Hello all,
I am about the tackle a valve stem seal replacement job on my early 1999 7.3 because I think that must be what is causing my oil consumption

What I need to know is do you have to remove the injectors to remove the springs?! Also can you just use the typically cautions valve spring compression tool or does it not fit under the firewall?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

I'm no help as to what you're doing, but I'm very interested in the results should you get them changed.

 

I'll keep you updated Dan!

 

I can't see why injectors would need to be removed to change valve seals. Just pressurize the engine from your compressor or make sure the cylinder is at TDC before clamping valve springs (otherwise valves may slide into cylinder, then it will be head removal time). I'm sure that Ford must have some kind of keeper remover. Why are you doing valve seals (curiosity has me asking)?

Reread your original post...I'd bet it isn't valve seals...How did you diagnose valve seals being the cause of your increased oil consumption? Sure it isn't the turbo bearing?

 

Not really sure of anything... it uses a lot of oil. Maybe a quart every 250 miles or something like that. Does have blowby but I don't think it is excessive. I can set a ping pong ball on the oil filler tube and it just kinda jiggles around. If I plug the CCV tube on the intake the ping pong ball rises to a float but still doesn't blow off. I even had so.eone rev the engine while I was plugging the CCV and it still didn't blow off. Just floated a slight bit higher. I have replaced the I injector orings with alliant power orings thinking that was a problem but that didn't change anything. There is no oil in my exhaust pipe and there is no shaft play on the turbo and it spools up and sounds great.

All I can think that it could be left is inner injector o rings or valves. I don't think it is injectors because it runs really good and it doesn't smoke very often after it has been running and warmed up. It actually doesn't smoke right now because I am driving it to work everyday. However, if I let it sit for a whole day or so when I start it up I will get a good bit of blue smoke that follows me just long enough to burn off it seems. The smoke is worse during the wintertime and lingers longer but it is blue not white (brand new glowplugs) and I assume it lingers longer in the cold cause it takes longer for the engine to warm up and burn it off.

Therefore, correct me if I'm wrong but if the turbo was leaking into the exhaust it wouldn't smoke until the exhaust was heated up but it smokes immediately. And if it was injectors it would smoke all of the time and would smoke the same whether it sat for one day or a week.
Everything just leads me to believe that it must be valves. Whats your opinion??

Also I will do a compression test tomorrow to confirm how bad my blowby is but I don't expect it to be too bad.

 

I vote that it's not your valve seals. I had a similar problem with my truck a few years back. Oil consumption was not excessive (1 to 1-1/2 qts per 5k miles), but had smoke haze when cold until it warmed up. I replaced the valve seals when I upgraded to the Comp Cams 910 valve springs. The seals did nothing for the oil haze. I finally changed out my "non rebuildable" 38R turbo and the problem ceased. I came to the conclusion that the seals in the turbo were allowing some oil to pass until they heated up. You can see the oil behind the heat shield on the turbine side of the center cartridge in this picture.

BTW, I have a tool that I fabricated to R&R valve springs that mimics the Ford Rotunda/OTC version. The injectors do not have to be removed. Each cylinder is brought up to TDC and the valves rest on the piston while the valve springs are removed. Here is my write up with pictures. https://1drv.ms/w/s!FoWd-ifCIbJFgRxmIXk5enZvUThacyQM

 

Compromised valve seals would just let the oil leak back into the top of the head - where it belongs anyway.

 

Bad valve seals can allow oil to travel down the stems, through the valve guides, and into the cylinders of the valves when they are open. This would probably be more likely to happen after shut down on a 7.3 and not likely to be the cause of excessive oil consumption.

 

The why i'm interested is that I've had blue haze. I did have cold start issues with the original injectors at about 200k miles. I got a set of new 160/30's from PIS....which solved the cold start issues, but didn't address the blue haze.....and I had oil consumption of 1qt/800 miles or so when using Rotella 5w-40 T6.

At the time I was using DP for tunes, had Jody adjust a few things...none of which helped. Then I had Cody take a shot at it. And while I much prefer his tuning, the blue cold start haze is still there.

Between the injector swap andhaving Cody tune it, I did some turbo work. Got the 360 rebuild kit from Barder, got a machine housing and D66 wheel from DieselSite, installed a 1.0 ex housing, deleted the EBPV.

Guess what, still blue haze at cold start and still had excessive (to me) oil consumption. I hit with a round of HotShot Stiction Eliminator....and that drastically reduced the blue haze and oil consumption.

So there, I'm interested in the results of the OP's valve stem seal replacement.

 

Thanks everyone! That is a really fantastic write up on replacing the springs!I will update everyone with how it goes. As far as the turbo being the culprit I'm just not sure exactly how it works... the turbo is one thing I have not dug into. Since my truck usually smokes immediately when I started it that told me that there is oil sitting in the cylinders.. can the turbo leak down into the cylinders. I just don't know how the turbo disperses oil and how it could leak I to cylinders?
Thanks again everyone

 

have you pulled the downpipe off at the turbo outlet and looked for oil??

 

I have a while back and didn't see any.. if the oil is leaking straight into the exhaust I would think that the truck wouldn't start smoking until the exhaust got hot enough to burn the oil off. Again I could be wrong.. just assumptions...

 

I'm not sure if the speed of a turbo at idle is enough to vaporize oil either but figured it was an easy check, especially since others had experienced similar oil consumption with it being a turbo issue.

 

Gotcha. Ya I'll pop it off and check tonight and let ya know!

 

Thanks gain for the write up! While I am replacing the valve stem seals I was going to go ahead and replace my lower plenum boots that I ordered from riff raff. Should I look at anything on the turbo other the exhaust pipe when I have the plenum removed to check for leaks??