Was running a scan and found several things. One being a knock I believe. Was running a Forscan on it and had gotten it hot to run other test and after the test and it came back to idle and I started hearing a knock. Could hear it from both wheel wells. Got under it and it was coming from the back. As I got to it, it sounds like it is coming from the top of the motor. Pulled the cover and it seems to be coming from around the head at number seven. Back on drivers side. Almost sounds like in the head but can't imagine a sound like that coming from there. Put a big crows pry bar on it and around and listened. What is going on? Got the best listen by holding it on the freeze plug where it connects to the head. Not the middle and that was where it made the loudest tap or knock. Was going to pull VC but it was really hot and ran out of time. Just my luck.
The guy I got it from said he had driven this truck and everything was good. Lesson learned the hard way I guess. These 7.3's make a lot on noise and just didn't catch it when I started before I bought it. Couldn't drive it before because the rear calipers were locked up on it.
When I did the scan of it, it said something about exhaust back pressure and the cause may be a flap not opening. After running it a little more noticed the flap or valve on the exhaust side of turbo never moved. Another problem I assume. The ICP and the IPR numbers were all over the place. At idle the ICP was 525 then dropping to 360's. The IPR was 10.16-10.94. At 2000 rpm's ICP was 1200-1300 jumping back and forth while the IPR was at 23%. At 3600 rpms the ICP was 1600-1744 and the IPR was 25%. Tried to log it but it went to some kind of SFL file and can't open it..lol Bad afternoon. When these numbers were jumping around the engine was changing as well. Speeding up and slowing down and running rough when numbers dropped. Someone tell me how bad I got screwed..lol

 

Did the buzz test and all came back good. Did cylinder contribution test and it said all was good. Should I notice a change in the way the engine ran while doing this? It really didn't. Well for the contribution test because that is the one that was running. Tried to save the running log but it put it in some type of file I can't open. The only thing that really came up was the exhaust back pressure but can't remember the code.

 

It could be a loose Injector, they make a hell of a racket! To see if this is the case you will need to pull the VC's, set your torque wrench (if you don't have one you can usually rent them from the auto stores) set it to 50 INCH pounds, try and torque all the injectors, if any of them move at this point you would be best to pull them and replace the external o rings, riff raff sells them I believe. If they are all above 50 then start working your way up until they are all at 120 inch pounds then start the engine, let it get to temp and retorque when the engine is hot to the 120 inch pounds. If you have to pull the injectors there are plenty of write ups, you may as well replace the glow plugs too while your in there and check your wiring. Use inly motorcraft glow plugs too, you will regret it later if not.

 

Try unplugging your ICP sensor and see if the idle issues go away.
Does the knock go away once the truck is off idle or does it remain? If it goes away, then don't worry about the knock. These trucks make sounds at idle. I know at least one guy who changed a complete engine because he thought he heard a knock. My truck has been 'knocking' for the past 300k miles....

If the sound you are hearing sounds like nuts in a coffee can then that could be something else (cracked flexplate).

If the truck is new and seems to run okay than change your fluids and filters and drive it for a while.

 

Thanks for the replies. Getting ready to scan againto see what codes came up since they didn't save. Yeah. thought it was a rod but then coming from top didn't make since. A lose injector could make that much noise? Well considering the compression on these I guess it could. will post back with the codes in a bit. Thanks again!

 

Like an elf in there with a jackhammer? You bet! Check some of tugly's threads, he has some video of his knocking from a loose injector somewhere.......

 

Sounds right in time with a rod or compression stroke. Man I hope this is what it is. Would hate to think I was going to have to do a rebuild. lol Ran another scan and have that info. Have to go to store but will post that info when I get back. Thanks again!

 

I am keeping my fingers crossed for you! Hopefully that is all it is. From what I see here the majority of the time a knock is related to a loose injector rather than anything else. These engines are pretty stout!

 

I couldn't resist the title - with my knock experiences both normal and problematic.

Normal



Bad Injector



Loose injectors

 

[QUOTE=Tugly;15843179]I couldn't resist the title - with my knock experiences both normal and problematic.

Thank you Tugly! Sounds very familiar. Has that loud tap knock sound when idling. Rev it up and let come back down and it may change a little but still there. Worse when engine hot. So hoping that is what it is. Maybe this afternoon I may get to pull my VC and see if that is what it is.
Have to go pick up a wrecked 2004 F150 this morning that my nephew gave me. Going to part it out.
Thank you again. This has to be the Best Forum on the net for PSD's. People here are more helpful that some of the other sites I went to. A couple I couldn't even get a reply from.

 

An update to this thread. Pulled my injectors after a mountain of issues getting them out on this E450. Found that the torque was between 60-80 inch lbs all the way around. That's my issue's I thought. Well maybe not. On number 6 the crush washer was half black like it wasn't sealing. The o rings on all but one were pretty flat. The one that wasn't had been replaced recently by the looks of it. Checked the armature plate clearance and had .002-.0025 on all but 2. The one that had been replaced was to new spec's. Number 8 I couldn't even get the .0015 under it which was the smallest feeler gauge I had. Replaced it with a reman. Got everything ready to go back in.
After wrestling these babies back in (the passenger side- drivers side all but fell in) and getting everything hooked back up, I fired it up. My knock seemed worse right from the start. Much louder than it was. Wish I had recorded the before but did the after. Let it run a while at idle and it may have gotten a little better but I then revved it up, it went right back to the same sound. Haven't driven it yet because I will need to get all the intake stuff hooked back up and can't get the VC'c on and off with that stuff on. Big pain to do anything to this cutaway. Think I will at least put the passenger side back togather completely since my knock is at #8 cylinder. Then get things hooked up well enough to drive it here in my neighborhood since I can't get it on the open road. Probably will tick off my neighbors but what else an I going to do?
Using a stethoscope, have determined that the knock is definitely on the #8 cylinder. Funny part is the loudest sound I get is touching the solenoid screws on the injector. Very pronounced there. Touched the head and valve train parts like rocker arm mounts and wasn't as bad. Kind of stumped on this. Checked the rocker arms for excessive play or being loose but nothing there that I can tell. Could understand if there was excessive play there. The noise from what I can tell seems to be from the head unless sound is travelling from further down than I can detect.
I ran it for quite a while and even ran it WOT for a minute or so 5-6 times to see how bad it still smoked. Seeing how much oil-fuel mix came out of my worn out up pipes at the collector I would imagine it will take a while to burn all the mess out before I can really tell about any real smoking issues if any that are still there. I expect some running issues until all air is out of the HPOP rails and all. It still has the slow rev until a certain rpm then takes off to WOT. Going to hook up to Forscan and see what the numbers are now compared to what they were before changing o rings.
Any thoughts anyone?

 

Have you done the KOER test? Air in oil or fuel makes a horrid banging - it can give the impression the block is taking a beating from something expensive in there. A KOER jacks the ICP up - something you can't otherwise do in the driveway. That elevated ICP is what usually clears the air on the road when you drive after injector/HPOP work. I don't recommend doing a KOER after every oil disturbance (the book says don't do this), but it sounds like you may have run long enough to give it a go.

Watch out for FORScan readings: I don't know if anybody has compared the readings directly with AE or the like - and it is a beta software. We are all learning this thing together, so if a reading looks wrong - more answers are needed, but without the anxiety.

 

Well here goes again. When tried to post reply it wouldn't and wiped out my reply. Anyway, hooked up forscan and ran what test I could. IPR was at 10.5% and ICP was between 487-675 at idle 675rpm's. After letting it warm up some I checked them at 2000 rpm. IPR 14-16% and ICP was at 1400psi and at WOT IPR was 25% and ICP was 1875 psi.
Ran buzz test and passed. Contribution test passed. KOER test said Back pressure valve malfunction. The other KOER test were engine speeded up and a heavy load sound and everything else it does was a pass. Tried to log info but computer died on me. Battery went dead.
After the KOER test it seemed to be somewhat better. After running it for another 5 minutes and several tests at WOT for 30-60 sec. I did it again. Hopefully not a bad thing. It seemed to get even better. Knock was still there but not as bad and had rhythm change as well. Load a few times then less then back but never as bad as before. The smoking has mostly cleared up. Thinking what I have left it crap left in my exhaust. Need to get it burned out. May go ahead and change my up pipes since they leak so bad and see if that changes anything as well.
Thinking my adapter may be junk unless I am just not doing something right. So many things say not supported. Payed for the software and see others have it working with similar adapters.
Going to button it all up so I can drive it what little I can.

 

It'll run rough until you work all that air out. I am not sure how effective that KOER test is. Got to get some mileage on it and then re-visit it. Get those up pipes done too. There is usaually a lot of oil in there from the injector change. It'll burn out.

 

Well drove it today and everything worked real good for a while. Ran like a charm. Quit smoking and had very good power. Drove it about 10 miles under a heavy load gassing it hard to WOT many times. Drove it normal and it was running so good. Thought this is good. Time to move to the next phase of my conversion. Then everything went south again.
Well after driving it and deciding it was good, sat idling for a while playing with Forscan trying to figure out why some things wouldn't show. I don't know, 10-15 maybe 20 minutes. I stepped on the gas and it started acting like it was flooding to death at 2000 rpms again. Maybe worse than before. It was smoking like crazy. Then it went to WOT and smoked the whole yard up and truck shook like hell. Egine running so rough. Let off and did it again and same thing. Backed off to 1800 rpms and slowly mashed the pedal and flooding so bad and smoke boiling and losing power and rpms and then mashed it on down and it tried WOT and shook violently. When I let off it dropped to like 500rpms and knocked very hard about for or 5 licks and then went back to a very rough idle. WT??? It was running so good.
I'm at a loss, frustrated and and very disappointed. It was running so good. Could I have done something with Forscan to do this? Don't understand what happened.