Get yourself a bottle of soapy water to spray on.

Check the intakes where they meet the heads. The RTV is not at least 18 years old

 

I'd check the exhaust manifold to head interface on the driver's side bank just infront of firewall first. Not uncommon for the e manifold bolt heads to pop off in this location causing boost leak. With a good light look for black carbon along the interface edge, from underside of engine, also check passenger side too while your down there.

jrc

 

Found a leak on the drivers side intake manifold using pressure and soap. With constant air to the system it would get up to 10 psi. Do I have to take the turbo off to get to the manifold to change the gasket?

 

Ahhh. That sucks. No gasket there, just silicone. Go to ford and ask for the Ford gray diesel silicone and they'll bring it out to you in a little caulk tube. Don't skimp and get the cheap stuff. That tube will cost you less than $20 and it's worth every penny.

As for pulling the turbo, I can't say for sure whether it has to come off or not in order to get the plenum off. That's not a fun job though, my ribs hurt just thinking about it!

 

X2 ^^^^ on the Gray silicone.

 

I am going to drop the truck off at a mechanic and have them look at it. The place I have been getting my emissions done seems legit. I don't like other people touching my cars, but sometimes it has to be done. Yesterday was my first day off in two weeks. I spent 3 hours on the truck and my wife gave me "the look". lol. I will keep you all posted.

 

My wife gave up on the "look".

 

Hahaha....I changed wives lol

 

I got word from the "mechanic". He used a smoke machine to test for leaks on the exhaust and intakes sides and couldn't find any. He stated the truck had a weak motor and was shifting early causing it to not make boost. It was making 7lbs of boost with really bad up pipe donuts before I took the turbo off and added the bellowed up pipes. The truck fires up at 0 degrees with no problem, there is no blow by. I know the motor is fine. Not sure where to go with this.

 

You said you had a leak on the intake plenum, did you get that fixed? Just because a mechanic said he checked it doesn't mean much. How does he know you have a weak motor? Or is he just shooting darts? He didn't happen to mention that he had a good used motor he would sell you did he?

 

I am agreeing with Nick....what other tests did the mechanic do to come to the conclusion that your motor is weak?

 

I didn't read the whole thread, so sorry if this was already suggested.
But did you spray the intake joints with starting fluid with the truck at idle to find any leaks? RPM will rise if there is a leak.

 

I am going to pick up the truck this morning. I hate it when mechanics don't know how to fix something and make something up instead of admitting it. That's why I am hesitant to have anyone work on my stuff. There is definitely a leak on the intake manifold on the valve cover. It doesn't seem to be bad enough where the truck would have no boost. I will spray some either by it to see what happens.

 

Hey Guys,

The shop owner could tell I knew he was full of it. He also realized I was in one of my "moods". I asked his mechanic if he watched the pyrometer when he test drove it. He said no the gauges were aftermarket so he didn't know what they were for. I almost blew a gasket. I let him know you could destroy an engine running it with high egts. The owner had the sense to let me go without trying to charge me anything.

I bought the truck to another shop that is close to my house. The shop manager and I went for a ride. We laid into it a little bit. He knew a ton about the 7.3s and was surprised at how well the truck ran. He said the turbo was boosting correctly and the egts were not spiking. It would be impossible for the truck in the stock setting (no chip, programmer ect..) to have high egts. There would also be a ton of black smoke. It is the gauges that are not working right. He let me go for free too. At some point I will bring a car there when I run into a snag.

Turns out the first mechanic wasn't driving around the neighborhood in my truck spiking the EGTs. Now that I am not afraid to lay into the gas pedal I can tell it is running real nice. The up pipes are not leaking and I can hear the turbo spool up nice. I knew it was something dumb. The gauges are from Glowshift. I will replace with Autometer.

Thanks for all your help,

Bill

 

Did he actually check the gauges (presumably with regulate air pressure) or watch the boost pressure through the OBD port? Or is he just guessing that the gauges are bad? I guess I'm confused as to why you thought there was a boost issue if you weren't seeing high EGTs and were afraid to lay into the throttle. You won't see more than 10 PSI or so of boost until you get the engine up above about 2200 RPM anyway and on an all stock truck, you'll have to floor it to see 15 PSI.