LLY: My 05 is in big trouble!

[fbh31118]

For quite some time I have suspected my truck has a serious problem with its turbo bark, large amounts black exhaust on the bumper and a very strange sound note coming from the air intake almost like a miss.

After pulling the trailer home from up north the wife and I stopped at Merchant Automotive in Zeeland to see if they had any thoughts. After looking around for awhile and consulting with others they thought it sounded like combustion pressure might be coming back up through the intake sided as if were a broke valve spring or cracked head for instance. Either way they recommended that I not tow with it till they can look at it and do a full evaluation. They also checked the turbo vanes and found them to be working correctly as well as the fuel pump pressure.

This is going to be very expensive to make this right and I am unsure at this point as to weather it may get traded in depending on how bad things are. You win some and you loose some and I think I just lost this one. :Charger:

 

[fbh31118]

What is the $ threshold for repairing as opposed to replacing the motor with a rebuild?

 

[Verlon at ATP]

Depending on miles and if you like your truck setup, repair bill would be way less than a new truck. Even if it required an engine rebuild. On the other hand, getting a newer truck gets you a 6 speed trans and a stronger motor.

Merchant is a good shop to help you out.

 

[fbh31118]

Depending on miles and if you like your truck setup, repair bill would be way less than a new truck. Even if it required an engine rebuild. On the other hand, getting a newer truck gets you a 6 speed trans and a stronger motor.

Merchant is a good shop to help you out.

There very nice to work with for sure. What I was trying to ask, and did not do very well, was what is the point where you start thinking about a long block as opposed to doing what ever needs to be done in the motor? A replacement motor probably runs in the $8 to $10 Grand area I'm guessing so you could justify up to $5 or$6 grand in repair/rebuild?

 

[WVRigrat05]

Worse case a heads junk and a piston is junk. You can get salvage motors for 3,500-5500 depending on where you go and how many miles. I'd slap a head and a piston if it was at the house but that'd be a nice labor bill sitting at the shop.

 

[fbh31118]

Worse case a heads junk and a piston is junk. You can get salvage motors for 3,500-5500 depending on where you go and how many miles. I'd slap a head and a piston if it was at the house but that'd be a nice labor bill sitting at the shop.

Yup, I hear ya. Paying for a good shop doesn't bother me too much but I want to make sure I'm not spending good money after bad. The place I bought it from, said they want to be involved and make good on the deal, so that will help. I'm just praying that its not too badly broken and will be an easy fix.

 

[WVRigrat05]

That's good they are willing to help you. Most say good luck and hang up.

 

[Verlon at ATP]

You can usually find stock long blocks for 6-8k. Built long block run 15-20k. Do you want to stay with that truck? Moving to an 06 or newer brings you many advantages.

 

[fbh31118]

You can usually find stock long blocks for 6-8k. Built long block run 15-20k. Do you want to stay with that truck? Moving to an 06 or newer brings you many advantages.

Need to stay in the truck awhile, just bought it a few months ago so I haven't gotten any use out of it to speak of, other than commuting to work. A new truck would have been nice but couldn't swing it this time around. This truck looks and drives great for the most part, very good interior and exterior but certainly shows signs of possibly poor repair practices in its past.

 

[Awenta]

If you're hearing it through the intake it's most likely a valvetrain problem.

You can pick up good heads on here occasionally for good prices.

Take the covers off?

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[elliottw]

Once I saw a truck like that (lmm) poor repair practice, he was an old farmer who used ether all the time and he had a couple pushrods that were busted and it was pretty close to how you describe it

 

[JoshH]

I would check balance rates to see if I could possibly pinpoint the problem cylinder(s), and then pull the corresponding valve cover to see if it is possibly something simple (like the pushrod elliottw mentioned). It may not be near as bad as you think.

 

[fbh31118]

I would check balance rates to see if I could possibly pinpoint the problem cylinder(s), and then pull the corresponding valve cover to see if it is possibly something simple (like the pushrod elliottw mentioned). It may not be near as bad as you think.

The Tech at MA mentioned possible valve spring being broken or damaged.
I've seen the balance rates and they were all pretty good as well as the command position of the turbo vanes, when I was at MA. However it makes me wonder if the five injectors were replaced with out cause when they saw bad balance rates at the garage, before I purchased the truck. Maybe this just masked another problem when those five got replaced? Either way, I hope this is not a catastrophic failure.

Either way the appointment for evaluation is set on July the 7th so we'll see then what's going on.

 

[fbh31118]

Well the has started now! So, they started on my motor and find that the compression tests good but a little slow on the drivers side so they they opt to open up the valve box there first and low and behold they find the rockers have a lash that you could measure with a tape measure, roughly 1/4" from the video they sent me. I get a phone call a little later telling me they can't get all the push rods out, indicating that some one put a head gasket in up side down.:WTF2: Supposedly the gaskets were done by a dealer! :smellslike: This is not looking good and they haven't even looked at the other side. :why-me:

 

[Burn Down]

Wow that sucks... Bummer man.

 

[Utahski]

A broken valvespring is serious. My engine lost one and the engine hardly ran.....valvehead broke off and hammered the crap out of things. A huge banging noise, sounded terrible. There was no question something very bad was happening.

 

[fbh31118]

Work started yesterday but not at MA , my dealer and MA could not come to an agreement over labor rate. This sucks! So truck went on the trailer to a company closer to home so we'll see what happens.

 

[fbh31118]

And here's what it looks like when your push rods won't come out.

 

[fbh31118]

I've marked this picture up so you folks could better see what I'm looking at. This probably isn't the greatest picture because it was taken off of my cell phone.

The yellow arrow is pointing to the groove that has been carved into the push rod. The red arrow is just showing where the edge of the head gasket is located.

 

[fbh31118]

The final chapter.

After being down since July 7 the truck is finally done. There is no doubt that the last repair job was done by a bunch of back water hill jacks who had no idea what they were doing. :rant:

The truck is complete now with new GM C head gaskets, ARP head studs, decked heads(heads were never been ground before), all missing hardware replaced, wire looms repaired/replaced, 4 new push rods, new rocker adjusters, a new water pump and a large assortment of threaded holes chased. The truck hauls now, dic indicated quite a large jump in mpg as well. Still have to take it back next week to have the final valve lash checked but other than that it all done.:thumb: