ticking!?!?!?! push rod? piston rod? help!!!!!!!!!

michaelite · Apr 1, 2015

6.4f350 said:
My truck did the exact same thing you're describing, started ticking out of nowhere. I tore it down thinking it was going to be a lifter, turns out the #1 rod was bent causing the bottom of the piston to hit the counter weight on the crank.

Here's what mine sounded like

http://youtu.be/Z9lACJE8K2c

http://youtu.be/m1le6g0vic4

It wasnt throwing any codes, still ran 100% normal.

Given that, what's the expected life expectancy and what other damage would this cause?
Trying to picture that in my head and it would seem the rod would have to be seriously bent. Do we know by chance the clearance between the piston and counter weight normally?

6.4f350 · Apr 1, 2015

michaelite said:
Given that, what's the expected life expectancy and what other damage would this cause?
Trying to picture that in my head and it would seem the rod would have to be seriously bent. Do we know by chance the clearance between the piston and counter weight normally?

Eventually it would have either broken the piston or self-clearanced and been fine. I didn't take any chances with it since I thought it was a lifter so the truck ran for maybe a total of 30 minutes while making that noise before I parked it to tear it down.

Clearnace is not very much. Normally the pistons come ~30 thousandths out of the bore. After I had the heads off I noticed that #1 was only coming flush with the bore. That 30 thousandths was enough to make it touch the counterweight. You can't even tell the rod is bent by eyeballing it, but it was easy to tell that was the problem after I noticed the piston height because it was also sitting crooked in the bore. There are marks on the bottom of the piston where the counterweight was hitting but they don't look that bad. I'd reuse the piston if I wasn't putting IH HD's in it.

Magnum PD · Apr 1, 2015

Subbed

6.4 rods are forged?

Derail I know

michaelite · Apr 1, 2015

6.4f350 said:
Eventually it would have either broken the piston or self-clearanced and been fine. I didn't take any chances with it since I thought it was a lifter so the truck ran for maybe a total of 30 minutes while making that noise before I parked it to tear it down.

Clearnace is not very much. Normally the pistons come ~30 thousandths out of the bore. After I had the heads off I noticed that #1 was only coming flush with the bore. That 30 thousandths was enough to make it touch the counterweight. You can't even tell the rod is bent by eyeballing it, but it was easy to tell that was the problem after I noticed the piston height because it was also sitting crooked in the bore. There are marks on the bottom of the piston where the counterweight was hitting but they don't look that bad. I'd reuse the piston if I wasn't putting IH HD's in it.

Thanks for the info 6.4f350.
Brian, I have the same symptoms as you and a few others it seems. Have you done an oil analysis on it?

powerstroked08 · Apr 1, 2015

Magnum PD said:
Subbed

6.4 rods are forged?

Derail I know

No they are pmr. Just big a$$ pmr's.

Powerstroke Man 6.4 · Apr 1, 2015

powerstroked08 said:
No they are pmr. Just big a$$ pmr's.

WHS^ link to compare PSD rods.

http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34091&d=1422736361

Magnum PD · Apr 1, 2015

Are the 6.4's PMR rods any stronger than the 7.3's?

6.4 Stroker · Apr 1, 2015

Magnum PD said:
Are the 6.4's PMR rods any stronger than the 7.3's?

By a long shot!

Magnum PD · Apr 1, 2015

Both being PMR's wonder what the difference is.

powerstroked08 · Apr 2, 2015

Their about tripple the thickness.

briandale92 · Apr 3, 2015

6.4f350 yea i think thats what mine is thanks for the response. I will let you guys know for sure. But took it to a guy that "loves" 6.4s and he listened to it and said he thinks its probably a bent rod just barely or either the cam shaft. He said those are bad to go out in the 6.4. But its coming from lower in the engine and its not really missing. He said if it was on top it would miss. But yay for me looks like ill be doing a rebuild. Hopefully it will only cost around 7000....ouch but better than 15000. Hopefully my block is still good. But like i said once i find out for sure i will let you guys know!

6.4f350 · Apr 3, 2015

Good luck... hopefully you get "lucky" like I did and nothing too expensive it torn up.

Magnum PD · Apr 3, 2015

All for having a little fun with the truck. Would make me sick.

golfer · Apr 3, 2015

Magnum PD said:
Both being PMR's wonder what the difference is.

primarily the 6.4 (and 6.0L) PMR rods were engineered to be made from powdered metal from the get-go...

Whoever decided to switch the 7.3L rods from forged to PMR had to 'engineer' the new (PMR) rod to still clear/fit all the other rotating and reciprocating components inside the block..not to mention the weight had to be similar to minimize crank balance issues.

ie, the 7.3L PMR's were dimensionally (nearly) equivalent to the forged..

6.4f350 · Apr 3, 2015

Magnum PD said:
All for having a little fun with the truck. Would make me sick.

Pay to play - that's the name of the game. 600 horsepower moving 4 tons is only going to last so long when you do it with parts engineered for half that power.

Here's what my #1 piston looked like. Not that bad for the noise it was making.