Just recently my 97 Powerstroke started doing this hydrolock thing in the last few days. If I drive it everyday it usually doesn't do it. As of right now I'm doing a little experiment since I've thought back since it started doing it, I was always parked downhill and one night it had only taken about 3-4 hours for it to happen, when at work it is always parked up an incline and another later event I was parked uphill and this hadn't happened (bare with me on the night thing, I'm thinking temp change). There is methonal injection on this truck and I'm wondering if it's siphoning some when I'm down hill or at least draining some of the line into it. When cranked it turns over 1 to 2 times and locks, so it acts like one cylinder and my guess if this were the case it would be #2 since the nozzle would leak into the left of the Y. I will find this out tonight since I parked it uphill this time at home and drove a different vehicle to work.

2nd question: Worst case scenerio I have a leaky injector and judging by the rough start and fuelly white smoke on start up I bet this is the issue (Also why I haven't been driving it, afriad of washing a cyl). I'll pull the glowplugs, etc, find which one it the culprit after it sits for a couple days. Anyways, since this truck has 200K and kinda has a rough idle to it anyways with higher EOT, I'll prolly just do them all and upgrade. Question is stage 1 or 2? Right now the engine/turbo is basically stock with a Edge programmer, K&N Air and methonal inj. 5spd, single mass flywheel/clutch, bigger downpipe out to 4 and 5" straight exh. The trucks primary use is to pull my pulling truck around and all loaded up the trailer/tools/etc is about 12,000lbs (not counting truck). With chip all the way up and no meth/water inj I'll hit 1,200 EGT on long hills and am usually always shifted into 4th and still losing speed. With meth/water on, 900-1000 EGT, running hard I can boost about 25lbs. I know no one wants to hear this here, but my old slightly turned up 94 P-Pump Cummins put this thing to shame, you never had to shift and would clear any hill if you kept it above 1,300 rpms. This Powerstroke needs some help, but I don't want to over do it and render it usless as a tow rig, I love the truck and just want it to live up to that Dodge or closer to it. So with stage 2 and stock turbo, would I be pushing the limits of the EGT's?

 

In my opinion Stage 2's will toast your turbo in short order. Stage 1's should be fine, but to really utilize the full potential of the truck, you need to go Stage 1's and and ditch that Edge in favor of custom tunes to take advantage of the potential of Stage 1's. Stage 1's and a stock turbo is a pretty goo combination, especially since you already have the Water Methanol injection setup on the truck.

I just hope something isn't already internally FUBARD due to hydrolocking the engine. Good chance that this could be an injector issue, but I wouldn't rule out the Water meth system either. Maybe try unhooking the water line from the intake Y and try it for a couple days? If it happens then (with the WM Injection unhooked) then you know it is an injector.

 

Disconnect the met system and plug the line and see if it stops

 

Ok, any recommendations on who to go through? I have no problem having them rebuilt and waiting a month if need be since that seems to be the cheapest route to go and I own other vehicles and pulling season is over now. The Edge came with the truck, as did everything else other then the clutch I had to put in when the dual mass flew apart. So what is full potential with the custom program as compared to the Edge on Racing? Also, is the impeller upgrade/downgrade (however you want to look at it) worth it with the planned mods and weight I typically drag around?

No, it's fine (or still runs fine). When it did that the first time I thought it was the clutch position switch, then I listened harder and relized what was going on, when it did it later times I had the breaker bar ready to work it out. I'm going to optimistically diagnosis the water inj first and hope for the best. I got the truck last Feb and it's always behaved as far as the water inj/temp change goes, but things do wear out.

Ever hear of these inj's leaking? I work for Ford for a living and granted we have very little issues with 7.3 injectors themselves as it is (as compared to the 6.0L's I do) but I have only ran into a 2000 that appearently had a stuck injector and was so bad he was blowing fuel out the exhaust. By the time he got it to us and I replaced it he had already done the damage and burned a hole in the piston. I don't need that happening to me, lol!

 

In my opinion the place to go for injectors is Rosewood Diesel. You cannot beat the prices Jim sells his injectors for, and he stands behind his products. It is not impossible that the injectors are leaking or sticking. I'm not sure but what I don't have one starting to do the same thing. Have Jim put together a bundle for you with some stage 1's and a custom burned chip and you'll feel like you're driving a whole new truck!

As far as the turbo wheel goes, unless your turbo is worn out or there are chips or dings in the wheel, there is no reason to replace the wheel. The so called "wicked wheel" is a direct replacement for the stock wheel that is in that truck.

As far as the comparison to a P-Pumped Cummins, the Powerstroke just drives different. The stock turbo doesn't really start to light until around 1700 RPMs and really doesn't get to rolling until around 2,000 RPMs. Keep the engine above 2k on the hills and it will pull like a freight train. One guy that I can think of on here tows a 5er that weighs around as much as your trailer and he ended up putting higher speed rated tires on his 5er so he can tow around 70 - 75 most of the time. Above 70, (keeping the engine above 2k RPMs) these trucks pull like a locomotive. Just feels different than a Cummins because the torque comes on in a different place in the power band.

 

Ok, I'll look into it more seroiusly if an injector is indeed the culprit. Might be worth it anyways, I mean it runs pretty well, but it could be a lot better in my mind as far as towing goes.

So it already has that wicked wheel in it that they are trying to sell for quicker spooling, etc, etc from the factory?

Oh yeah, I realize that and beat on this truck pretty hard shifting or holding it at 3,000ish rpms running hills and.... down we go in rpms, boost starts creeping down.... and once that's down around 7 and the methonal shuts off it's best to just shift b/c then it's just lugging and falls under. I agree as far as going down the interstate at 75mph, when I did that a couple times (try to stay away from Mr. DOT if I can) it runs pretty good b/c it's constantly at/around 12 psi boost and more in it's powerband, plus the hills on the interstate don't have the grade that highways do around here. On a steeper hill even in 4th turning the r's I do on the interstate.... the grade always wins, no way to hold 60mph unless I left it WOT in 3rd and that just seems unnessacary.

 

The "wicked wheel" is an alternative for the 99 and up trucks. The design of the wheel was changed with the second generation 7.3 and the wheel has some issues with "surging" so some guys will put the old style wheel (wicked wheel) back in the turbo to eliminate the surging. You may want to look closely at your setup too, b/c 12PSI seems pretty low at full boost. quite a few on here are seeing 15-20 PSI with stock engines. You may have some boost leaks somewhere that need to be addressed. Look at the up pipes (looking for soot on the firewall around them) and the tin intake plenums at the heads. If you're leaking boost, that will really kill your performance in towing, fuel efficiency, and putting power to the ground. At 12 PSI, something isn't right.

 

No,12psi is just cruising down the interstate on flat ground, cruise set, half load, etc. If I lay into it, it'll get around 25psi in the 2,700-3,000+rpm range.

 

Oh, ok. You're probably alright then.

 

So I had left the truck parked up hill as planned, went home and started it last night.... not a single lobe/sign of hydrolock going on. So my money is on the stupid water/meth injection system. Laying in bed thinking as usual, not able to sleep I couldn't come up with any quick or cheap fix for it other then maybe mounting the tank lower yet, but it's already 4" off the box floor (enough for the pump to fit under) and the high point in the line in about 4" above the intake Y and I didn't think I was ever parked that much downhill to have that angle. Idea's?

So now that I know I haven't been leaking a bunch of fuel into one cyl and maybe ruining the motor... What kinda real world gain will I get from stage one injectors and custom program IDM? Is it worth the investment? (I know that is a loaded question, to each his own, right?) But those of you who have done something similar, did you feel you got your money's worth in the seat of your pants?

 

Ditch the meth and gather up the parts for an intercooler to control EGT while towing hard.

 

A lotta times this summer I was outta meth and towed without and it would only hit that 1,200 degrees for short periods with the chip all the way up, so I'm not to worried about smoking the turbo without it, I was however worried about if I stuck injectors in. The meth was just a nice power adder, plus kept the EGT's down if on. I've casually looked at the $$$$ intercooler kits and wondered how hard it would be to steal the stuff off a 99+ 7.3L, 94+ cummins and kinda fab something?

 

If you can cut, fit pipe, and weld, you should be able to put together your own kit consisting of any Ford 7.3 or 6.0 IC, an early 99 or Banks spider, 7.3 and 6.0 pipes and boots and make it look and function well for $500ish. You will not be able to use the power of upgraded injectors and a chip without it. Lots of us here have done it and it's a pretty well proven towing setup.

 

Fabricating is one of my favorite hobbies, no problems there. Anyone have any pictures in other/old posts, mostly just of the top of the motor/turbo/intake piping that you know of?

You think if I got the intercooler setup on and ran whatever towing mode they program in the IDM (assuming it's more powerful then the setup I'm running now) that I'd be money/power ahead to go stage 2 injectors right away? Then I could crank it up when I just wanted to screw around with it empty? I like to do things right the first time and save money and time if I can rather then half a$$'n and spending more doing it right in the future.

Since the injectors aren't bad now, all this stuff can wait till later, so I'd do it all at once this spring maybe. Then when my bill is paid for my 2nd pulling truck motor (hopefully ready by then) and I get that all back in one piece and ready to roll and the main pulling truck checked over on the top end, I'll know how much I have to spend (or time I have to do another project). In the meantime I have a good idea of where to get a whole setup off a 2000 7.3L (the one I referred to a few posts up), he never fixed it and I think it's just sitting. Might have to buy the whole truck, but then I'd have a straight 60 front axle for this truck and work on selling off the rest if I can get it cheap enough.

 

Stage 2 sticks will toast the stock turbo in pretty short order. Just too much fuel for that small a turbo.

As far as the 2000 goes, be aware that the newer d60 will have the new bolt pattern (8x165 i believe) whereas the old trucks like ours were 8x6.5" so you'll have to swap the rear as well. I don't know if it is possible to swap the hubs over to the newer axle or not.

There are a lot of guys on here that are running OBS's with IC's. I will see if i can dig up some pictures.