I had to cut the old one off mine since the top nut was seized and it started twisting my dipstick tube. I bought a short stud and two nuts at a hardware store to replace it. I kind of wish I'd gotten stainless to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

It's in the frame or it bounced under the battery.

After working on the passenger side, how does your left jacket sleeve look? I have a VC-pop jacket that doesn't scratch the paint and the left sleeve is... er... VC'd to death. When I put it on, I look like I've been training attack dogs.

 

The battery is a good six or seven inches away from the head! That would be one heckuva bounce, or the truck would've had to have been lying on it's side to fall under the battery.

The frame is boxed, but I looked in the frame. When I dropped the nut some 30 minutes earlier, it landed under the spring perch. Ask me how long it took me to find it.. .

Oh yeah, the other thing I learned about my truck today.. while searching for said nut and bolt, I saw thing oily mess on the pan.

 

WOW this thread really took off, haha. Thanks to everyone that replied, you guys have been a great help so far. Sorry I was gone all day and never got a chance to post.

Thanks a lot for the help. That seems like a pretty good place to start, and could be my problem. I'll have to check it out. I'm really wishing I had a fuel pressure gauge now, lol. Would a scanner be able to read that? I don't think it will though.

Thanks Rich, you always have some great info to share. I hear that tick you are talking about, but it also still has that knock sometimes. So do you think that loose injector would cause that knock? And if not what else could it be, could it be that #8 injector or that its not getting proper fuel pressure?

I haven't noticed it doing that before. I'll have to see if it does it tomorrow. Would there be any danger or problem with me driving it this week? Hopefully I will be able to get at it and check everything under the valve covers this weekend. I hope. Maybe I can check the fuel pump and fuel pressure too. I've been wanting to give it a full service and check a few other things out too, so hopefully I can even get to that as well.

So you're thinking its the #8 injector then?

Thanks Saint. I'll try and pinpoint it to a single side if I can. I'll let you guys know what happens tomorrow. Yeah haha, it hasn't been looking too pretty lately. I've been wanting to wash it for awhile, but it just keeps snowing, and I haven't had any time lately. It sucks to see it so dirty with all that salt on it.

So do you guys think the "low" fuel mileage is actually too low or could have anything to do with the knocking noise?

Thanks for all the replies!

 

I know there's snow on the ground, but the best place to find the location of a knock is under the truck.

There is a degree of knocking that is inherent on the 7.3L and not everybody notices it. My tuning and my injectors are so quiet that I notice every little noise in the truck, and that "7.3L knock" is now the loudest thing under the hood when idling.




Injectors can knock as they wear - and they can sound like the truck is gnashing itself to death. The trick is to watch your Injector Control Pressure if you have a scanner - you'll find it's like a volume **** on Radio 7.3.

Here is a sample of a bad injector:





Here is a crazy-loose injector while troubleshooting with the tunes:

 

Thanks for the videos Rich, they were very helpful. I think mine sounds more like the last one with the loose injector, like you said. I'm hoping that's all it is.

It could still be that a one or a few are worn out. When we went under the VC's to do the glow plugs, we saw that half of the of the injectors were reman's and the other half looked to be original. It was every other one on each side, that was reman. So there is 2 reman's on each side of the engine. If that helps anything.

Is there anything bad about driving with a loose or worn out injector? I'm going to drive it here soon and see what it does. If it is bad or can cause worse problems, I probably won't drive it the rest of the week.

Thanks for all your help guys. Hopefully I can get to work on it this weekend.

 

I have the exact same knock symptoms so I'm in the same boat as you. When the weather cooperates I'll be going in.

As far as your fuel mileage I would unlock the hubs and make sure they turn free. I know when my crappy Ford hubs are locked because my EGT increases 50 to 100 Degrees and so does my Tranny by about 10 or so degrees. So turning the extra mass is effecting MPG IMO. Also check your EBP tube and make sure it's not clogged. It's another MPG killer.

 

I damaged a cup driving like that on my vacation (about 1500 miles). This can also introduce soot into your filtered fuel rail, clogging nozzles. At the very least, you'll send oil into the fuel. Your call.

 

Yeah on the last fill up, with the hubs still locked and some 4x4 driving I got about 10.5 mpg. Now, on this fill up so far, I've got the hubs unlocked and its been warmer so we'll see how it does. But were supposed to get colder and some snow next week so that might change.

Thanks. That all doesn't sound too good, but I think I'm going to drive it, I hope it'll be okay. I drive it pretty much everyday, but I don't go too far most of the time, so hopefully that will make it a little easier on it till, I can work on it. I heard the knock once or twice yesterday, I don't think I heard it Thursday or Wednesday, but I definitely heard it Tuesday after driving a little while, and shutting it off and starting it up again. But it still seems to drive fine.

I would have liked to have either my Dad's mechanic or my Uncle work on it, with maybe me helping them out, but they just don't have the time, and aren't willing to do it on the weekend. So I might end up having to work on it myself, which I would love to do, but just don't really have any experience.

So... how difficult would guys say it is for a couple of young guys with little to no mechanical experience to get in there and get under the valve covers and re-torque and tighten everything down?

I was figuring me and a couple buddies could do it at the shop, so we'd have all the tools we would need and be inside. I partially watched my Uncle and my Dad's mechanic do it when they put new glow plugs in and it doesn't seem too difficult, just might take a little more time for the first-timers, lol. I was hoping I could get my one buddy who has more mechanical experience and is building his own racecar right now, so he would help a lot. It would be really nice if his Dad could give us a hand, because he is a retired Ford diesel mechanic of about 20 years, so he would probably know pretty well of what to do, and how its done. That would be a great help. I think I might be able to find some of the info in the 7.3 tech links so I'll check there too.

So is there any tips you guys have for doing this for the first time, anything to be more careful with or to watch out for? Is there anything else I could check out or replace while I'm in there? I was thinking of doing a full service at the same time as well. Some torque specs for once I get under the valve covers and a good set of instructions or a good video of how to get to and get under the valve covers would be greatly appreciated if you guys have it.

Thanks for any help or tips guys! And wish me luck once I get there, it probably won't be for a week or so, but definitely as soon as possible, don't want to let this go on for too long.

 

Rich, how on earth, do i get my truck to be quiet like yours. holy hell thats amazing. i've got so much work to do on mine it isn't funny.

jealous.

 

All that stuff I listed is pretty serious. If you can't afford to replace 4 injectors on the passenger bank and take 3 days (minimum) to replace cups, I think I'd get rides from friends. Rides for a week, or rides until you can rustle up the time and money to repair the damage from driving it hurt for a week. This is all assuming it really is a loose injector, it's still possible the noise is just a knocking injector.

If you really have a loose injector to the point of that kind of knocking, it needs new O-rings and a copper washer on the nozzle. This process needs to be studied up on, I'm sure somebody has a link to the write-up or a YouTube video. Speaking of YouTube - while I don't have a vid of all the things I go through under the VC, I do have a vid of clearing the driver side of all the stuff (except the CCV doghouse) that's in the way of the VC bolts:


That was no accident, brother. Cody does my tuning. My new injectors (not reman - installed one year ago) are flow-balanced by Full Force Diesel at cruise and idle... I couldn't care less about flow balance at WOT. I bought a 9th stick (also flow balanced with the 8) and I swapped out a cackler, plus I had one injector with flow problems after 9 months. There is a real advantage to having a known-good stick to throw in the hole when you have a suspicion. Whatever the loudest noise was under the hood, I hunted that bass turd down until I found a cure or a muzzle for it.

The AIS made the truck quieter (no turbo whine or intake noise at all), but the S&B (current intake) can be tamed with modifications. I have the Lariat trim... which helps with the cab noise. I had something like 12 exhaust leaks, and every exhaust component has been replaced... everything... from the manifolds to the exhaust pipe tip. Running gear (bearings, shafts, brakes, and the like) has been gone through, and the snow-rated tire tread is quiet. The tires are made by Cooper for Les Schwab - Wild Country XTX Sport.

 

Ok Rich, I hear what you're saying. I think I'll drive it today and see what it does and go from there. I really don't want to make things worse and cause more problems.

So yesterday I heard it knocking as soon as I got home and put it in park. So I got out to listen, it sounded like it was only coming from the drivers side. It knocked for like a minute or so, and then went away and idled normal, and I never heard it again. I revved it up a little bit, a couple times to see if that would change anything, and I heard it knock once or twice as the RPMs fell back down, but that was it. So I'm not sure if that will help you anything or not.

How sure are you that it is a loose injector? I know you can't really tell for sure unless you were actually here to listen to it, but I trust your opinion and your guess is better than mine. I'll have to try to get a better video of it, if I hear it again.

I don't think it's knocking as bad as any of your videos, but I think, but am not for sure, it sounds more like your loose injector. So are you saying that if it is a loose injector, its not as simple as just going under the valve covers and re-torqueing and tightening everything, the O-rings and copper washer need to be replaced on the loose injector? Sorry Just trying to clarify things, I figured for the loose injector you just had to re-torque it.

And thanks for the video and info Rich, it was definitely helpful.

 

If an injector is loose to the point where it sounds like my video (it wasn't intermittent - that was any time the truck was running, and start-up made a fog that registered on the weather satellite. Once an injector is that loose, O-rings and copper washer are most likely damaged on that injector.

Check the torque reading before you tighten them. Set your torque wrench for 50 inch pounds and try to tighten all of them with that setting. If any of them tighten up at that setting - O-rings or each of the loose ones. If it passes the 50 in/lb test, just get them to 120-130 in/lbs. and start the truck to test. Make sure there are no pets or paper towels near the turbo or spider.

The bad injector video had a knock in gear, but it would go away when I took the truck out of gear. Apparently putting the truck under any load at all would make the knock appear.

I'm not there to hear the knock, and it's hard to judge with camera microphones.

 

Thanks again Rich. Mine doesn't sound quite as bad as your videos, and is intermittent.

Now that sounds more like mine. I do hear mine most often in drive, and not in park. And I never hear it on the first start up of the day, I only hear after having driven the truck a little bit. And the only time I hear it in park is after I have driven it, or started it up again after having just driven it. And even with all that I don't hear it all the time.

Would either one be audible when driving? I hear something at ohh maybe 1600-1900 RPM, somewhere in that range. But I'm not sure if its the knocking noise, or its just the normal noise of the truck. I don't have much to compare it to.

So if it is just a bad/wont out injector, is there any danger to driving it with that? Is there a way to tell for sure whether it is a loose injector or a bad injector, or even a fuel pressure issue, without pulling the valve covers? Would a scanner tell me anything, or any other kind of tests? Also if it is just a bad injector, would it still be worth my while to go under the valve covers and check things out? Sorry for all the questions just want to make sure that I can way all the options before I take the time and effort to go under the valve covers, and then have it end up not fixing anything.

And yeah I figured that. I knew it would be hard to tell without actually being here to hear it. Thanks again Rich.

 

Rich and Stinky, soaking up the accolades! huge i tell ya, HUGE!
cheers man!

and to reddevil 460... i think youre on the right track to do some replacement work. grab some buddies and make a weekend of it once you have all the parts on hand. store the truck on a friday night in a "warm" garage and tear into 'er on a saturday morning...
i don't know what to tell you in terms of the continued driving. i guess my gut is saying, KEEP DRIVING IT. mine has a slight knocking as well. i checked torque on hardware several months ago and i'm now leaning towards injector rebuild/replacement. i mean, my truck has almost 350K miles... i think we can all agree, IT'S TIME.

keep us posted within this thread. pics, stories (both long and short) will/would be much appreciated.
good luck on the rest from here on out.
i'll stay tuned!

cheers man.