hearing a weird sound. It was like a soft thump at first, which progressively got louder until it became a full on heavy knock. A REALLY loud knock. Truck started doing the death shake... got it off the road. I was in the middle of nowhere when it occurred, had to arrange to have it towed to "civilization", as well as get my trailer towed out of there.

Happened to get it towed to a dealer where a friend of a friend works - they have been very good about communicating progress. Truck is getting the cab off as we speak along with a full tear down to assess the damage. Mechanic advised that they have not seen many failures on these trucks, let alone something that would make this kind of noise / exhibit these problems. Fun fun.

Add to that, my trailer is 200 miles away and I have no truck... but they're trying to help with that as well.

Rundown on the truck: 16 month old 2011, 30k on the clock, bone stock.

[dieselflash]

Its becoming more common, either an exhaust valve came apart or it spun the rod and main bearings. Just finished an ambulance with less than 30k that spun bearings and I counted like 7 or 8 valves with cracks in them.

[Six0~Stroker]

That is an expensive $50-60 paperweight




Sorry to hear that

[LilRichard]

Originally Posted by dieselflash

Its becoming more common, either an exhaust valve came apart or it spun the rod and main bearings. Just finished an ambulance with less than 30k that spun bearings and I counted like 7 or 8 valves with cracks in them.

I was wondering if it wasn't a bearing issue because of the way the sound started out.

What are the causes for the two failures you mentioned? Meaning: has there been a root cause determined for why valves are cracking / and or why bearings are being spun? Curious if this will be a problem for more trucks... and my truck once they rebuild it. No fun either way.

[dieselflash]

Haven't heard a definate answer for either of these problems. The only thing I can say to give the 6.7 guys confidence is all these failures have been cab and chassis trucks, F350s-F550s from what we've seen. I have a customer with 180k on a 6.7, he's only had a radiator and a egt sensor replaced.

["Stroker 8"]

[LilRichard]

Early indication (need to confirm) is that I'm getting a new motor... I'll update as I know more.

And I see now that I did not indicate, but this was an F250...

[f350powerstroke]

Dam! Keep us posted

["Stroker 8"]

Keep us posted on the Cause. Good luck.

[Dr.Evil]

May or may not be related, but I had water mix in with the oil in the turbo cooling system. Took out the turbo and the bottom end. But the sound you describe is different than what I experienced. Hoping to get my truck back with a new short block and turbo next week. Good luck!