On page 154 of the new DP magazine a 7.3 owner wrote it after he blew his motor while towing. Great article in the tech section that explained what can happen and no he/she said nothing about TUNING. Attachment in post #3

 

I am on my way to get the DP magazine now.

 

I am not sure if this will work but I will try to attach a pic and see if you can read it. Its kind of blurry hopefully you can read enough of it.

 

And if it's still too blurry? Maybe you would paraphrase it for those of us that already have enough trouble seeing.

Thanks for anything you could tell us.

Pop

 

Letter says '02 F-350 7.3 towing a 38' fifth vacation trailer. Started missing, dipstick blown out, oil everywhere. Pulling the head found #5 piston popped, and scored the block. Uses a Superchip controller in Tow Safe mode, AFE intake, Banks compressor wheel, full set of gauges and never let the EGTs exceed 1200 degrees. Ford mech postulated a misfiring injector. The writer bemoaned the disparity between a $10K engine and an insufficient answer like that.

The article quotes a Brad Makinen of G&I Diesel in Billings: "Clogged oil squirters caused by cheap oil filters," based upon a fixing a string of 20 different PSDs with the same problem.
The article supports this by saying the injectors cool the piston, hence insufficient cooling caused by insufficient fuel supply caused by clogged injectors caused a superheated piston to expand and swell and score the walls - that's what fried the piston.
Therefore, ONLY OEM filters should be used.
Interesting. Not sure I buy this, as I would think that insufficient fuel delivery would also show up as other problems, and much earlier than a lunched piston.

Perhaps the answer is already there, based upon the way his letter to the magazine was phrased: "...and (I) never let the EGTs exceed 1,200 degrees." Was he riding close to 1200? Maybe he was having to frequently adjust his driving to keep it below 1200? I would like to know more about the conditions and events leading up to it.

And maybe the Editor rearranged the letter writer's phrasing and all this reading between the lines is inconsequential!

 

I've heard of the jets falling off, but if they were getting plugged, you think we would have heard of this issue by now. That's a pretty big hole to "plug". I think if your engine oil was that bad, the injectors would have failed long ago.

 

I may have miss read it, but seems the writer was eluding to the cooling jets, and "fuel" injector holes being clogged. I went to pick that issue up yesterday and the PX was out.

 

I read the above paraphrase again and perhaps you're right. But if this guy is saying that diesel fuel being sprayed into the piston is what cools the cylinder, and a plugged injector that no longer squirted fuel caused that cylinder to overheat.... I'm wondering if he has his own set of videos on youtube.

 

Haha , couldn't have said it better. If that is in fact what the article reads, I'm corn fused. Seems two systems are being referred to as ONE. Might just save my five bucks.

 

being that I used to do this: How about a glaring inaccuracy in the pyro? Anybody EVER calibrate theirs? Old school analog are probably not closer than 5% which could be at 1260 deg F, way above 1100 to 1200 melting point of alum, and above the point in alum that the stuff gets so soft as to be able to deform.
The digital stuff is a bit better providing the comparator has been set correctly.

now I admit that there are other factors to the actual temp of the piston top and the exhaust temp may or may not be the temp of the cylinder, BUT.....

FWIW we had this problem way back in 86 with the early 6.9's which they fixed by supposedly adding more fuel to selected cyls.

 

I think the response talked about 2 possible scenarios:
1) melted pistons caused by a bad injector, the premise being that if only 1 cylinder is misfiring, the pyro might not detect the higher temps since it is sensing exhaust from several cylinders. Also, most of us only have a pyro in one bank.

2) cracked cylinders, which could be caused by high CP's from too much fuel, propane, and/or nitrous, or by running high temperatures (1000+) for a large percentage of the time towing, or by a plugged/missing cooling jet.

 

Wouldn't a clogged injector cause that cyl. to be lower on temp than one that is working properly ? IDK

 

No mention of the location of the pyro...

Injectors do NOT cool the tops of the pistons.

You could run a motor with an injector unplugged for days on end with no issue other then the obvious miss.

Cooling jets cool the bottoms of the pistons.

 

I am assuming it is G&J diesel. He does a lot of powerstroke work in Billings. Every time I have been in there the shop is full of them.

 

Your at the mercy of the owner stating. "dude, i never went over 1200`" to not make himself not guilty.. If he said he occasionally went to 1600 on cruise control and not paying attention, and had this issue, he would get lambasted. 38ft is a big camper and heavy. Doubt he was staring at his Pyro the entire time of his trip

Not sure if would catch the Pyro heading over the limit while hauling the 5th wheel on the thruway, cruising along on cruise relaxing listening to the radio. I like my defueling safe guard.

My Pryo will head up to 1000` really fast pulling my camper, no chip. Can't imagine having to watch a gauge for life or death.