Ihud, that's sort of where I am leaning towards. I may pull a harness from one of my work trucks here at the refinery and swap it into my own truck just for kicks. That would eliminate hours of troubleshooting with a meter. Thanks for your input

 

Then you should have a spare. I had a flat spot above 2k rpm and I figured it didn't cost anything to swap in my spare. It totally changed my truck. I had it for a year and a half before I realized just how bad it was, and that thing woke it up!

 

Tugly the Entelidog and Oregon Fuel Injection tech guides are AWESOME! I found them a while back and used them for a lot of great info so far. Thanks either way.

On the oil leak, the shop first said it was the front crank seal. They replaced it and still had a leak. Then they went in and replaced the front seal again thinking they damaged it going in. They also re-sealed the front plate on the HPOP & the O-ring on the CPS. I still have a leak. I mentioned the LPOP to them, we'll see. I've only paid for the front seal leak once, the rest is free of charge.
I'm thinking it's LPOP or the dreded oil pan leak. But it continues to drip for 20 minutes after it's shut down so I don't think it's the oil pan. I'll run the dye in the oil this weekend if they don't fix it.

 

So the shop where my truck is at just called me with great news and sh***y news. The good news is the rough running issue turned out to be the IPR. They said my truck is running awesome and has ***** again (their words lol). Because I had to take my truck back to them 3 times for the oil leak they are not charging me for the IPR or labor, I can pick it up tonight. So that's pretty cool.

Now the bad new. The oil leak is the dreaded oil pan seal. They say the motor has to be pulled, flipped upside down and the oil pan re-sealed $3000-3500. Now I've done a TON of research on this and there is no easy way to do this pan seal, so it really sucks.........*$%##^&

But at least it's running and for that I am happy (or I'll be happy once I've driven it to confirm).

 

Have you considered pulling the engine yourself? If your not in a rush to get it back on the road, it's really not that bad if you are patient and take your time. I like to do it myself because it's easier to justify replacement parts you might not do if your paying someone else to do it. I decided to do my clutch and slave cylinder on my 02 when I had it out. On my 01 that I just put back in on Sat, I did Dorman bellowed up pipes. I didn't do my pan on that truck, just painted it. For injector o rings, dorman bellowed up pipes, fuel bowl rebuild, turbo o rings, new exhaust manifolds, Motorcraft Gp's, head gaskets on both sides, and gaskets, fresh filters and fluids, I was in it for about $750-800. IIRC, a pan from Advanced Auto was around $120. All in all, quite a bit more bang for your buck. My recommendation would be to read as much as possible on every aspect of the job before doing it though. Just my .02

 

That right there is an excellent reason to do it yourself if you have the time.

 

Any & all $.02 is happily excepted & welcomed.
I've pulled a few motors in my days so I feel pretty confidant in the job as long as I have the right specs & tech. I have a few other vehicles so no I am not in a hurry for my truck. Slow & steady is my speed lol. Like most of you I absolutely HATE re-work, so if I do anything I want it done right the first time. I have the patients and tools at my expense, the big issue with me is time. My wife is a stay at home mom (she's the House-dragon) and takes good care of my 3 little minions. Between all that crazyness & a bunch of overtime at work I usually do my wrenching between 10pm-2Am. I have to seriously SERIOUSLY evaluate if I can feasibly do it.

I know I can drain the oil and let it sit for a day or 2 to make sure all the oil has drained off the block, drop the pan and re-seal it temporarilly until I have the time (or $3 grand for a shop) to pull the motor. But honestly how reliable could that be? And that's just wasting my time because it'll leak again. I'll figure it out, but please keep the info coming. Thanks guys.

 

Just make sure you flip it over to seal the pan, and use the international sealant, not Permatex. I speak from experience. The only thing worse than having to yank your engine is having to do it a 2nd time...and then a third.

 

International sealant good! Permatex bad, got it!

 

Are you sure it is the oil pan leaking and not the LPOP?

 

We're going to do the oil dye/black light trick this weekend to be certain. The shop says it's the pan, I'm hoping for the LPOP.

 

Take good look at oil cooler front header flange gasket. When mine leaked there I swore it was front seal but after power washing and then I ran it parked at 1500 rpm and some good light and found the drip at cooler front header gasket.

 

not fixed now but the 5k fixed a few years ago and it went for a few more. the 55k fixed my issue this time, but I will get back to the 7.3 in due time.

 

The oil cooler is another one I was going to check. So you idled it up to 1500 RPM in neutral and searched for your oil leak? Did I understand that right?

 

Where are you located?