The death of a diesel engine

[IdaSHO]

7.3s are hard to find, period.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Uhhh why not pull it and see what is going bad? Might get away with Turing the crank and a new set of bearing.

 

[4WD School]

Hope this helps...

You might try these folks. http://www.barbersauto.net/

They come well recommended.

 

[1speed]

Not sure how I missed this thread. BUMMER DUDE! I know you spent a lot of time and effort looking for the "right" truck.

If all things were equal, I would do a Cummins transplant, but it would probably cost a lot more.

 

[Martyn]

I'm still scratching my head over this. I don't know which direction to go in, long block, donor vehicle engine transplant etc.

I'm very confined as my personal finances are very tight after pre-paying my daughters college tuition.

I can't see the truck doing anything more than sitting in the driveway for the foreseeable future. I was planning on this being one of our show vehicles fully equipped for expedition travel

Still I'm trying not to let this get me down. This too shall pass.

 

[1speed]

I was planning on this being one of our show vehicles fully equipped for expedition travel

I will be at EXPO 10 with my truck, so if you have any parts accumulated that will work on my Dodge I volunteer to install them and let you display it in your booth. Purely a magnanimous offer you understand! :elkgrin:

Seriously though, sorry to hear about this.

 

[bajajoaquin]

Thanks to everyone for your input.

The information has me scratching my head and thinking a lot.

I too know people who have put in long blocks and had engine failures on them, sometimes multiple failures on multiple long blocks. It seems to be a matter of finding the right re-builder.

Doing a complete engine transplant from a donor vehicle has some huge advantages if you can just drop the whole thing in and bolt it up. But again you have to find the right engine.

No decisions yet, more advice welcome.

It seems to me that the time factor helps make the decision: finding the right re-builder or finding the right donor engine. Why not keep looking for both? Keep up an active search for the right donor engine at the right price. If your finances allow buying a long block from the right builder along the way, you can shift your plan.

I don't think that you have made any decisions that lock you onto one path or another yet, have you?

 

[lowenbrau]

My thoughts...

I really like the idea of a 12V in a Superduty, especially if it was in front of the ZF six speed. There is a lot of support for this conversion but it will break the bank if you don't do the work yourself. I have thought about this conversion a lot since the body on my old Dodge is nearly done, I need rear doors and my Cummins is running well.

I'd investigate how much you are going to lose by simply selling the rig with a broken engine. (likely at auction). I looked at a similar truck here with nice accessories and decent oil analysis but low compression that went for $5000. I don't know what you paid but if the difference between what you paid and the current value is less than $7-8K You might as well just take a bath on it. You aren't likely to restore it for less than that.

If it isn't being used at this point, you might was well tear into it to see what is up. PowerStrokes are rebuild-able and you might find a shrunk rod or spun bearing by pulling the pan. At least then you can make an educated guess about whether you need a longblock or not.

How much downtime can you afford? If it is less than two months, I'd drive it down to the dealer (or auction) and trade it in.

Sorry to hear of your bad luck.

 

[Martyn]

I have $12K invested in it. It's a really nice truck apart from the engine.

I'm morally obliged to repair the engine if I were to sell it, as I wouldn't do so without a full disclosure to the new owner.

If I'm going to repair it to sell it, I may as well fix it (great logic, sometimes I amaze myself :sombrero.

I'm interested in doing some exploration into the engine. From that point I could decide on a rebuild or a transplant.

Still scratching my head.

 

[Mike S]

MARTYN

I am sorry to hear you are having these troubles. Have you pinppointed where the damage is occurring? Turbo? Mains? What? Seems to me that this would be the determining factor.

Perhaps a rebuild of what you have is the way to go. Sorry that I am no help, my 7.3 is coming on to 90K miles with no troubles, and I am surprised that this is happening to your low-mileage truck.

 

[Tennmogger]

Sorry to hear of your trouble! I've had an old '90 7.3 IDI NA Diesel for many years. Your engine is many years later but the scarcity is probably similar. If I had a newer truck that was worth the expenditure, I'd contact a Jasper installer and get a quote on a reman engine. That installer will be able to diagnose the engine and order the level of rebuild from Jasper that you need (short block, long block, full engine, etc).

If I had such a failure here's what I'd do.

First, check coolant to see if there a problem there, like oil contamination, or low level. If engine still runs see if bubbles come out the cap. Some of these engines suffer from cavitation which results in a puncture through the cylinder wall. Your later engine might not be prone to that like the older 7.3s are. If you find oil in the coolant, that's bad news and you'll need a replacement engine or block and rebuild.

Second, have a sample of the oil tested. The testing company can tell you what type metal you are seeing, and that can help pinpoint the problem. However, a knock certainly points out main bearing, rod bearing, wrist pin, etc. so a teardown will be necessary. Might be able to diagnose from pulling the pan.

Regrettably, you are probably looking at an expensive repair. Any recourse from the seller?

Bob

I have $12K invested in it. It's a really nice truck apart from the engine.

I'm morally obliged to repair the engine if I were to sell it, as I wouldn't do so without a full disclosure to the new owner.

If I'm going to repair it to sell it, I may as well fix it (great logic, sometimes I amaze myself :sombrero.

I'm interested in doing some exploration into the engine. From that point I could decide on a rebuild or a transplant.

Still scratching my head.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I feel bad too because I'm the one who saw the truck and said "hey Martyn!" ... I also wish I had a little more time and I would gladly help Martyn out with the swap...

Anyway, Martyn stay positive of course.. 1) I saw your official Adventure Trailer email the other day and some great things going on.. and 2) none of this is really your fault and these things happen.. I feel like Fords are like giants, when they stand they stand tall but they can fail. I had a good 1-2 months of this when I thought my engine had taken a dump and ended up doing all sorts of extensive work. I then lost an injector in tow in Fernley on the way to Burning Man but managed to somehow get it replaced in 1.5 hours ... Since then I have absolutely grown to love the truck... It will be worth it to repair. And again I wouldn't bother with the swap as cool as it is an it will increase your resale but as long as it stays under certain miles. As they creep up to 200K no matter what is in it people do not buy trucks over 200K even though they are a sold 300-400K vehicle, if not the most solid of this type because everything is so ridiculously heavy duty..

We also need to convert that beast over to vegetable oil at some point..

 

[Martyn]

Sorry to hear of your trouble! I've had an old '90 7.3 IDI NA Diesel for many years. Your engine is many years later but the scarcity is probably similar. If I had a newer truck that was worth the expenditure, I'd contact a Jasper installer and get a quote on a reman engine. That installer will be able to diagnose the engine and order the level of rebuild from Jasper that you need (short block, long block, full engine, etc).

If I had such a failure here's what I'd do.

First, check coolant to see if there a problem there, like oil contamination, or low level. If engine still runs see if bubbles come out the cap. Some of these engines suffer from cavitation which results in a puncture through the cylinder wall. Your later engine might not be prone to that like the older 7.3s are. If you find oil in the coolant, that's bad news and you'll need a replacement engine or block and rebuild.

Second, have a sample of the oil tested. The testing company can tell you what type metal you are seeing, and that can help pinpoint the problem. However, a knock certainly points out main bearing, rod bearing, wrist pin, etc. so a teardown will be necessary. Might be able to diagnose from pulling the pan.

Regrettably, you are probably looking at an expensive repair. Any recourse from the seller?

Bob

I think I'm going to pull the pan off and have a look. It's difficult as I live in the mountains, it's snow season, and the truck doesn't fit in the garage. So any mechanical work is a challenge.Sending an oil sample out is a good idea.

As far as recourse from the seller goes, I bought it off someone from the Expedition Portal, which I thought was a great way of supporting the community.

I'm assuming that the seller was forthright in his disclosures to me, I have no reason to believe otherwise. As always it's buyer beware.

At this point it would just be good to know a why the engine failed so it could be fixed correctly.

 

[ntsqd]

Something to note that may not be common knowledge, if the engine has an oil cooler and there is trash in the oil the best course will be a new one. At the very least it will need to be thoroughly flushed, but there is no guarantee that it is ever completely clean.

Were I closer my driveway would be open to you, but ~500 miles is probably asking too much from that engine.

 

[DT75FLH]

if you were to do a long block swap I would ck with international or the ford dealer.

the dealers aroud here sell 7.3 long blocks and they were preety competive with jasper etc.

if you pay for the dealer to install youll also get a warranty.

fordonline parts shows a 7.3 short block for 3k.