Originally Posted by Macrobb

Alright, so a couple of weeks ago, I put together my new engine for my truck, and got it running:
It's alive! (Rebuilt 7.3 IDI) - YouTube
That engine is a '93 7.3 that I had gotten with my turbo. It apparently ran when that truck it was in got smashed. It then sat for several years before I got it.

When I got into it, there was a slight bit of rust inside the cyls, which I removed, but everything moved fine. Nothing was loose, though there was a *lot* of oil sludge everywhere; I'm guessing someone didn't change their oil correctly for quite a while.

Anyway, I cleaned the pan, oil cooler, heads, and oil pump. I did not touch the block.
I had the valve seats ground, and new valves put in. The new valves were ground to match the seats.
I put the heads back together, and all of the springs had good pressure. I checked several of them when out of the engine, and they had the appropriate free length.

I used Victor Reinz head gaskets, and installed a set of 7.3 ARP headstuds. I've torqued them to 110 ft/lbs.

I installed a Typ4 Torque Cam in this engine. It's keyed to the gear, and that key was in place properly.
I installed it lining up the dots on both the cam and the crankshaft(not the Y).

I installed the best 16 used lifters of the 32 I had(16 from this engine and 16 from another parts engine). They all seemed to work correctly, and were well oiled before reinstalling.

I cleaned all of the pushrods and checked that they were not bent, installed them copper-dome side up.

After putting the major components together, I slapped an old set of injectors, an old IP and lines on it, hooked it up to a jerry can and made sure it ran(see the video above).

Now, this weekend I swapped it into my truck. I carefully rotated the engine until the IP stud was facing straight up, marked the flywheel at that spot, and then pulled the old IP & cover. I cleaned, added silicone and installed my 'good' pump in the correct spot, and set the timing to the static timing mark.

I got everything together, start it up, and it sounds bad... it sounded like a V8 gasser -- no fuel clatter at all. It was also smoking huge clouds of white(unburnt fuel) smoke.

I ended up moving it a couple teeth more advanced, then back to what I think is about one or two teeth advanced of where it was, and dynamically timed it.
After timing it, it's stopped smoking white, but it's smoking huge clouds of light bluish smoke. Constantly.
It's also got a distinct clatter to it, and sounds very much like a direct-injection diesel. I took it out on the road and got very little power out of it... it just felt like about 50hp or so -- easily half of what a NA engine should be able to do, if not less.

When I revved it up into the 2500 range, I got /some/ power out of it; my Banks turbo kit I swapped onto it was spooling and helping significantly, but still it was 1/4 of what it should be doing. And it's still smoking tons of blue smoke.


So, my question is this: What could be wrong?
1. Cam timing. If the cam was one tooth retarded, the IP would also be retarded. I lined the cam gear mark up as best I could with the one from the one from the crank, but perhaps it's supposed to be offset slightly? I've seen pictures showing that mark slightly off when the crankshaft mark was straight up.

2. Lifters. I can tell that all of my rockers are moving, and it looks like about the same amount each, but perhaps it's not enough. I'd think, however, that if lifters were the issue I'd have a loping as not all of them would be working the same way.

3. Fuel. I've thought about fuel timing, but I know how it sounds retarded and advanced from other trucks, including the previous engine here. The IP should be good, because it was running the previous engine just fine. Injectors are new(as of a month or less ago).

4. Oil pressure. I don't have a gauge handy, but I do know I'm pumping oil around, and when I first tested it I had it come out of the forgotten-to-be-blocked-off 1/8NPT port on the side where the turbo line goes.

What else can/should I look at?


BTW -- this truck is at my parents place, so I can't break into it until Friday night.

Any thoughts?