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Blue paper towel

R

RD400HP

Active Member
Messages
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39
Location
Fowler, Ohio
Hey guys I have a question for you. Now this happened a couple of years ago and gives you an idea how work I've been doing on the ole Jimmy . But the question is this is a NA motor (no turbo) but anywho I had the aircleaner off of it I don't remember what I was working on but I covered the intake with one of those thick blue paper towels. Well the next day I went to move the truck and forgot how I left it the night before so I started it up and it started blowing blue paper towel out the tail pipe then I remembered so my question is do you think this brain fart could have damaged anything like a valve or crack a piston or crack a head ? I was going to ask this question back when the weather was warmer but for some reason the forum wasn't taking my password so I made a new password and it wouldn't take that one either well it must have been my lucky day I made a new one today and it works but now I have snow on the ground and a unheated garage so it might have to wait for warmer weather, thanks for any thoughts you can give me.

Mark
 
SKY is falling approach

Run a compression test. Then run a leak down test. Absolutely do a leak down test.

The concern is: paper towel gets trapped in a closing valve. Part in the cylinder burns up but leaves chunk of it smashed against the seat and burned up to carbon. This can cause the valves to burn. It can be either intake or exhaust.


As to the rings- yes same thing can happen at the rings.
Getting any of the materials past the rings is not likely. But if some could get beyond them, the smallest amount of it can instantly destroy bearings.
So for that just watch your oil pressure. If at anytime in the next 5-6k miles it drops sudd- shut it down asap and pull the pan. This is crazy odds it could happen.
 
I'm sure it shouldn't cause any problems as long as none got stuck somewhere like Will said. keep watch on things closely. might even goose it a couple of times as long as it's not running rough, just to ensure hopefully it all passes through and out the pipe.

this reminds me of what happened at the shop where I work a few years ago. one of the mechanics had to do some hydraulic work on one of the bobcat loaders. had stuffed a red rag in a port to keep dirt out. the next crew finished the job but didn't remove the rag!

the loader made it back out to the job site and all hell breaks loose. hydraulics go nuts. we had to almost completely replace every part of the hydraulic system on that loader. after that happened, the entire shop stopped using rags and went to using the paper towels.

our superintendent announced threatening termination if he caught anyone using rags in the shop!!
 
@dbrannon79
Thats the fault of your shop manager or his boss. Every hydraulic mechanic should have a full selection of caps and plugs. Use of rags or paper towels around high pressure hydro is dangerous. Doing that with cranes, or manned lifts like a scissor lift or manned bucket is a criminal offense just like it is in aircraft. Imagine a dime sized piece piece in the circuit at a velocity fuse, check valve or similar safety valve and you’ll get why.

A 2nd year mechanic and his shop manager were convicted of 3rd degree murder here for exactly that on an articulating boom lift about 2 years ago. The mechanic got 3 months because he was considered mostly untrained but the shop manager got 10 years, no parole because there was proof he had people bring it to attention. Either leave it open and flush before assembly or use a proper sealing device on hydraulic and pneudraulic systems.
 
Will L. said:
@dbrannon79
Thats the fault of your shop manager or his boss. Every hydraulic mechanic should have a full selection of caps and plugs. Use of rags or paper towels around high pressure hydro is dangerous. Doing that with cranes, or manned lifts like a scissor lift or manned bucket is a criminal offense just like it is in aircraft. Imagine a dime sized piece piece in the circuit at a velocity fuse, check valve or similar safety valve and you’ll get why.

A 2nd year mechanic and his shop manager were convicted of 3rd degree murder here for exactly that on an articulating boom lift about 2 years ago. The mechanic got 3 months because he was considered mostly untrained but the shop manager got 10 years, no parole because there was proof he had people bring it to attention. Either leave it open and flush before assembly or use a proper sealing device on hydraulic and pneudraulic systems.
Click to expand...
Your so right. I honestly don’t know what or why caps or plugs weren’t used since we keep a surplus of them in The shop
 
Or it bent a valve. Not likely to have bent a rod or stretched the head bolts.

Other than inspecting the intake ports all the way to the intake valves for any remaining parts of the rag ... I would just run it. If it hits on all 8 and no white smoke that is.

Yes you can do the suggested tests. You are either going to find a problem now or when you run it out to failure. Otherwise it may not have any problems. Pulling the heads because you found a problem: odds they have cracks (because they crack for a number of other reasons) and are scrap iron rather than putting a cracked part back on an engine.

In other words the tests tell you if it's going to fail real soon. But what if running a bent valve burns/breaks/drops the valve head and takes out the bottom end as well? 🤪 I have a low opinion of the shortblock being crack free... It's likely a zombie still running but not rebuildable.

I still recall the V16 rebuilt by a CAT dealer in the 80's. After rebuild they ran it on the stand with a neat city water supplied cooling tower. It didn't pass as someone left a rag in it somewhere. OOPS!

If you really need an excuse to replace the engine use something harder like a 1/4" worm clamp in the intake. :angelic:
 
And I’ll throw in my 1/2 a pennys worth.
I think it would be okay to fire up the engine with the top of the intake removed. Get a can or two of the engine decarbon stuff and run that through the intake.
If there is anything smashed into a valve face or seat, that should knock it out.
Could also try the formula I was showed in an emissions class years ago. about ten ounces of water and four or six ounces of ATF in a coke or soda bottle, shake the shit out of it then feed that through. Let the engine die or just turn it off while the cylinders, valves, etc is still wet and there is still about a 1/4 of it left in the jug. Let it set for twenty minits or so, fire it up and run the rest of the juice through it.
 
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Thanks for your input . Yeah it was making lots blue confetti when I started it, I would think the paper towel tried to exit just through one cylinder. About how much room is there when the pistons on TDC between the piston and the head in the combustion chamber? That sounds like a good idea to run it with the intake off. I've heard about pouring water down the carburetor to dicarbon the top end but I was always afraid to try it. With the intake off I looked with a flashlight and used a vacuum cleaner on it but I didn't see anything. On the Feed the Beast mod when you drill the fuel inlet holes underneath the screen what size drill bit do you use? Thanks for the info.

Mark
 
RD400HP said:
Thanks for your input . Yeah it was making lots blue confetti when I started it, I would think the paper towel tried to exit just through one cylinder. About how much room is there when the pistons on TDC between the piston and the head in the combustion chamber? That sounds like a good idea to run it with the intake off. I've heard about pouring water down the carburetor to dicarbon the top end but I was always afraid to try it. With the intake off I looked with a flashlight and used a vacuum cleaner on it but I didn't see anything. On the Feed the Beast mod when you drill the fuel inlet holes underneath the screen what size drill bit do you use? Thanks for the info.

Mark
Click to expand...

Curious if you still have the soot trap on this vehicle, or if it even came with one.

Run it at night and see if it showers flaming sparks.
 
I'm not sure I know what your talking about BigT. The truck came from Virginia and was either owned by the state or one of its counties and appeared to be all stock it has around 150K miles on it. I was surprised to find that it has the smaller 4L60E transmission I would have thought being owned by Va. it would have had the 4L80E trans but maybe this is because its a non turbo truck.

Mark
 
Look on the emissions sticker for the word "catalyst" (Aka Soot Trap because of the way it plugs up on some failures). After 1993 the 6.5TDs all had Cat Converters on them as far as I know. So it blowing confetti out of the exhaust means the converter material broke up or is missing.
 
I was thinking the same thing, it the paper towel made it out the tail pipe. you have no soot trap. or someone gutted it. if you still had the soot trap the paper would have stopped there and burned to ash before it made it out the pipe.
 
Many never had it.

I don’t like the atf etc idea for trying to flush it out. The difference of a few hundred more cycles can do the damage.
The reason I am pushing for the leak down test and compression test (AND DOING IT NOW, BEFORE STARTING THE ENGINE AGAIN) Is: if there is some stuck in there now, you can get it out before burning up the edges of the valves. 6.5 rarely burn valve edges but when they do, the egt is so high they burn up quickly and you will not get the truck running properly- goes to hard start, then no start.

If they burn, it isn’t just the valves it burns out the valve seat as well. So then you need a new head.
 
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