What would cause a 6.4 Ford diesel to just let go?

[mrsilv04]

Neighbor was on his way south to pick up a 5th wheel trailer. Truck is a 2008 Ford Super Duty with 34,000 miles (6.4 liter diesel).

About 60 miles from home (while en route to GET the trailer), with very little warning, the engine let go.

Here's what my neighbor described.

"When the engine let go it was a total surprise to both of us. We were running with the cruise on at about 68 and all of a sudden it started making noises similar to a fan belt that broke and was slapping the inner fender well. Then it turned to a growl, snapping noises and loud thumps. There were no external oil leaks (oil or water) and no gauge indications that there was anything wrong. By the time we got it off the side of the road it died on it's own and that was pretty much the end of the story."

Dealer speculates that the crankshaft snapped, but hasn't been able to tear into it yet.

What would cause a low mileage 6.4 to just let go like this? Yes, it had plenty of oil in it.

 

[Quest]

Let's just wait for the dealer to pull the engine apart before making any speculative guess....


Q.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Quest
Let's just wait for the dealer to pull the engine apart before making any speculative guess....


Q.

Agreed.

Also REALLY interested to hear the results of the teardown. Subscribed!

 

[Nick R]

Again, I want to wait until they pull the engine apart, but my personal guess? One in ten thousand manufacturing defect.

 

[2oldtommy]

My guess would be that it dropped a valve due to a valve spring failure. Things started going south from there. take of the valve covers first and look for a broken spring. FWIW--Oldtommy

 

[440Magnum]

I agree a full disassembly is the only way to tell... but a snapped crank won't give ANY warning. Sounds more like a bearing spun to me and then things went south from there (broken or thrown rod, most likely, or even a broken crank after the initial failure).

I know the last 2 generations of Navistar are weak-kneed, but that's about the worst story I've ever heard. More and More, I think Ford did the right thing by putting resources into the Scorpion diesel.

 

[SteveSRT8]

The problem is we don't hear from the thousands of happy owners with lots of miles.

I'm always interested in "discovery". Please keep us informed.

 

[Vikas]

And at first it will not be covered by warranty; that is one thing that we can all be certain of! How about after-market gasoline? Dealer always tries to figure out how to get out of providing warranty service.

I am most interested in finding out who ends up paying for this repair.

- Vikas

 

[MrCritical]

No gasoline. It's a diesel.

The 6.4's aren't known for durability. Hence, they aren't made anymore.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: MrCritical
No gasoline. It's a diesel.

The 6.4's aren't known for durability. Hence, they aren't made anymore.


They live-on (sorta) as the Maxxforce 7 in International trim. You just won't see any more International engines in Ford trucks.

I'm interested to hear about this as well.

Jon had an ISM (Cummins) blow-up on him yesterday at work. Try stopping a runaway transport engine! Apparently, it was fun! LOL!

 

[mrsilv04]

I'm still waiting to learn more. Thought I might hear something tonight, but nothing so far...

Maybe I'll get an email in the morning with an update.

 

[Dualie]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: MrCritical
No gasoline. It's a diesel.

The 6.4's aren't known for durability. Hence, they aren't made anymore.


They live-on (sorta) as the Maxxforce 7 in International trim. You just won't see any more International engines in Ford trucks.

I'm interested to hear about this as well.

Jon had an ISM (Cummins) blow-up on him yesterday at work. Try stopping a runaway transport engine! Apparently, it was fun! LOL!


As for the original post im guessing the wind blew from the other side of the truck. As much as i LOVE my 7.3L powerstrokes you couldn't GIVE ME a 6.0L or a 6.4L. They will come apart for zero reason. i have seen them with 800 miles on them with a trail of blood and guts out behind the them to where they were found and recently one with 120,000 miles with the same scene around it.


the run away ISM unless you can see it coming and be prepared theres not a whole [censored] of a lot you can do. To this day i still keep a phone book and a LARGE C 02 extinguisher around when im doing any sort of maintenance on the diesels.

 

[M1Accord]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
And at first it will not be covered by warranty; that is one thing that we can all be certain of! How about after-market gasoline? Dealer always tries to figure out how to get out of providing warranty service.

I am most interested in finding out who ends up paying for this repair.

- Vikas


A local Toyota dealership wouldn't repair my buddy Tundra because he says the engine was built to use 10% [censored]-holenol gas and my buddy got real gas from down south during his vacation. The issue is the the car was built before the 10% [censored]-holenol gas scam from the gov't and envi-nuts. He politely asked that they put that in writing so he could tell his wife that it's not his fault and promise that he'll get her to get a new Toyota. The manager was stupid enough to write it on the work-order sheet and sign it. The lawyer loved it and took that dealership to the cleaner. My friend got a new Tundra and an out of court settlement.

 

[VNTS]

Not suprising , they dont call them the Power Joke for nothing.

We have one, F350 where I work as a welding truck. It has less than 20K miles on it. Has had the turbo replaced, intercooler, multiple ductwork to the cooler, transmission, 4 ECM's, 1 set of injectors, engine harness and could go on and on. The Diesler rated tech at the local store cries when it comes in because he looses his butt on every repair because of Ford's disgraceful flat rape they pay for warranty on these turds. Some jobs take hours and Ford might pay 50% of the actual time needed for the repair, so the techy gets to work for free. Mus tbe real good going home after 8 hrs spining a wrench and getting paid for 5 hours!

Go to Flat Rate Tech board and listen to the FOrd techs discuss these things, no wonder Ford dumped them.

The funny part is the shop forman insisted they buy this thing when they replaced the old truck, GMC. Two guys in the shop warned him to stay with the gaser even though the Tritons are gas pigs, or get a Cummins in a Dodge or Duramax but he is a Ford guy and wouldnt listen. So the funniest thing was we has bus work at 115 KV Substation which needed the welding equipment, they flat bedded the Power Joke to the Sustation LOL Real funny seeing a 6 month old 45K$ Truck
on a flat bed.

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Neighbor was on his way south to pick up a 5th wheel trailer. Truck is a 2008 Ford Super Duty with 34,000 miles (6.4 liter diesel).

About 60 miles from home (while en route to GET the trailer), with very little warning, the engine let go.

Here's what my neighbor described.

"When the engine let go it was a total surprise to both of us. We were running with the cruise on at about 68 and all of a sudden it started making noises similar to a fan belt that broke and was slapping the inner fender well. Then it turned to a growl, snapping noises and loud thumps. There were no external oil leaks (oil or water) and no gauge indications that there was anything wrong. By the time we got it off the side of the road it died on it's own and that was pretty much the end of the story."

Dealer speculates that the crankshaft snapped, but hasn't been able to tear into it yet.

What would cause a low mileage 6.4 to just let go like this? Yes, it had plenty of oil in it.

 

[rslifkin]

Not sure about the 6.4, but the 6.0 issues were mostly the stuff bolted to the engine, primarily sticky injectors and stuck variable turbos. The basic engines weren't bad, although not as good as the 7.3.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I'm guessing that it was a failure of the Purolator oil filter. You know those things can fail, right? I've even heard the media can get sucked right through the center tube!

 

[bradepb]

As much as I love my Fords, stay away from the 6.0&6.4 they do have a lot of problems, We have a few in our fleet and they are way more trouble than our old 7.3, and yes the dealer techs hate them.

Our dozen 6.6 Duramax Gmc are so far problem free and sweet running

 

[SteveSRT8]

It's my sincere hope that my 09 DMax will be the same!

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I'm guessing that it was a failure of the Purolator oil filter. You know those things can fail, right? I've even heard the media can get sucked right through the center tube!

Actually on the 6.0's and 6.4's aftermarket filter failures are quite common. A lot of them do not use the Ford style filter cap which restrict oil flow. They are a cartridge style filter.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Dualie

the run away ISM unless you can see it coming and be prepared theres not a whole [censored] of a lot you can do. To this day i still keep a phone book and a LARGE C 02 extinguisher around when im doing any sort of maintenance on the diesels.


He was driving the truck when it happened, LMAO!