how could my om617 be compromised so quickly?
 

Well there's your problem...

Towed her home, then towed buddies shop when it sat.

Hole in piston could only be associated w/dropped valve or foreign object?

Hope to get more details next time I'm at the shop...

Currently no claim...expensive lesson.

Are you keeping a detailed chain of evidence to formulate a claim?

What part of this is a expensive lesson, the conversion of the truck or taking it to a quick oil change place?

check for a valve the has broken prior to the damage.
due to the recent servicing of the engine i am leaning towards "ingestion of a foreign object"

Any more news on the motor and law suit?

Are you keeping a detailed chain of evidence to formulate a claim?

What part of this is a expensive lesson, the conversion of the truck or taking it to a quick oil change place?

Jooseeppiiiiiii, buddy, when you have things that get banged up like that engine, internal parts smashed to smittereens, you can't blame that on the oil change guy. It just won't stick. There is nothing to hang it on. Foreign object/material stuck in piston - yes it is foreign all right, foreign as a valve or a piece of the turbo. Must have been an awful piece of junk stuck into a piece of junk (the whole vehicle). You have to be more then hearing impaired to know that you have more then, " it operated so sluggish, so down on power". Maybe it took that big shjt the second time he revved it up to check the oil level, lol. I really think it is funny!

rod bearing in the pic has no scoring so it is not an oil related failure.

when they check the air filter something could have been ingested into the air intake or just vandalism. hard to prove sometimes.
you want to find something related to the air filter or its hardware to prove negligence on their part.
if you find something other than air filter hardware then it could be vandalism.

one time I was called to do forensics on an MB straight 6 gas engine.
It had a foreign object ingested into one cylinder only, broke the piston, damaged combustion chamber however no valve seat broke off in that cylinder.
shop claimed the piece related to the intake flap had its nut come loose and into the air inlet stream.
the nut was all banged up as if it was smashed by the piston.
I told them something was ingested but it was not that nut because it was to big to get past the valve openings.
I was embarrassed for them because of their red faces.




you can look through the debris for something unusual and not part of the internal engine to prove vandalism.

Any new news on this?

My nightmare has ended...drove home in my landcruiser last Saturday.
Still can't believe I have my fj40 back http://www.superturbodiesel.com/std/...lies/smile.gif

It seemed to vibrate more then usual on the freeway, imagine the tires didn't appreciate sitting for nearly 2years.
Noticed an oil leak, valve cover gasket was replaced...will have to pull the skid-plate and investigate further.

Differences with this motor, over the old one?
Motor is from an 82 300D, so the turbo mounts lower then the previous (had to redo the exhaust).
Keeping the Original Mercedes Oil-Filter housing/system...no more spin-on remote-filter setup.
Max turbo boost is 8lbs...may bump to 10lbs as the previous.
the pyro is post turbo...where the old motor had the pyro at the rear cylinder.
Need to identify the new temperature ceiling.
I Also want to remove the EGR, have to see if the old parts work on the replacement motor.

Driving the fj40 around town yesterday, reminded me of how the sm465 manual transmission is sooooo not turbo friendly (especially with 35inch tires http://www.superturbodiesel.com/std/...ies/tongue.gif ).

I also noticed that the ALDA isn't hooked up, which was also the case in the previous motor.
I found that this wasn't very high altitude friendly, so I will prob. be hooking it back up.

I am also thinking of building a injector pop tester...maybe try rebuilding the injectors myself.

Regarding the old motor.
Other then a compression test (which recorded low), nothing else has been done.

I did pull the following parts before the shop sent to the scrap yard:
Intake/Exhaust/Turbo
Vacuum pump
Injector pump
Injector lines
Injectors

If I decide to add an inter-cooler, the later intake manifold seems to be a good way to go.

Did you determine what caused the old engine to fail?

I believe the cause was NO Oil Circulation, caused by the wrong oil filters that were installed by the quick oil change place.
My Universal remote oil-filter system did not have provisions for a bypass (common with universal), and prevented oil to circulate.

I know that excessive blow-by, lack of power and poor compression numbers was my new reality...all post indecent.
No other forensics was performed.

Just glad to have my 40 back...that's all that matters :)

glad to hear you made it back on the road. my 617 has been out of commission for 5 months now, still no re-swap.

I would like everyone that has built / repaired broken engines to look at the top pic in post 43 and answer these questions:

Do you feel that lack of oil for a few minutes caused this damage in one cylinder? ( Look at the piston and rod bearing shell. )

If not lack of oil, what do you think caused this damage?

I would love to see that pile of scrap separated into ferrous and non ferrous. There are three round looking pieces and one with threads...

Foreign object damage. That rod bearing looks fine, as does the big end of the rod.