[Litnng]

I have a 1995 PSD with approx. 235,000 miles on it. When I was accelerating around a corner I noticed what I thought was white smoke from my exhaust. I pulled over and under the hood, the top of the radiator was cool to the touch but the coolant overflow bottle lid had blown off and coolant was pouring out. So I don't know if the white smoke was from the exhaust or just blew out from under the passenger side of the truck when the overflow bottle lid blew off.

That was the start, I hauled it home and this is what I have found since. After cranking over a cool engine with a breaker bar to ensure that there was no water on a piston, I started the motor. It fired right up normally and ran fine but instantly built excessive pressure in the radiator.

I have pulled the heads now and what I found is the following. All cylinders look relatively the same except for one. On the one odd one I have noticed: the injector was incased in carbon from the copper washer to the first o-ring, the other injectors were clean. The top of the piston is almost all clean aluminum whereas the other seven were black with carbon. The top 1 1/4 inch of the cylinder wall is whitesh looking. All other cylinders were normal looking. Head shows slight sign of rust around the hole where the injector comes through, all others were black with carbon.

I have absolutely no water in the oil, no visable head gasket damage, no corrosion in water passages in block, no other visable cylinder wall damage other than the whitesh coloring.

Here is a thought that I've had since I quit working on it tonight. Are the injector cups cooled by water? If so, is it possible that the combustion pressure bypassing the copper washer on the injector caused the injector cup to fail and cause this problem?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[action4478]

Leaking cup makes sense . were the bolts for that injector tight ?...

 

[Litnng]

As far as I noticed, the injector bolts were tight. One tightened to the shoulder and the other one seemed the same as the rest.

 

[klhansen]

If you would have pulled the injectors and then pressurized the coolant system, I'll bet you would have found coolant leaking through at least that injector cup. Pull that cup and you'll very likely find it cracked.

What's surprising is that the lowest o-ring on the injector wasn't broken or burnt thru, letting combustion products into the fuel rail.

A buddy blew a head gasket at the drag strip, and the two pistons at the blowout were clean as a whistle, with the others coated with the normal carbon.

I'd recommend replacing all the injector cups when you put it back together.

 

[DaveH.]

If the injector cups were leaking, you would get diesel fuel in the coolant system, thus over filling the coolant recovery bottle and you would smell and see diesel fuel in the coolant , as this is what happened to my wifes PSD.
Sounds like a bad head gasket to me.

 

[Litnng]

The first o-ring is definately not in good shape but there was no carbon at all above it. The injector looked as clean as new from there up. I have not yet found the tools to pull the cups but will know more when I get them pulled out. As far as being a head gasket, I saw absolutely no sign of damage to it around this cylinder or any other.

 

[BOOST1]

If the injector cups were leaking, you would get diesel fuel in the coolant system, thus over filling the coolant recovery bottle and you would smell and see diesel fuel in the coolant , as this is what happened to my wifes PSD.
Sounds like a bad head gasket to me.

Exactly what happened to mine 3 trs ago..

replaced cups and resevoir as it took awhile to get all the diesel out also and a clean cooling system again..Then one by one over a 2 yr period an injector would start going bad from the polluted system that happened and pitting acurred in the injectors over time.At least that was mine and a few others conclusion..