|
Grabowski,
I wish I had read your post before now….
So I pulled the valvecovers off, bending them in the process. They had been installed with very large amounts of permatex, and would not come off by normal techniques.
All the valves and lifters looked fine, and turning the engine over by hand didn’t show any hiccups. After much inspection and deliberation, I put everything back. I tried to get the valve covers flattened out, with moderate success. I used a gasket (as I hadn’t seen the above post) and some RTV to reinstall.
Restarted the engine, sounded the same. I tried 8 or 10 different things to locate the sound. I tried the screwdriver trick with an old stethoscope, all areas sounded the same. I tried pulling the accessory belt, changing the fuel lift pump, disconnecting the fuel lift pump, holding the clutch, and several other things. I timed the noise to try to determine if it was at crank speed or cam speed (it is at neither…).
After discussing it with a friend, I turned to youtube to listen to videos of 6.5l engines running. They all sound just like my engine. After letting two other people experienced with diesels listen, they all say it sounds fine to them.
So at the end of it all, it appears that I was chasing an imaginary problem. A guy who was helping me when I started the engine the first time had said that noise was a problem, and I took that and ran with it. I drove the truck around my property and it seemed to run and drive just fine.
The valve covers are already starting to leak, apparently the recommended 20 ft-lbs of torque crushed and split the fel-pro valve cover gasket. So it will be new valve covers, no gasket, and some RTV sealer.
So the project is going to progress, I need to so some more legwork on the remaining wiring for the lights and accessories, and then a final push to get all the odds and ends installed.
|