6.7 with cracked exhaust valves

[Fordracer]

I have a 6.7 that came in with 21,000 miles and has a knock and no compresion on #1 cylinder. Pulled the right head and half of the head of an exhaust valve is imbeded in the head. It also has 4 more exhaust valves with cracks in them. I pulled the engine and pulled the left head and it has 6 cracked exhaust valves. In the oil pan I found a piston pin retainer snap ring and pieces of piston. Now Ford wants to know if the valve seats are cracked and in not to put valves in the good head, WTF.

The hotline says they haven't heard of any cracked valves on these engines and have no idea why it happened. Has anybody had any of these apart yet, oh what fun, I hope I remember how it goes back together.

[Keith Browning]

I haven't heard of any major failures yet but a few must have occurred by now. A few pictures would be awesome!

[Brad Clayton]

Quote:

Now Ford wants to know if the valve seats are cracked

..........uhhhhhh trouble is a brewin'

[Jim Warman]

Anyone remember the Mack 375 Thermodyne V8? I had one and you couldn't keep valve seats in the damned thing... The only saving grace was that a cylinder head covered only two holes making it liftable by hand.

[Steve Mutter]

What was taking the head off like? Is there enough room to do it in chassis?

[Jim Warman]

Yes, nothing special was required to remove the heads - even the injection pump and turbo stayed in place. IIRC, head bolt arrangement was 6 per cylinder with two sharing. 260 lb/ft of torque comes to mind for tigtening.

[Fordracer]

The only saving grace was that a cylinder head covered only two holes making it liftable by hand.

 

These new aluminum heads are super light. The book said to get a helper and lift the head out but I pulled it out by myself very easilly. If I could of I would of pulled the cab to pull the head because of all the extra bullshit on the engine. It took half a day just to pull the right valve cover. Without an A/C evaporator on the firewall there is alot of room to get to the head bolts.

 

I have an extra digital camera I've been meaning to bring into work to keep it here but I forgot to bring it into work today so I'll get some pictures later.

[Fordracer]

Here are some pictures.

[Brad Clayton]

I had a hell of a time trying to download those photos, so I just put them in a post. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Fordracer]

Thanks Brad. I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

[Keith Browning]

Two questions and I know you probably already answered this - I want to clarify.

 

1 - Two of the other valves in that cylinder appear to have cracks in them. Correct?

 

2 - The broken piece of valve is what I see embedded in the cylinder head. Correct?

 

 

Great pics by the way, THANK YOU for sharing them. Our first 6.7L failure.

[Shlep]

Nice pictures, so has the hotline came up with a explanation on what might have caused this?

[Fordracer]

1 - Two of the other valves in that cylinder appear to have cracks in them. Correct?

 

Those are scratches. All the valves cracked are exhaust valves. There are 5 in this head and 6 it the other head.

 

2 - The broken piece of valve is what I see embedded in the cylinder head. Correct?

 

That is the valve piece embedded in the head.

[Fordracer]

The hotline kind of pissed me off. When I pulled the first head and saw the multiple cracked valves I called them and told them that valves were probably cracked in the other head and they should just quit waisting time and send a new engine since this is their new pride and joy engine and I'm the only diesel guy here and it might be awhile before I can pull the other head. They said to go ahead and pull the other head and check. I pulled the engine and then the head and sure enough the valves are cracked. Now they want to know if the seats are cracked and it they aren't to replace the valves in that head. After having the machine shop look at it they said the head is pitted and needs resurfaced so now Ford says to replace both heads and the short block.

 

As for why they cracked all they would say is they haven't hear of this happening before so they don't know. I guess I'll be doing this all over again in another 21,000 miles.

 

This truck is a field service truck for John Deere and Ford gave them a van as a loner. I can just imagine what the farmers ask when he pulls up to a tractor in the field with a van. Good word of mouth about the new Ford diesel.

[Brad Clayton]

They should have pulled a motor off the assembly line and sent it no questions asked.

 

All current model years got brand new motors in the past, this should be no exception.

 

I would be ripshit if I got my $60k truck back with a dealer assembled engine with parts that were machined at a local shop. If it was 10 years later I wouldn't mind, but a brand new truck....I don't think so.

[Shlep]

They should have pulled a motor off the assembly line and sent it no questions asked.

 

All current model years got brand new motors in the past, this should be no exception.

 

I would be ripshit if I got my $60k truck back with a dealer assembled engine with parts that were machined at a local shop. If it was 10 years later I wouldn't mind, but a brand new truck....I don't think so.

I'm with Brad on that, I'd be pissed and wanting to know WTF is going on.

 

I talked to the local engine plant dyno operator last night and as far as he's heard there hasn't been any failures of that sort on any of the dyno run engines and most have had about 25000 to 30000 miles of run time on them.

[cbriggs]

You would think engineering would want that thing back to look deeper into it?

 

 

Any chance it has had a programmer or chip in it?

[Fordracer]

I ordered parts on monday and still haven't seen anything. This truck has been here since December 18 and Ford seems to care less. I'm about ready to call our FSE. The problem is the customers aren't raising any hell. They even have another truck on order.

This truck is bone stock with a utility bed with a winch crane and generator/welder and compressor on it with tools for working on farm equipment in the field. They come in evey 5,000 miles for an oil change.

An interesting side note, when I was checking compression I looked in the service manual and now they have a compression spec "There must be a minimum cylinder pressure of 2068.4 kpa (300 psi) and have no more than a 20% difference from the average on any given cylinder". That sure seems low to me. This one had from 320-345 psi except for cylinder #1 wich was 0 psi of course. Also you need a craftsman 8 mm deep socket to get the glow plugs out. The inside of the socket needs to be cut most of the way up for clearence.

[sam]

we have 2 truck in our shop now, one is tore down and have one exhaust valve that is broken like the one pictured. the other one is getting tore down, but has 0psi compression on #8, have not found any issues with the injectors, they are held down tight... we are waiting on parts now on one and waiting to see on the other...

[joshbuys]

One of our other techs has one in that's running rough.... I'll keep you updated.

[sam]

both of our is confirmed broke exhaust valves. no word from hotline on what may caused it...we are doing short blocks, 1 cylinder head, effected injector and glow plug...

[Fordracer]

We finally got the engine parts in earlier this week. Now I need to find the time to put it together.

When you order parts to put the engine together if you order a cylinder head set it doesn't come with the head gasket you have to order them and the head bolts seperate.

[Fordracer]

Sam, are your trucks early build and do they have heavy utillity beds on them?

The owner of this truck said he was told this truck was the first or second truck off the assembly line. It was built 3/20/2010. It also has a very heavy bed with a boom wench, welder/generator, compresor and alot of tools.

[Brad Clayton]

Quote:

a cylinder head set it doesn't come with the head gasket you have to order them and the head bolts seperate.

That makes complete fucking sense. I wouldn't expect anything less from Ford.

[sam]

6/21/10 is build date on one, both trucks are nomally loaded pulling a trailer. but dont have a tool box bed on them. we have a 6.7 engineer coming from ford this week, will keep yall updated when i find something out.