Fret not. I talked to Clay (who confirmed what you said about it not working on an 8-bolt without modification or leaks), and he said he may have something in the hopper for both of us soon. It sure would be nice to leave those seasoned head gaskets alone.

 

If it is the 7.3 orang and black are international's colours too just saying...

 

Agreed 100% Plus IMO Stinky's heads are questionable given the injector bolt torque issues.

 

That's where my head went as well. I'm done with that motor - because it's been done with me for quite some time. To prevent a repeat, I ordered a digital torque adapter. I want to make absolutely certain I'm not doing something stupid that invites prairie dogs to the Powerstroke party.

Huge setback.... I apologize right up front because I won't go into details - it's irrelevant to the thread. I had practice prepping and painting a block and I have to leave it at that. Suffice to say I've moved on to replacement engine #2 - a '95 removed from a shuttle van. I'll have pictures soon. I'm getting real freaking good at building wooden floor stands for the 7.3L. If anybody needs dimensions, I have 'em.

 

Damn...you and Jaime make me feel much better about my truck now...

 

Seriously...

 

What???


What now???


It's absolutely relevant to this thread, because this means Stinky is going to be in the stirrups that much longer.


When a patient is brought in for a heart transplant, and the donor heart is suddenly found to be no good, and a different heart needs to be sourced... that's relevant!

 

LOL... Having done some prototype work for Clay in the past, it wont be ready until I'm doing another motor swap.

LOL

 

Thanks Joe... I feel all better now.

Using the heart transplant analogy, I wouldn't want to analyze and lament why the failed heart isn't going to work once the call is made and a fresh heart is at the table. Everything with Al senior is up in the air, so I have nothing to report on it. Al Junior awaits to make his debut. Now that I have more tools, knowledge, and practice - this should go fast (when I have time to work on it).

One good thing to report (if you can call it that): I'm not crazy.

Stinky misbehaves/behaves intermittently - he's been that way for years. Recently... he's been more bad than good, and I finally got two mechanics to hear him during a tantrum. They asked how long it's been doing that, and I reported how I've been taking it to them for years like this - but they never caught it in the act. They agree with what I've been suspecting all along and what one other mechanic said once before - it's valve related. One mechanic even went so far as to say it's a lit fuse, and given how this has been progressing the last few thousand miles - I can't disagree.

 

Curious. What is stinky doing exactly? How many miles?

Want to know what to watch out for on my truck

 

It's pretty straightforward. I have dual EGT gauges and the passenger side started riding hot about 18 months ago (from idle all the way up the power band). I never would have known this if I had just one gauge on the driver side like most people do. With that, came a "slappy" noise on the right that sounds not entirely unlike an injector with air in the oil or a loose injector hold-down bolt. I use that sound description because I know it so well. Morning starts used to be clean, now they are pretty smokey. I had one morning in a Reno casino parking lot when it was 7 degrees F, and I cycled the glow plugs 3 times. The smoke was so bad that people fled the area until the smoke let up. I have a "pulsing" (in sync with one cylinder) that I can feel in the wheel and my foot. For a long time, I had vibrations in other parts of the truck while driving, so it took me a bit of doing to isolate the pulsing. The pulsing is strongest with the torque converter locked. There is a nasty deep "clack" that comes and goes, even when idling - and this one sound is the scariest of all.

In one sentence: The truck just sounds horrible compared to other 7.3Ls I hear every day - even the crappy ol' beater OBSs on the farm.

Think of it like the cooling fan under the hood - you know it when you hear it... there is no doubt. The bummer is I can't quite catch it on the microphone on my camera - it's one of those "ya gotta be there" things. Here is my last attempt at catching it on camera:

 

"One good thing to report (if you can call it that): I'm not crazy."

To quote Sheldon did your mother have you tested?

Good luck Rich will be watching to how this goes...

 

I just want to know how much stuff got broke in anger when the worm turned.......

 

Continuing with the heart transplant analogy, if the hospital went through the trouble and expense to helicopter in a donor heart, trim the fat and dress it up for insertion into the patient... only to find out after all that the heart isn't going to work... you'd better believe the hospital administrators and insurance adjusters would want a debrief of what went wrong, and how could this expense and trouble be avoided next time... regardless of whether or not another donor heart was quickly located.

You went through a lot of trouble to get that first engine... the drive, the pick, the crate, the haul, the unload, the stand, the dress down, the eight (8) freakin layers of paint, and all the residual VHT aerosols still lingering in the aveoli surrounding your own heart. Not quite the cost of a helicopter ride, but close. And yet it didn't work out.

There might be an important hard knock lesson here that FTE members could seriously benefit from. Obviously, the brotherhood of FTE are not your administrators or adjusters that would demand a debriefing... but we can ask. Nicely! It is certainly up to you to keep it a secret or share, but based on the age of all of our 7.3L engines, and the increasing probability that any one of us faces in seeking a replacement long block, we all could certainly benefit from knowing what happened with your first at bat.

Ok, now I've done it and changed metaphors.


Exactly... and I'll bet a lot of readers who have been following this story, and who may anticipate buying a used "trans(power)plant", would benefit equally from that same knowledge you just learned.

 

Yeah, what he said.