I'm somewhat new to diesels and have wanted one for as long as I have owned my 460 F350. Finally picked up a standard cab 5 speed F350 with a 7.3 with 114k. The reason I went for it was the motor looked phenominal and it ran awesome... Anyways long story short I got it home and now there are issues I did not see after driving it home. The guy seemed to be a trustworthy fellow but I should have thought about it since the truck had already been warmed up when I got there.

First big thing..... The clutch, he claims he replaced it and it appears that it was replace but holy shat it sounds like hell when at idle and cold. It almost sounds like a terrible rattle... like the flywheel is hitting the finger springs on the diaphram or something. When it is at running temperature this is almost not noticeable, yet at time it decides to be loud on and off and I did not think much of it when looking it over since it was not as apparent when the truck was already warm from him driving to meet me. What could this be? I am at a loss here but all my other manual trans vehicles did not sound like this....nor do I think it is normal for the PSD. The pedal feels very soft for the clutch as well. I drove it about 100miles home and never had any issues except 3rd likes to grind. It engages and disengages just fine but the pedal just feels funky, looks like they replaced the hydrolic cylinder up on the firewall for the clutch as well. I have already picked up syncromesh from royal purple for the trans on the way home.

The engine..... It runs great when warm. I was never able to test drive past 60 mph or so due to our location but I noticed on the way home anything over 70 the truck seemed to stutter as if it was lacking fuel. Now that I have driven it for a few days I really can notice it and it seems like the engine almost cuts out for a split second. Also, when it is not completely to running temp and I get on it sometimes totally cuts out for a half second or so. This has me worried as hell. I did not expect this.

I drove two 95 psd at work for the last 6 years and never experienced these symptoms. We had one that when started it would run excellent at idle, yet it did not tow near as well as the other one that ran like shat when cold and would take a half hour to idle correctly. It ran rough as hell till it warmed up, and this truck is somewhat acting like it. Any ideas?

Few good things are the plugs are working very well as well as the harness. Fires right up in the cold 10-30 degrees. When warm the engine pulls super hard compared to the other two trucks I have driven...besides the stutter issue at higher speed. No white smoke at all, and if I let it idle for a half hour when warm and take off there is no trace of white smoke leading me to think of rings that are going.

Body and interior are in great condition... going to open up the diffs and see what they look like. The wiring under the dash scared the hell out of me too. One thing I did not think to glance over, but once removing the CB i got under there and was blown away.

So far I have changed the engine oil, fuel filter, doing the tranny next weekend, new brakes/rotors/bearings/calipers/ball joints.

I have order a Tymar intake and am still up in the air for what brand straight pipe exhaust to go with. I do not need anything fancy just a down pipe and typical 5 inch back.


I am taking it into a shop next Saturday to have them look over the entire truck for anything out of the ordinary and mainly to focus on the clutch. I have a feeling that the injectors may be on their way out and figured if I'm told they are I will just try to get a set of stage 2 injectors before messing with a tune.

Truck does not throw any codes....


My questions for you guys:

What experience do you all have with the clutches and does this issue sound like anything someone has experienced before? If so do you have a few links. What is the history for the clutch and the ZF trans.

For the stutter problem and cut out of the motor what should i look for?

Anyone have a link for a solid set of pod guages for oil press, boost, and exhaust gas temp? Pillar preferably.

How to test injectors?

I notice a lot of people do mods for HPOP... what is its purpose on a diesel?


I am not trying to make this truck a street rod but I just want to be able to tow the race trailer easily while retaining decent mileage. I do not need big HP/tq numbers but would like to get it powered up close to what the modern day diesel are pushing out.

Link for a CAC install?


Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

 

For the clutch does it make a flanks sound when you shut it off ?

The sputter sounds lime a camshaft position sensor (CPS)

For exhaust 3" downpipe and 4" pipe will be plenty

I dont think you have injector problems. To tow with stage two you'll need a intercooler. To test them you need a good scan tool or pull them and have em flow tested

 

HPOP upgrades are needed after bigger injectors are installed

 

after a little reading on here the CPS was my first thought as well. Never have done one on these trucks or even know where its located. Need to get a haynes manual for it this week. If the injectors are good then I will not worry about going up to stage 2's for a while.

Something I read about with the clutches in this year is the dual mass flywheel. I'd think the guy who replaced the clutch would have changed that out but I could be wrong. I'm guessing they did a quick fix on the clutch to get it sold.

I saw VALAIR has a setup for the clutch but do I also have to pick up a new fly wheel?
At idle the truck does shake quite a bit which makes me wonder if maybe the flywheel bearing is going out.... I looked up through the inspection cover and nothing looks out of the ordinary.

I was hoping that I would not have to drop a ton of money on this thing but right now that is not looking like it will be all so true.

 

It makes the rattle right as I turn it off. Does not continue for long at all just for half a second after i flip off the key. Might try to get some video of it running cold and rattling one of these nights and post it up.


I swear to god the first time i started it up I thought the flywheel was going to come flying out of the truck from the noise.

 

Any comments on Diamond Eye exhausts? What is the difference with their off road system?

 

With the dymond eye exhaust i got a 3in dp is a must but i just gathered some loose pipe and made my own. but for their "off road set" I think they are refering to since its straigh piped no cat or muffler suposed to be used only on offroad usage.

 

I knew the pancake DP would not cut it, I do not have a place locally that has 5 inch pipe, nor 5 inch bends. it would be nice to just get an exhaust that fits well and put it on.

 

I bought my dp from Riffraff diesel for like 80 bucks. I like the dymond eye one because tis two piece, for me i didnt have to beat the firewall in at all. But i had to order a couple reducers to go from the 3indp to a 4 in then to a 5 in.

 

Sounds like the flywheel is about to fly apart. With the inspection cover off and truck NOT running grab the flywheel and see if you can move it clock wise and counter clock wise

 

You can get a nice clutch from valair for around 650

 

One more thing...the clutch makes this noise when there is not a load on the tranny. It occurs in neutral, or even in gear with the clutch pressed in. Totally goes away when driving and under load... I will say its loud enough I am almost embarassed when I start the truck at 5am in the neighborhood because it sounds like its going to rattle apart when its that quiet out. I'm sure my neighbors enjoy it....

 

I will try that tomorrow night... what are you looking for when doing this? Should it move clockwise and counterclowise?

Agreed I was hoping with a new clutch I would not have to be replacing the entire thing....however peace of mind tells me yes

 

It shouldn't move to easy

 

It almost sounds like gear roll-over to me, which would be normal for a single mass flywheel conversion. The SMF conversion SHOULD have been done when the clutch was replaced. Does it sound like something spinning off center and vibrating or something gnashing together like it needs to be greased badly.

Yes, you will need a new flywheel for Valair since they are single mass only.

If you still have the dual mass flywheel, the outer ring is attached with springs to the inner part (hence the name dual mass). If you can move the outer ring by hand, the springs are shot. That's the noise you are hearing.