Ford Powerstroke HPOP Fuel System

[Mike S]

Very enlightening and useful thread. I discovered much of this info when researching my truck purchase - probably the major reason I bought a 7.3L, plus the recommendation of Gary Wescott and my own experience with my earlier Ford F50 diesel.

I am getting 20+ MPG on the road. Love the truck!

 

[Fish]

You can now get a new CPS at Napa for less than $40. They used to be $129 or something before the recall.

 

[locrwln]

Andre

You might consider keeping a spare CPS or two on hand as well. When it goes bad, you go nowhere.

Tom

I would add, believe it or not if you are planning on being out in the middle of nowhere, a throttle pedal. When they go bad, again, you are going nowhere thanks to the Throttle by Wire. Mine went out on I5 in Oregon on Christmas Eve. Needless to say, I had to wait until the 26th to get a replacement. Mine is an 2002 and the new pedal (superceded part) is a different design, but you never know. I paid full price and it was $125, so I'm sure they can be had for cheaper. I will be buying a spare soon, mine has been to the tip of Baja three times, so if it were to go bad south of the border, it would be a long wait. Besides, it takes the same tools as the CPS.

I have had to replace my CPS as well, before the recall. I used the one from International and bought a second spare with the Ford ones dropped to $25.00. I didn't bother with the recall.

I too have had the HPOP O-rings go bad, luckily after getting back from Baja.

Jack

 

[Geronimo]

I fixed several early Power Smokers that Had melted valve cover gaskets. Not a big deal cept the wiring for the glow plugs is integrated into the gaskets. We had a fleet of 1st gen trucks that I serviced, they were used on a local ranch, all were rode hard. Most were pushing 200k. One more thing to check out.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I went through my new truck yesterday extensively on the oil leak (it popped on the way home about 4 miles from home). I replaced all the oil rings along with a bad injector. Turns out the leak is elsewhere on the HPOP. A shop installed it for the bank (I bought it from a bank via a Repo) but there was an installation error. I don't particularly want to pull the whole HPOP now so I'm going to send it down for them to fix. All out of tows on AAA, bummer

 

[Mike S]

I would like to know how many of these reported problems are on trucks that have been modified from factory trim... new exhaust, after market air intakes and filters, 'chipped' engines, etc.

Any idea how the mania for modding these diesels effects reliability?

M

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

A chip and or heavy foot might cause it to come out early but that would be it. I am also almost really polarized against a lot of the heavy modding now that I notice it. But an improved intake and exhaust do a lot for air flow, lower EGTs for longer turbo life, better breathing and power, basically free power. I might also even consider a chip (though I probably won't do one). The trucks are pretty detuned believe it or not, understandable considering all that volume (7.3 liters) for only 235 hp...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is a photo of my new truck... I don't have good photos of it outside the shop yet. I really like it but it's huge, I really don't need a long bed and the auto is nice but I have an affliction for manuals and for this truck I'm not particularly looking for a lift (even if its mild like this one). The overall physical size of the truck is quite large. I think it has a 2.5" lift, leveling kit. It also has a 4" exhaust and an Air Lift suspension over the rear springs for additional load carrying. It had NHRA stickers on it so it was owned by someone who knew their cars and particularly with all the recent work (batteries, windshield, HPOP o-rings, new injector all under my watch now) it's a pretty nice truck... I'm considering selling it already to buy a shortbed manual (hehem Martyn, sorta kidding, sorta not) that I just found another worthy candidate of but am on the fence myself.

I have to say I am really impressed with the PowerStroke and the Super Duty I must say. I can't believe the oil capacity, 16 quarts! The engine is extremely heavy duty. I didn't realize them compete right up there with Cummins as far as industrial aspects. It is made by Navistar / International and is 100% industrial heavy duty just like a Cummins...

Cheers,
Andre

 

[chasespeed]

Well, I had 2 7.3 PSDs... one in a OBS 4dr Dually, with a 5spd.. and the other was a 99.5 bastard(newer engine, older suspension)....

Both were STONE ROCK RELIABLE....

And neither was stock.

My second, was closer to stock, custom programming, blah blah blah...

Anyway, as long as you have the forged rods, and have a brain between your ears... you can work these motors up to 500rwhp(costly I will admit), and still be reliable....

I could never get good mileage outta either of mine, but, that was okay... until diesel went up to 5.50 a gallon, and my now ex wife finally said... its gotta go...

There is TONS AND TONS of info on these motors...

Only problem I ever had with mine, was injetor sleeves cracked on 2 injectors, allowing fuel oil to get into the coolant....not a major issue really...but, needed to be addressed.

GOOD programming(DP Tuner, Jody is the best with these things, and Tony Wildman outta DFW, TX, is who did my tunes on my S/D) If you want, send your ECM to Jody, and have him burn a 100hp program into it, and be done...

IF you have an auto....

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, and get a triple disc convertor, and an aftermarket valve body.... those are the 2 weak links in the 4R100....

FWIW, the biggest thing I dont like about my truck? The Dodge wrapped around a great motor. The Super Duty has to have one of the nicest interior layouts.. period...

Chase

 

[rewell6]

We also had 2 7.3 Powerstrokes. First in a '94 dually crew with a stick. I didn't like the stick with the Powerstroke. Too much shifting.

Second in a 2000 15 passenger Clubwagon. Had a SuperChip in this one and kept it on the lowest setting. It was fun to drive even on the lowest setting. The superchip had 3 settings: lowest kept full tow capability of 9k, second dropped the tow to 6k and 3rd was NO towing. Mileage was 16 without the chip and 18 with. It is not fun to put injectors in a van.

We purchased a scan tool from EASE Diagnostics for the powerstrokes. It has a feature to fire all the injectors without the vehicle running in order. Makes it easy to find the bad injector. Click, Click, sput, Click, etc. We still have it and might be persuaded to part with it since we no longer have the powerstrokes. You can check it out here: http://www.obd2.com/personal/personal_scantool.htm

Here is the part I really wanted to get to
I don't know if this issue has been fixed or not. The valve cover gasket has a plug on the inside and the outside of the valve cover for the injector wire harness to plug into. On the inside of the valve cover the plug will wiggle itself loose over time and cause some/all the injectors on that side to quit. Depending on how far it has fallen out. I replaced 3 injectors on one side before finding this out. Check out this link: http://www.forddoctorsdts.com/articles/article-05-10.php

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Great stuff.. I'm realizing scan tool is definitely huge.. . Very good comments!

Strongly considering the chip for firmer shifts..

I also have a bolt that broke off in the head that keeps one of the injectors tight. This was also broken off before I bought it. Looks like I'll be replacing the driver's site head as well because of it. For now, preheat head and weld in place. Bummer.. I tried easy-out. Drilled out old bolt with success but low and behold, bit snapped. Bummed...
Full info here: http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f24/injector-problem-hpop-reservoir-gasket-233042/

Mechanics also installed the wrong HPOP gasket for a later model. It caused a crack in my reservoir. Common fix, believe it or not, is... JB Weld...

Once I get it running well I'm going to take it in for trans servicing. Don't think I'll replace the torque converter but valve bod sounds good...


thanks for excellent advice guys!

 

[chasespeed]

Just take the head to a machine shop, and have them remove the whole bolt, and tap for a new bolt...

For the shift.... GET the valve body, do it right.... that trans will be SO MUCH happier. Then, when you decide what/if you wanna add some juice... just tell them to leave the line pressure alone.

The valve body is usually around 200 bux... seeing as how you should be servicing that trans anyway since its a new to you truck...


Chase

 

[redthies]

Fantastic amount of info Andre! And for the most part, all the little/big costs involved in the powerstroke world is the reason I bought a gas truck for my newest tow rig. Do I still long for diesel power? You bet. But since I found a spotless F350 for the cost of a set of injectors, I had to go for it. The mileage while towing is 1-2 mpg different than my friends psd... Good luck with your new superduty. Wish I had the budget to do all the p.m. I would want to...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

thanks guys again.. Chase, very good info and right on the money as well...

My course of action is:

I'm pretty sure the rods aren't bent. My theory now is the oil exited by the blown injector which wasn't all the way strapped in due to the broken bolt.. Lucky for me! (I hope/think)... I was hoping to pull the engine today but ran out of time. I scored a builder engine for free (can't remember if I mentioned that. Pretty funny as my Toyota has about 1200 lbs of powerstroke in it as we speak, LOL... Photos below.. Assuming everything is fine I'll pull the head of the builder, send it in just in case (should be fine) and then replace. I think the engine itself has a lot of life left in it.

From there, if I do start running into engine issues I found two engines now, a builder for $1500 with about 150K miles as mentioned, and I also found a running 2WD powerstoke with a bad trans for around the same price, good shape at about 225K miles... I think I'd probably go with that one, start parting out my other two engines and turbo / injectors etc

And finally I started really reading about all the trans issues. There are plenty of builders solving the problems but two (really three) have it down to an art, John Wood in the San Diego area, and BTS in Arkansas. Both will also rebuild their trans with you right there in a day if you want... They are expensive though. Also I started looking for signs my truck had its trans replaced. I can't find any at all, so I actually think its the original trans... Instead of messing with torque converters and valve bodies etc, I'm basically going to wait for it to fail and/or come up with the money for an expensive professional rebuild by one of these guys (or possibly someone local) and then do it right, once... Again, the Navistar can run for so long (400k easily I think) that I'll just keep truckin and pretend I'll have the truck indefinitely..

So that's it in a nutshell I also ran across the photos of a stock F250 I test drove earlier. It really looked pretty good stock height. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to lower this one back down to stock height as well... Better mileage as well

The engine (and the hell of a fork lift that I used to load it). I can't name names but the guy I discovered is one hell of a guy. I also talked extensively with a diesel heavy tech off my site 4btswaps.com who is a really high end mechanic, gave me really good adivce. Between the two guys I am a luck guy if you ask me..