used up 6.4 liters on the lot

Brad Clayton · October 5, 2010

Jim’s thread about buying a used 6.4 liter got me thinking today, I know, very dangerous thing to do. We have an ’08 that needs to be evaluated, this is what we call bringing used cars thru the shop. This truck has had issues and the owner threw in the towel and traded it in. We couldn’t even get it in the shop to check it out, it was running that bad. For some reason it got shuffled to another dealer and they put a #1 injector in it.

We have it back on our lot and it has been avoided like the black plaque. I decided to put myself in Jim’s shoes and check it out as if I were a potential buyer. The truck is an F-350 cab and chassis with nothing on the back. It started and ran fine for me tonight but man she rides rough with no weight on the back. It has 42,000 and the hours equal to about 46,000, not bad. The history shows a radiator, belt and tensioner, and somebody just replaced the number 1 injector. The antifreeze was a little low so I topped it off and checked for combustion gases, it was ok. I short sticked it and it was high but who knows when the last oil change was. Checked for codes and WIF was present. So I then checked the short fuel trims and all of them were hanging around -3 to 0 except #8 which was at +20.

Now we have seen 3 catastrophic engine failures in the month of September, all with #8 cylinder being the problem. What would your next step be if you spotted that in datalogger?

Keith Browning · October 5, 2010

What would your next step be if you spotted that in datalogger?

I would step away from the IDS and run.

Then, after they find me huddled in the fetal position in the back of a dark closet, I would perform a compression test. With a fuel trim like that you are going to end up there no matter what diagnostics you perform.

Steve Mutter · October 5, 2010

Manual check of compression. Then check the fuel rail for metal in fuel. It seems fuel injectors don't just fail on their own on the 6.4.

Brad Clayton · October 5, 2010

Quote:

I would step away from the IDS and run.

I did just that, I got in my car and took off like a bat out-a-hell. Posted Image

So If I am reading this right, I need to get to work extremely early in the morning and get that truck out of my bay before anyone knows I worked on it. Posted Image

Mikill · October 5, 2010

I would of just stayed away from it until a advisor came and asked me to look at it.

I would never in my life buy a 6.4 or take it even if they gave it to me. With a 6.4 it's either broke or completely broke. There are no easy fixes on these things anymore. I don't even see leaking radiators anymore. I'm usually taking about 3 cabs off a week.