Following the advice of some guys here, I decided to look into my turbo for the root of my problems. The truck is a 2000 7.3, it starts fine, idles fine and drives fine under 30 mph, but when you hit it, it has no power and puffs white smoke like a freight train.

The compressor wheel has a little side to side play but doesn't rub against the housing. The intake side is clean, but the exhaust side is pretty dirty with oil covering the passenger side of the motor. When I spin the wheel, it does have a faint noise, like a bad bearing, but too be honest I don't know what it should sound like. I imagine the wheel should spin pretty freely, but again I don't know. If I spin the wheel like a top how long should it free spin? Any other signs to tell if the bearings/turbo are bad?

Thanks

 

any in and out movement is a bad thing
is the exhaust covered in oil or carbon??

 

oil. I've used a bunch of simple green to try to clean it up, but can still wipe off a layer with a rag.

 

sounds like you may need a rebuild. sounds like the oil seal is leaking on the exhaust side
best be would be to pull it apart to make sure the exhaust wheel isnt contacting the housing or damaged
the sound u hear may be oil built up on the heat shield and the build up is contacting the back side of the wheel ... we can hope thats what it is

 

Same happened to me. It was oil leaking on exhaust side.

 

Mitch- Did you lose all power as well? How did you fix the problem? Was it just a matter of replacing the seals?

Thanks for the help.

 

Buy the complete rebuild kit from Clay @ Riffraff Diesel.
Chet

 

I was thinking it needed to be rebuilt. How difficult of a process is it? I was also considering buying a new one, but at $1200 a rebuild kit looks pretty good.

 

Not bad at all, Here take a look see.

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