I need help diagnosinga problem. I have a 2000 F-350 crew cab 4x4 w/7.3L practically stock other thana leveling kit and 315 tires. I had toreplace the high pressure oil pump seal and primary fuel pump seal in 2009. Theguy said it was the first time he had replace the seals, usually it was a badpump he replaced. This was about the time the price of a gallon of diesel wasso high, so I put stock tires back on it for better MPG. But since thereplacement of the seals the truck has not had the power it did or got the MPGsit did with stock tires. It use to launch you back in the seat with a littlemore foot to the pedal, now it is a slow steady acceleration that does not setyou back in the seat like it once did. I also usually pull a 16 ft livestocktrailer with about 5500 to 6500 lbs live weight to the stockyard. Pulling lightgrades the pedal to the floor 55 mph, no turbo kicking in, the truck will pullbut lacking ½ to 2/3 the power it use to have. I have had it checked by aformer ford diesel tech that opened his own shop and builds pulling trucks. Hesaid the truck met all factory specs, the only thing he could find was a faultin the 8^th injector pressure fluctuating, so we put a new injectorin it but no change. He suggested a programmer might bring it back to life. SoI decided to make some changes to help then to. I had him put on a diamond eyedual 4 in. exhaust and a volant cold air intake and Radcliff’s oil and fuelcrossover lines. Well I tried three of SCT’s programmers and a Hypertechprogrammer. I had the best results out of hypertech with a lot lower rpms, but harderto start with the truck programmed on either programmer and still no powerincrease. I took it to a Ford dealer and had the computer reflashed, nodifferent. Recently while inquiring about my problem, someone mentioned thehigh pressure oil pump may have gotten out of time when the seals werereplaced, another person said it could be a torque convertor getting weak,another guy questioned the turbo no kicking in or a waste gate. Does anyonehave any ideas what my problem is or has anyone experienced the same problem andwhat can I do to fix it? I would like to get the truck fixed back to its originalpower then try to get a little more power with a programmer or chip. I wouldappreciate any ideas on what is causing it and how to fix it.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

How many miles on your truck? Are the up pipes from the exhaust manifold to the turbo leaking? Ie are they covered in black soot near the top? Do you have an egt gauge?

 

I agree with Jet,

The easiest way that I have seen to look for up pipe leaks is a cold morning, have the hood popped and ask someone else to start the truck. Just watch.

 

Fuel pump seals, eh? I'm going to assume he meant the fuel line seals... because the fuel pump is non-serviceable.


HPOP seals, or HPO seals? Replacing O-rings on the High Pressure Oil fittings is one thing, but replacing the seals on a High Pressure Oil Pump invites the issue you are now facing.

• Where are you - you need the truck scanned and somebody may be nearby.
• What were the symptoms that prompted the need for HPOP and fuel pump seals to begin with?
• What oil do you use, and are you diligent about changing it?
• Do you have any gauges, scan tool, or a code reader... or are you reduced to coin toss, Quija board, and Buck$Zooka blasts?
• How mechanically inclined are you? Do you have tools?
• When you check your mirror, is it like "Mirror, mirror, on the wall" with smoke? If so, what color smoke?
• Do you have more noises under the hood than other 7.3L trucks you've heard - like exhaust or hissing? Can you see any soot at all anywhere around the back of the engine or on the firewall?

Without data from the engine, I'll just have to shoot spitwads and see what sticks to the wall:

• If you have over 200K miles, injectors prairie-dog onto the suspect list.
• An opened-up HPOP? He said himself that he usually doesn't have that issue, implying he has little or no experience with tearing open a device capable of making 4000 PSI. Your HPOP is more like a rocket launch, than a prairie dog pop on the list.
• This has the signature of low Injector Control Pressure, which can be caused by clogged fuel tank screens, air in fuel, bad sensors, tired injectors, bad injector O-rings, weak HPOP, bad Injector Pressure Regulator (or a loose lock nut on it), or an oil leak.
• Boost leaks or exhaust leaks can cause this as well.
• You could also be facing what I experienced - all of the above.

With all the possibilities, we can play the Superduty combo-pak of "20 Questions", "Cat and Mouse", "Hunt and Peck", and "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"... or enlist the support of a scan tool (like AE [LINK]) to get some real troubleshooting done in a timely fashion.

 

Truck's odmeter just turned over 95,500 miles. Someone else had mention to me about the down pipe leaking from the turbo, but I just had the dual 4" exhaust with a 4" downpipe installed on yhe truck last October 2012. I would think they would have noticed if it was leaking. I did ask them when I first took it to him about the boots around the turbo, I expected a possible leak because of oily soot around the ends of the boots. He told me it was common on a truck this age. But he checked and found all pressures to ford's specs.

As for the guy that replaced the HPO seals, he own a reputable business that worked on eightteen wheelers, buses and small diesels all the time. He got the seals from ford HPO seal and Primary fuel pump seal both together cost around $40 and $200 for labor (in 2009) to put them in. The last guy I had check the truck because it didn't have the power it did was in July 2012. He was a former Ford diesel tech with two different ford dealers that worked on alot of farm and service trucks, before he opened his own repair shop and built pulling trucks. He kept the truck for over two weeks monitoring the truck with all kinds of diagnostic equipment. He told me the truck looked like a patient in intensive care with all the wires and hose coming out of it monitoring the truck. The results, the truck met all of ford's specs. the only thing he could find was oil pressure differed in the 8th injector,so we replaced it with a new injector. About a month later, I had him install the dual 4" exhaust with 4" downpipe, a Volant cold air intake and Radcliff's oil and fuel crossover lines. I have noticed a sound it didn't have before - like a drop of water hitting a hot muffler - when it changes gears up a grade, but I believe it is the air intake drawing air between the box and fender. As far as exhaust I not seeing any smoke.

 

FYI....Ford really didn't do a very good job training their techs on the 7.3 engine. Ford sourced this engine from Navistar and since they didn't really have too many issues, there might not be very many Ford techs who are super familiar with the diagnostic processes.

For instance...there is only one fuel pump so the term "Primary fuel pump" doesn't apply to this engine. In addition, there are no seals that can be service on that pump. If the pump leaks or fails then it gets replaced with a new pump.

It is not possible to measure oil pressure at each injector unless the injectors were removed and tested on a bench device...even then it's a measurement of how much pressure the poppet can hold before lifting off it's seat. It is common for #8 to have a very slightly different injector anyway. The normal units are AD codes....the #8 position sometimes gets an AE code injector.

For lack of power complaint.
Check for obvious things like boost leaks, dirty filters etc.
Measure actual boost pressure....should be 16-18 psi under load on a stock calibration.
Measure fuel pressure.....should be 45-55 psi at the fuel filter/water separator housing. Again, you need to measure this under load.

If the mechanic said everything met Ford specs....then find out what the max boost and min fuel pressure readings were under load.

 

so using my secret squirrel decoder ring I am going to assume tnmtnmn= Tennessee mountain man and you are located in Tennessee?

without numbers from a good scan tool or scanning software anything on here will be nothing more than a wild a** guess.

One thing I am taking as a clue though is there is no mention of a check engine light? If that is correct and there is no check engine light I would almost rule out injection control pressure issues ( temporarily) and focus more on fuel pressure and manifold gauge pressure. There are 2 places I would look, I would check fuel pressure as well as fuel flow. It is possible there screens in the fuel tank are plugged and you still have good pressure when a gauge is plumed in but as soon as the demand is there you are starving for fuel. A quick " try me" type thing to see if the screens are possibly clogged is to blow compressed air back in to the tank through the fuel pump inlet line( make sure to remove the fuel cap). That may blow the the screens clean if they are plugged.

I would also look at the map(boost) sensor under driving conditions. I had an issue where the MAP signal wasn't getting back to my PCM and my truck was an absolute dog. It didn't smoke at all and had no power, it was so weak it had to downshift to second to climb an overpass empty.

as far as uppipe leaks....to lose as much power as you are indicating that would have to be a huge leak. Your statement that you can't hear the turbo spool at all and are flat to the floor at 55 with a livestock trailer in tow and no smoke kind of make me lean toward a fuel delivery issue.

 

wow I am slow at typing, I was formulating my post and Greg beat me to it

 

If you are in Tennessee then you need to go to RRE 2013 in Newport TN july 18-21. Lots of experience and knowledge will be there to school you on your truck.

 

<table id="post2504634" class="tborder" border="0" cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="6" width="100%" align="center"><tbody><tr vAlign="top"><td style="border-right-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-right-width: 1px; border-right-style: solid;" id="td_post_2504634" class="alt1">Like to add, I bought the truck new, no previous owner, truck was running stock, with 315/75/16 tires. I just recently added the dual exhaust and cold air intake in Aug. 2012. No programmer or anything until Aug. 2012. Also added the Edge insight CTS, not thew programmer, just the monitorng guages. I tried SCT's iTSX and the new Livewire with no results, had problems communicating with the truck. Running stock with the 315 tires it had an insane amount of power. It was like the kind of power out of a 440 Hemi or 454 Chevelle SS. It would lauch you back into the seat at half pedal. I could turn onto a on ramp to the interstate press the pedal down easy half way and would be doing 90 mph at the end of the ramp on to the interstate. But since they changed the HPO seal it seems to have maybe half the power it once did.
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There it is.