If a truck has been run without supplemental coolant additives to prevent cavitation and has suffered erosion damage, is there a place that said damage can be detected without a major teardown?

 

When changing the water pump, take a moment to inspect the front cover for signs of cavitation erosion. It's aluminum so in theory if the SCAs have been depleted then the front cover should be affected.

 

Doesn't matter.

Cavitation is a threat to cylinder walls and SCAs are added to protect the bubbles from forming during compression and damaging cylinder walls.

So there is not a way that I am aware you could check for ACTUAL wear other than getting the beast apart.

Many ford dealers and shops do not know or care about SCAs and just follow the service intervals without worrying about it.

I have never even heard of a a truck with regularly serviced coolant that has died from cavitation so if you can find one let me know.

ALL THAT ASIDE, I'm looking for someone to pitch in for a group-buy of SCA testing strips so hit me up on PM. No point buying 50 strips as they expire fast.

 

The IDI 7.3's had issues with cavitation. The expiration thing on the test strips is a joke if you store them out of high humidity situations (in my opinion).

I buy the plastic bottle full of them and keep them outside for use on my tractors, kids trucks, etc., and completely ignore the expiration date. Seems to work just fine.

Get some strips and test it. If in doubt, dump some additive in just to be on the safe side. Once it get's to the point that you've got cavitation that you can see, it's too late and time for a new motor.

 

Water pump cavitation.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1314891535

 

Thank you for the replies. I may be purchasing an additional 7.3 and was curious. I saw one today that looked like it has nothing but water in the degas bottle. If you saw this, how leery would you guys be? How many miles do you think it would take for damage to occur when none was used?

 

Someone told me that you can use swimming pool test strips, but I haven't compared the two.
Supposed to be cheaper

 

I suppose you could if you're worried about chlorine level and total alkalinity . . .

 

Not too worried, but definitely worth considering. It takes hundreds of thousands of miles typically to do damage. At least some of the problems with the IDI 7.3 were more electrolysis than cavitation.

 

Super. That addresses my concerns. Thank you!

 

One more question. I get that you would have to be somewhat torndown. Would cavitation be apparent on injector cups?

 

Would love to know if that's a thing.
I doubt you'd be able to measure molebdenum or whatever the mo part of cro-mo is.

Is it important to measure MO?

 

I'd drain the water and look at it for rust (bad) and for the white, flaky SCA precipitate. If you have the SCA precipitate it had SCA coolant for some time.

Also, if I were trying to buy a pickup that obviously hadn't been take care of (like water instead of coolant) I definitely use that to negotiate a better price.

 

Cavitation can happen at the front cover also. Search the net and you should be able to find several examples where it's happened on these engines.

 

OK. Thank you. I have seen some of the pics...just looking for a sure fire way to detect it "easily" if I find another 7.3 to purchase....