Sounds good. I'll be diving into it this weekend hopefully to start checking some of these items. Will start with the compression and vacuum.

Any thoughts of how I can check a cat? It looks stock so it is probably pretty rusted out inside.

Thanks,

Terry

 

The cat wont rust out.. the guts anyway.. its ceramic. What happens is the honeycomb will break-up and plug. Try hitting with your hand (cold of course) and see if you can hear it rattling. Dont beat on it with a hammer because you can damage an otherwise good cat. If its plugged up you may even have it glowing cherry red after a run down the freeway.

 

OK, I'll check it out. I've replaced them before and seen them pretty rusted out, that's why I thought it might be the case. Outside looks decent though.

Thanks.

 

with that timing chain and that many miles its wore out. need a new one. the gas/diesel debate. I love the power of diesel but the expense is huge. I run my older ford gasser because I can fix them. My 2008 company truck dodge diesel has 170,000miles. Its had over $40,000.00 in repairs and its been one of the better diesel I've ever ran in the field. ran the 7.3 and the 6.0 were a disaster and the dodge is the better of the bunch. On your 460 timing chain and compression test should on the list to check. also like mentioned torque converter? need to do a pressure test on tranny and see if something is out of wack on pressures. Take to a shop and have this done and will eliminate a lot of BS. Good luck. I'm a ford guy gasser but not a ford diesel guy. On your inlet if I remember correctly their is a air restriction that can be modified to allow more air into engine. Been a long time but remember this little feature that help out the power. catch you later and good luck.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm was pretty easy on my diesels over the last 16 years. Never had any issues with the 7.3 or 6.0. But I never really pushed them to hard. Though my 6.0 did have some control module issues I repaired on my own. Those darn resistors popped off!

Timing chain is something I may need to look at as well.

Tranny shifts really nice. It hits the shift points perfectly at the right mph based on what I remember from my old 7.3l with the E4OD, and from the owners manual. Never felt it slip under light or heavy loads.

One thing I just checked is the cat. Doesn't sound like anything is rattling around in there, but it is on pretty solid. Though I took the truck out for a test drive and warmed it up pretty good. Got on the throttle pretty hard a few times. Brought it home and stuck my temp gun on the inlet and outlet of the cat (about 6 in. in front and back of it). I measured around 380-420 degrees on both sides of it. There wasn't really any temp difference.

Wonder if the cat is not working properly. I thought the cat should dissipate quite a bit of heat and keep the outlet cooler than the inlet.

Terry

 

If your truck is totally stock then get a 3 1/2" single catback exhaust, and headers if you want to spend another chunk of $$. Makes a nice power boost, but didn't help my mpgs... Those wide tires are probably costing you 1-2 mpg over the stock pizza cutters..

If you get a tranny temp gage you can spot problems before you destroy the whole thing. When I saw mine running at 230 climbing hills empty I knew it was close to done. The clutches were shot, the coverter was shot but no other damage. The rebuilder said I saved $400-500 by catching it before it totally cooked.

 

I think a cat should read hotter on the outlet side. My cat broke apart a while back so I gutted it for a quick fix, didn't make any more power than when I got a new cat installed but it sounded like crap with the gutted unit. Reminded me of a 70's caddy with a blown muffler...

 

Usually most timing chains are wore out by 60,000 miles unless you spend some money on high end chains. diesels I've ran (2) 7.3 diesels, (6) 6.0 diesel, lost 4 engines to injector failures and 2 transmission. Non of them made it to 100,000 miles without massive failures. I believe about 100 injector failures at least. cold weather killed those 6.0. they were company trucks with no upgrades other than factory. engine failure at 40,000 miles. Believe or not I really tried to take care of them. If you look at all my W-2 tax forms and see several years where I made good money and those are the yrs of gassers. Couldn't keep the diesels out of the shop. One year was a 460 and v-10 and 502 chevy with allison really liked that truck for field service work. allison tranny kicked but. this is over a 15 yrs of field service. I still do field service. My dodge 6.7 has lost all injectors and replaced regen system and several other emmission related componets like exhaust manifold intercooler. but its still better than the fords diesels. I'm venting sorry. Been running 460 fords for over 20 yrs for work and play. Nice torque converters can really make or break a 460.

 

Ya, my next set of tires are going to be 285/75-16 tires. I like the look of the slightly narrower tires and they will fit my 7" rims better. The ones that came on the truck still have some life on them so I'll run them for a while longer.

Good idea on a tranny gauge. I actually have an old (never used) autometer gauge I never put into my 69 mustang. I'll have to dig it up.

I only put 120K on my 7.3l over 10 years, and only 36K on my 6.0l over 6 years. So this truck has more miles on it than I'm used too. So thanks for all the great info so far. Only drive about 3-4K miles per year, but want it to last me a while.

Terry

 

Wish I new if it had been previously changed. Haven't purchased a used truck in over 16 years, so things like this you kind of forget about!

I don't hear any chain slap (like you would on a worn out Toyota chain). Is there any good indications that a chain is worn, or is just done by mileage?

Chain and gaskets are cheap enough, so maybe I'll just tear into it and replace them. Probably throw a new water pump on it while its apart.

This could be dangerous for me though. Once I start tearing the motor apart I'm going to want to start replacing everything else!! I just need to focus on what needs to get done.

 

Yea, I understand once you get the front of the motor open it would be perfect time to replace the cam with a nice roller, and new roller rockers, but then you may as well pull the heads and do a little porting. That is why I am looking for another 460 to bench build and then just swap in. Good luck.

 

If your really worried about the chain, roll the motor one way by hand then measure movement in the opposite direction before the valve train moves. Use the degree marker on the balancer for a guage.

 

I have a 97 F-350 DRW with the 7.3, 5 speed and 4.10 rears. I also have a 91 F-250 with a 460 and E4OD 4.10 rears. Fuel mileage wise, there is no comparison. The 7.3 kills the 460. I feel I should note that I am a HUGE fan of the 7.3, but the 460 does a good job too. We have a 5th wheel trailer that is in the 11,000lb range. The diesel pulls it without any issue (is something following me?) The 460 on flat ground will run it as fast as you want to go. The difference is in the hills but the 460 still does a decent job. My diesel has 336,000 miles with nothing done to it but oil changes, 1 set of glow plugs and several vacuum pumps. The 460 has over 200,000 miles and has had nothing done to it but oil changes. My vote goes to thinking something in your exhaust is stopped up.

 

This is great info. Thanks. Ya, my 7.3l was the same way, hills were nothing.

I purchased the truck for $3500 and it was pretty clean (think they guy needed the money!). So I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on it. I only drive 3-5K miles per year as well.

I definitely need to consider this when I start putting money into it. It runs great right now, just lacks power. But has enough to pull my stuff around if I push it a bit on hills.

What I don't want is to damage the motor prematurely because of an issue. So I'll need to really focus on some of the things that are inexpensive for me to look at right now, then I can dig into the more expensive items if necessary (at least to a point).

Exhaust is something I will probably focus on since it is all stock (still has the ford muffler on it) and is over 16 years old. I'll also check the compression and vacuum, then get into the timing chain if nothing else pans out. It did ping on some of the hills which could indicate a timing issue, or knock sensor issue.

Thanks,

Terry

 

Ya, I have a 351C with 4 barrel heads sitting in my shed right now waiting for a rebuild. Also have a pretty hot 302 in my 69 mustang which is also sitting in storage. To many toys and not enough time!