Got the truck put back together last night after doing the head gaskets and fired her up. Did 5, 15 second cranks with the FICM fuse removed to build up the oil, then an additional 5 key cycles to make sure the fuel pressure was up. Reinstalled the fuse and it was show time. About 6 seconds into the second crank cycle she lit off and was running rough as expected but once the temps were over 100°, I kicked on the high idle but even after 10 minutes it didn't smooth out. This morning I went for a drive and kept the RPMs up to purge any air out of the oil and fuel systems. There is quite a bit of white smoke coming from the exhaust that I initially believed to be residual fluid burning off but it didn't stop. I am also get a code on my Torque app for "P0266- Cylinder 2 Contribution/Balance" but no CEL. When I put the heads back on, the crank dowel was at 6 o'clock and I barred it over 4 full revolutions without any resistance. That was Saturday, so the lifters should have freed up which makes me doubt a push rod...but it is a 6.0 . I disconnected the #2 injector plug and the smoke went away but the miss didn't which tells me the injector was firing when plugged in. I then tore down into it to check the push rods, front 5 are in great shape. I need to go to Ford anyway for a couple plastic clips that didn't survive the tear down so I'll get a few injector o-ring kits (yes, ALL were replaced before reinstallation) so that I can swap #2 around to see if the code follows. I'm going to hold off on buying an injector until I know 100% that I need one, now sense in just throwing money at it and hoping for the best. My concern is what do I do when I swap #2 with #4 and am still running rough with a P0266? Obviously, it won't be an injector issue at that point.

I find it hard to believe that I have a bent valve since they all were good when I got the heads back from the machine shop and there wasn't any binding when I rotated the engine by hand.

 

Well, I pulled injectors 2 and 4 to replace the O-rings and washers and found this:



The washer on the left is from #2 and the right is from #4. These didn't even have a full hour of run time on them. Anywho, I put fresh seals and crush washers on, plopped the #2 into the #4 hole and vice-versa, plugged them in, torqued the rail in, put the valve cover on with 3 bolts, laid the FICM back in and hit the key. Purred like a kitten, no miss, no stutter, just smooth clean idle. I have no clue what was going on but I'll put money that it was something to do with why that copper washer got charred. I put the rest of the top end together and took it for a test drive, just about everything is great, HPOP is pushing up to 4000psi on WOT, boost is reaching 36psi, had a small coolant leak where the trans cooler lines plug into the radiator but got them re-torqued and haven't leaked since.

I'm happy with everything except the growl. I know what you're thinking "All ZF6s growl." No, not like this, it's not gear rollover, I know for a fact that this noise was not happening before I tore it down. I'll see if I can get a video when I get home from work. It almost sounds like the STC fitting vibrating against the back of the block...except that I have the upgraded 1 piece version that is screwed in.

 

Got that video. Nothing to look at, filmed it with a potato