2001 Chevy 6.0, Hydrolocked with Gasoline

knightgang · February 2, 2015

So, I pulled my 2001 1500HD Silverado down a few months back so that my son can learn how to mechanic and fix his own vehicle before getting his drivers license. The plan was to install a new fuel pump, new brakes and rebuild the front end (New Ball Joints, Tie Rod Ends, Idler and Pitman arm.)

Finally got it done and back together, and we have a dead battery. Charge it up and get a quick crank, but it runs rough, will not respond to the gas pedal and quickly shuts down. After that, only a sputter up until it kills the battery again (very quickly).

So, I decide the battery is 5 years old and needs replacing anyway. After the new battery, we try to fire it up, Get several crank attempts then this very sudden and loud metallic "Clink". Once that clink occured that was all we would get is a clink each time the stater tried to engage. Turns out the starter housing broke. Replace the starter, still get a "Clink".

I fear the worst, pull the plugs to see if we can turn the engine manually, and on a revolution, I get a shower of fuel out of a cylinder through spark plug hole...

So, what could have caused this much fuel to dump into a cylinder when this is a fuel injected engine?

09SierraZ71 · February 2, 2015

I may be wrong but it sounds like your fuel problem could be a bad fuel regulator. Does it happen on all cylinders or just one? Did you do a tune up on it, the spark plug reach could be too long resulting it hitting the piston? The clink can be alot of things, does it happen every crank or just once every few times. Reason i'm asking is that you could have chipped a tooth on your flex plate, since your starter was damaged.

knightgang · February 3, 2015

Once it "Clinked" it did it every time. I have not tried to turn it with the starter since pulling the spark plugs out. I have a bind in it (not sure I can get past it or not) when turning it by hand prying on the teeth of the flywheel. I figure this is either a bend pushrod holding a valve open or a bent valve. I will be pulling the valve covers by the end of the week to find out.

09SierraZ71 · February 9, 2015

Did you turn it by hand with the plugs out? From what I gather I would assume its something to do with the plugs hitting the piston. Which would explain why the starter housing cracked. Unless you messed with the valves/lifters/rocker arms/pushrods, I doubt that would be a suspect.