So I heard from my friend who is an OBS fanatic that my diesel isn't running right, which I noticed when I got it, but assumed was just a result of buying an old truck, I fell in love with this thing but it's gotten worse, I don't want to ditch my truck and I was never a ford fan before I owned it, but I'm starting to get worried, it gets "angry" when I kill it, after I start it and it goes to idle it rattles, and it knocks every so often. Some people say it's a rod, some say injecors and others say fuel lines, any help?

 

Uh, you aren't being particularly descriptive. There's not much we can do to help, with the little information given.

 

well what can I tell you that would help? have you heard an older 7.3 knock? What was the cause?

 

It's got exhaust leaks somewhere under the hood, I assume maybe the manifolds or behind the turbo, it burns a little bit of oil, not much, I recently changed the old fuel filter to see if that was restricting it from getting the fuel it needed, my thermostat needle started twitching yesterday and when I kill my truck it clicks lightly from somewhere behind the block it sounded like, I don't know much about diesels except basic functions, which I learned from YouTube. I was hoping someone else encountered this problem and has more expertice than I do

 

Take a video.

 

How many miles are on the truck?

Have you been around 7.3 power strokes before?

 

It's got 223,xxx miles on it, it rumbles when I start it for about five or so seconds, during which I hold the clutch in until it goes away. It does the same rattling, knocking grumble when I give it gas and let off after running for a while, giving it more gas than idle seems to help. I'm 18 and this is my first truck.

 

At those miles the injectors could very well be bad. They start to loose their effiency at around 150k and can start to fail anytime after that. I suggest your truck to a shop that is familiar with the 7.3 powerstroke

 

Update: One of my friends told me to start it and he pulled off the oil cap and held his hand over it. He said there was blow back in the oil which could mean a malfunction of a piston ring or scoring on the cylinder wall.my question is if the 1995 7.3 5-speeds have piston sleaves or not.

 

ANY diesel engine will have blow-by.

The way to test how bad it is, take the oil fill cap off and turn it upside down(flat side down) then set it over the hole. If the engine blow by is able to blow the cap off while idling then YES the blow by is bad. If not, then it is just fine



And NO, 7.3s do NOT have sleeves

 

All engines have blow by, and with 223,000 miles, the engine is going to have some.

Like I said, you need to take a video of what the truck is doing. Since you said holding the clutch seems to help the problem, I suspect your dual-mass flywheel is failing. They will make an awful racket.

As mentioned, injectors are pretty common failure point in these trucks as the miles rack up. They don't last forever. I recommend getting yourself a Windows laptop, a USB ELM327 OBD-2 dongle and the free "FORScan.org" software.

This software will allow you to do an injector buzz test which should help you find if you have faulty injectors.