06 5.9 piston meltdown?!

krazeemofo · 10-04-2008, 11:44 AM

I have an 06 5.9 auto.
Zero mods and just turned 70K
Truck is regularly maintained rotella and Power service additive.

First issue was rough idle at cold start- so I figured its getting cold out no big deal.

next couple days gets worse and starts to shudder at idle after start up.

So I figure must have gotten bad fuel do I purge the filter canister and check fuel- fuel is clean no water no gunk.

Drive to work and truck starts to show same shuddering at idle all the time. SO now I think filter must be getting pluged so I will pick up another at lunch. NO luck getting there from work can't get the truck to run enough to drive safely all of a sudden. WTF.

Borrow car get filter-change it. little to no difference.
Call dealer and bring it in.

Dealer calls back you had a missfire on cylinder 3.
I speculate bad injector- he says no- no leak down.
Then what?

Most likely piston meltdown seen it on 2 others recently with the same symptoms. Uugh- So anyone else heard anything like this???

jpringle3@hotmail.com · 10-04-2008, 11:56 AM

If the piston cooling nozzle is pugged,or missing they will do that. The pistons are oil cooled from the bottom.

__________________
JP 3

Licenced HD mechanic for 35 years. RETIRED!

worked on engines all my life. Spent last 19 HAPPY

years at Freightliner

FPTdiesel · 10-04-2008, 11:57 AM

If it is a piston failure of some kind, have them cut the oil filter open first to do an analysis of the material found in the pleats. If there is aluminum in the paper then it is more than likely a cylinder failure. Also you should have really high crank case pressure. I have seen this failure before and it is usually caused by one of two things. One would be that the piston cooling nozzle is plugged or not targeted correctly and the piston crown is not being cooled properly. Two would be that you have an injector that is sticking open or is dirty at the cup and is constantly dripping fuel into the cylinder and causing an early burn in the wrong location of the piston and will cause seizure. I would do some preliminary checks first though of the filter media.

__________________
07.5 2500 with 6.7 Liter Cummins, EGR + EGR cooler delete, still have DPF and Catalyst installed.

***BILLS06*** · 10-04-2008, 12:05 PM

Don't let them know about the fuel additives. They will void the warranty. If an oil filter was used that wasn't on their list of approved, void warranty. Fram falls into that catagory.

__________________
06 QCSB Capped Rail Airaid Baffle Delete MagHytec Transmission Pan Aeroturbine Muffler Fluidampr Superchips Pyro/Boost & Autometer Ultra Lite Digital Oil Pressure & Transmission Temp Gauges ATS 5 Star TC Flexpiped CAT DDR Enabled Royal Purpled EZ Down Weston Nerf Bars Spray In Bed Liner Valley Gooseneck Hitch
http://www.myspace.com/montanadodge

Last edited by BILLS06 : 10-04-2008 at 12:08 PM.

10-04-2008, 11:44 AM	#1 (permalink)
krazeemofo Newbie Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3 krazeemofo's Truck Pics	06 5.9 piston meltdown?! I have an 06 5.9 auto. Zero mods and just turned 70K Truck is regularly maintained rotella and Power service additive. First issue was rough idle at cold start- so I figured its getting cold out no big deal. next couple days gets worse and starts to shudder at idle after start up. So I figure must have gotten bad fuel do I purge the filter canister and check fuel- fuel is clean no water no gunk. Drive to work and truck starts to show same shuddering at idle all the time. SO now I think filter must be getting pluged so I will pick up another at lunch. NO luck getting there from work can't get the truck to run enough to drive safely all of a sudden. WTF. Borrow car get filter-change it. little to no difference. Call dealer and bring it in. Dealer calls back you had a missfire on cylinder 3. I speculate bad injector- he says no- no leak down. Then what? Most likely piston meltdown seen it on 2 others recently with the same symptoms. Uugh- So anyone else heard anything like this???

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10-04-2008, 11:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
jpringle3@hotmail.com Cummins Nut Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 314 jpringle3@hotmail.com's Truck Pics	If the piston cooling nozzle is pugged,or missing they will do that. The pistons are oil cooled from the bottom. __________________ JP 3 Licenced HD mechanic for 35 years. RETIRED! worked on engines all my life. Spent last 19 HAPPY years at Freightliner

10-04-2008, 11:57 AM	#3 (permalink)
FPTdiesel Cummins Fanatic Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Illinois Posts: 137 FPTdiesel's Truck Pics	If it is a piston failure of some kind, have them cut the oil filter open first to do an analysis of the material found in the pleats. If there is aluminum in the paper then it is more than likely a cylinder failure. Also you should have really high crank case pressure. I have seen this failure before and it is usually caused by one of two things. One would be that the piston cooling nozzle is plugged or not targeted correctly and the piston crown is not being cooled properly. Two would be that you have an injector that is sticking open or is dirty at the cup and is constantly dripping fuel into the cylinder and causing an early burn in the wrong location of the piston and will cause seizure. I would do some preliminary checks first though of the filter media. __________________ 07.5 2500 with 6.7 Liter Cummins, EGR + EGR cooler delete, still have DPF and Catalyst installed.

10-04-2008, 12:05 PM	#4 (permalink)
*BILLS06* Smash "n" Grap Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Baker, MT Posts: 973 BILLS06's Truck Pics	Don't let them know about the fuel additives. They will void the warranty. If an oil filter was used that wasn't on their list of approved, void warranty. Fram falls into that catagory. __________________ 06 QCSB Capped Rail Airaid Baffle Delete MagHytec Transmission Pan Aeroturbine Muffler Fluidampr Superchips Pyro/Boost & Autometer Ultra Lite Digital Oil Pressure & Transmission Temp Gauges ATS 5 Star TC Flexpiped CAT DDR Enabled Royal Purpled EZ Down Weston Nerf Bars Spray In Bed Liner Valley Gooseneck Hitch http://www.myspace.com/montanadodge Last edited by BILLS06 : 10-04-2008 at 12:08 PM.