[RockinJW]

Started doing my regulated fuel return tonight and ran in to major problems.

During disassembly got to the point of removing the passenger side fuel line and check valve, like everyone has stated, the fuel line was a bugger to get off. But after some patience and time it final come apart back there.

Next step was to take the check valve off of the head. Well, didn't put any force into the wrench at all and the dang thing snapped of at the threads leaving all the threads still in the head...

Yeah, I instantly got sick to my stomach when I realized what happened. How the heck do I get those threads out now? We pulled the downpipe off to get more room to work, but those threads are stubborn. Plus you can't see back there to see whats going on.

We've tried easy-outs but those won't work yet because the internals of the check valve are still down in there...

Any suggestions are welcome....

 

[JimTJr]

Man,, dont have any advice to offer,,but my sympathy and a Bump to the top for ya..sorry!

 

[CHESTER]

Unfortunately the options are all ugly.

At this point you may want to consider removing the head, yes this sounds drastic but.....if you continue to attempt removal and severly damage this area you will required to remove the head anyway.

Another option would be to remove the turbo and pedestal, remove the body mount bolts and raise the passenger side of the cab. Don't laugh, this will give you alot more room to work and you will gain access to better preform a visual inspection of what remains.

You can drill through the check valve and use progressively larger bits to allow better use of your screw extractor, if you are sucessful in removing the fitting then you can use low pressure air to blow out the metal debris by applying air to the front port of the fuel rail on the passenger side head.

Please email me directly if I can help you in any way!

Respectfully,

Chet Boisen
[email protected]

 

[RockinJW]

This is a complete nightmare guys...any idea what a diesel shop would charge me to remove the head? I can the "easy-out on the threads but can't seem to get it to grab hold of anything.

I'm just trying to keep a level head and be patient with it, but man, this sucks!

 

[pancartom]

wow, i feel for you, man.... i just did mine this past week, and i thought it was a PITA. too many tight places for big hands (for me, anyhow). good luck, and let us all know how you are doing with it.

 

[BLKF250]

Man what a bummer, I wish you luck, and I wish me luck also as I am going to do this mod this coming weekend. I think I will spray the crap out of all the fittings with PB Blaster, and drive it for a few days then spray them again. Vibration and heat work wonders with this stuff. Did you spray your fittings? Anyway sorry to hear of your trouble, hope you get it soon.

 

[JimBeam_n_Me]

small bit on a dremel or something like that, vacuum out debris, larger bit, then again until you can get a positive lock with an easy out. Fast Dry epoxy wil help the easy out stick, but the larger the easy out the better. Since it is threaded, it will come out but you must drill an area inside large enough to get a bite on it. Also, if the area you drill out is large enough, you can collapse it from the outside with force (be careful not to muck up the threads) and get a pair of needle nose vise grips around it.

good luck bro, keep a cool head, this is surgery. you'll get it!

-JB

 

[WUNDERHOOT]

when it is tight i use a right angle drill like a 3/8 makita . i have a set of left hand drills also they are short mechanics length bits. you can maybe just destroy and drill out whatever is back there and just retap it pipe thred? i dont know just throwing things out there taht would cross my mind.

 

[RockinJW]

I thought about drilling the stuff out as well, but I'm woried about the shavings getting down into the head itself. I'm just about ready to call it quits and take it to the diesel shop in town to pull the head. I don't know what else to do...

 

[jaybee]

You can also grind the end of the easy-out off so it grabs quicker. I'm just guessing at what the remains look like, but if it's a blind hole shortening the easy-out so it doesn't have to go in very far to grab might help. I know the set of easy-outs I have that were passed on from my grandfather has a few that seem to have been "customized" in that manner...

 

[WUNDERHOOT]

maybe after you drill it out you can fire the truck up for a second and it would blow any crap out because it is on the return side? i would give it a go. if it is on the inlet side no way but on the returned side maybe.

 

[Dubco1]

If you take the fuel rail plug out of the rear of the head anything that falls into the rail when you drill it, will flush right out with a flip of the key when the pump floods the rail.

Have you pulled the turbo off? I think you are fighting the actual guts of the check valve if you cant get the easy out to bite. Can you take a piece of wire and push it all the way through? You may need to take a pin punch and knock the rest of the guts out and into the fuel rail. Then you can get into the fitting to get a bite either with a drill bit or an easy out.

Just thinking out loud...

FOMOGO

 

[RockinJW]

It is the feed line side so just turning it over isn't an option.

Fomogo-you've got it right on the head. I'm fighting the internals of the check valve with the easy outs. The snap ring and spring set are still down in the threads that are stuck in the head. If i knew I could tap those thruogh into the head and have them come out without harming the injection system, I'd be all for it.

Just makes me nervous to think those little pieces would be floating around in the head...but after spending over 3 hours last night messing with it and another 5 hrs today, I'm at the point where I'm just gonna have the head pulled.

 

[DNC]

DUDE!!!! I feel your pain. As i was reading the post, it sounded exactly like the one that i wrote back in December. EXACT same thing. I think that there is a defect in the way that some of them are installed. Anyway, i went the route of having the head removed. This cost me about 1700 through the local dealer. Mainly because i wouldn't trust just any old shop.

The piece of the internal that remains in the check valve is held in there by a little bent over burr from when the CV broke off. And, it's hardened. I cut the other CV in half to see what i was dealing with and it's the little hardened donut seat...You can't get an ez out to bite becuase it is hard, and even if you do get one to grab, the seat just spins.

We tried for two weekends while the truck sat in the driveway...no dice. Even if i had taken the turbo out, i knew that i wouldn't have enough room for my big fat head and my sausage hands.

I'm not too big an optimist, can you tell.

Good luck man.

 

[RockinJW]

DNCII- Yep, that's exactly the problems I'm running into, the seat just spins and nothing is working.

I called it quits for the day, and will be calling the diesel guy in town first thing in the morning to see when he can pull this head off for me and help get it back up on the road again.

 

[clydesdale]

how common is this? This is a serious turn off to this mod. I hope this is extremely rare, but there are two that have done it here.

 

[JRF]

Well this has scared the hell out of me. I was planning on doing mine this weekend. Good luck RockinJW

 

[bunting]

Dont let any of this scare you,


USE A SOCKET ON THE FITTING INSTEAD ON A WRENCH!!!!!!!


It gets an even force all around the threads instead of putting a side load on the fitting. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Richter69]

Its a steel fitting, mine were snug, but came loose with a good fitting snap on wrench. One of the best mods I have done.

 

[Strictly Diesel]

[ QUOTE ]
USE A SOCKET ON THE FITTING INSTEAD ON A WRENCH!!!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]
As much as this sounds like the best way to avoid this problem, I've personally seen a check valve snap off at the threads while using a socket on an engine that was on an engine stand with no clearance issues whatsoever. Just like JW, there was next to no force applied, it just flat broke for no apparent reason. The break was almost perfectly clean, right flush with the head, and even on a stand it was a PITA to get the rest out.

FWIW...this is not a problem that I've heard of often. I know of 3 total indicents in all the time I've been building and selling fuel system kits. There are probably incidents I don't know about, but if this was a common problem we'd see a lot more discussion of it here.