I have Stinky on hold for a while - I need a break from the frustration.


I get a call from my wife's coworker last night, he has what he believes is an oil leak and a fuel leak (truck runs fine) on his 2002 7.3L. The shop estimated $1300 to repair the truck - they want to install a new ICP, ICP pigtail, and CAC boots. I offered to buy his truck, but he wasn't lettin' it go.


I think something was lost in the translation somewhere, so I will have a look at the engine and the estimate before I poo-poo a shop... but this sounds like a shop I wouldn't trust to air my tires.

 

Swapping out some electrical components to fix an oil/fuel leak sounds a bit "hoakey" to me. A deteriorated CAC boot with a few pin holes in it may cause a very feint oil mist to be sprayed everywhere though. Good luck Tug.

 

The oil is probably pissing out of the ICP, hence a new connector, but that price is way out of line, I have enough old but still good CAC hoses around the shop, we whip them at each other from all over the warehouse. Stings when they hit ya.

 

My ICP sensor leaked through into the connector last year, I had to replace it. I didn't realize they could leak significantly enough to spray out. That makes sense to me now. Good luck!!

 

The ICP could very well leak quite a bit of oil.

My truck left 2 drips per night until I replaced the plenum boots and installed the plenum inserts.

 

Wellll.... That was different.


The ICP has oil on it, but so did everything else (133K miles, no real cleaning done to it). AE showed everything was working as it should, CCT good, Buzz good, DTC for the EBPV.


The interesting part was the drenched top of the fuel line to the driver side, suggesting a dripping fuel bowl. A glance under the truck confirmed - O-rings failed on the fuel bowl drain. $20 for Clay there.


The EBPV doesn't work, and there's oil on the arm, but no streaming - that can wait until spring.


With such low miles, I figure the owner can wait on the ICP until we get the engine clean and verify the ICP is a source of oil. If it were to give a bad reading, he could always pull the plug and drive on.


I'm going to order the fuel bowl O-ring kit and throw a fresh filter in there because it's due. $40 in parts (plus shipping) vs. $1300 to replace the CAC boots, ICP, and ICP pigtail for a fuel leak. I tell ya... I wonder if they charge $1000 to replace the oil cooler if you blow a dome light fuse.

 

So... this is how I spent my Saturday: My wife's coworker brought his truck over, and I brought a box with yellow tape off the bench. While pulling the fuel bowl bolts off, I noticed the EBP sensor was plugged all the way down to the tube. That might explain why the EBPV doesn't activate.

We get the fuel bowl on the bench and drown it with carb cleaner - then we made note of how flat all the O-rings were and one of the drain valve O-rings actually cracked and fell apart. This is where I insert the Mythbusters motto "Well there's your problem". Fuel-bowl rebuilds do not lend themselves to exciting narrative, so on to the installation we go.

We fought the head fuel lines for about an hour. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get the collars to mate up and thread onto the fittings. Funny, I don't remember having this issue when I did the fuel bowl on Stinky in my first year of ownership. In dire need of a win, I decided to put the fuel supply line on. Now that was too easy. I turned to the coworker and asked "Are you sure you got all of the old sleeves off the tubing on that side?" His reply made me leave a palm-shaped welt on my forehead "Now that you mention it, not a lot of stuff came off the tube."

Note to forum (and self): Make sure you get all of the old sleeves off the fuel lines before installing new sleeves. Double-sleeving is nothing more than sailor-speak practice.

Before installing the EBP sensor, I wanted to make sure it was fully functional and accurate. I hooked up Torque (it's quicker than AE) and looked at the EBP reading with the key on (engine off). Dead-accurate with the MAP reading - perfect. I applied 30 PSI of air to the sensor, and the Torque EBP gauge bumped right up to 30 PSI. Good enough for me... install it and let's fire this beast up.

After cycling the key countless times, not so much as a drop came out of anything fuel related. The last time we tried turning on the key (last weekend), it left a puddle on the driveway. I'd say that's progress. Now... where to find an hour to replace the one lost.

 

Nice! Sounds good. Always a good thing to end the day with success.

 

Good on you for saving this guy $1280 biggons.

This kind of stuffs reminds me I need to quite procrastinating and get that emergency oring kit for glovebox.

 

Nice Job Rich!!! Tried to give reps but, I cannot….I have to spread them around…..

 

The coworker was floored at the diagnosis and the estimate they gave him, after he wrenched on his own truck with me alongside. He said the original estimate was $2000, until he whittled it down from there.


O-rings $20, fuel filter and cap $50, Saturday afternoon of wrenching, and one hour of a foreign language course.


Thanks of the kind words, but you know I'm not alone with how this works.