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Renamed thread: Love letter to those who have pulled engines.
Let's face it... some of our rigs were abused as a child, or suffered greatly as we went through the growing pains of PMS, or just plain had bad luck (Stinky is a good example of all of the above). Some of us subsequent owners are contending with that, by way of driving around (or not) with hurt 7.3Ls. I've read on FTE where people who have pulled engines found things like burnt pistons and valves, bent rods, cracked piston skirts, sloppy valve guides, and worn rings (as examples).
Here is the key series of question I'd like to ask of those who verified root causes of engines that had to be pulled: What clues below convinced you to pull the engine?
What did you hear and when did you hear it (idling, accel, decel, WOT, cruising, etc...)?
What did you feel (foot, back, hands, butt, etc...)?
What did you see (white, black, gray, pink polkadot smoke out the pipe, engine shake, etc...)?
What did you smell (unburned fuel, oil, coolant, burnt plastic, etc...)?
What were the gauges, codes, and lights "saying" to you (analog and OBDII)?
What tests did you conduct (compression, cylinder leak test, cylinder contribution test, etc...)?
Were there any clues that don't fit into the above questions, or anything you feel should be added to help those who suspect a mechanically ailing 7.3L
Then... what did you discover was the root cause of your woes?
I'm hoping the answers may help those who are considering whether the guts of their engine are truly suspect - or if maybe they should look at something that doesn't involve an engine pull. With more answers here, many owners (now and in the future) can make better decisions with less anxiety, blood, and treasure spent needlessly.
On one of the work trucks started with light blue haze on every start up, as the miles went up blow by came more pronounce on cold or up to temp engine, then the noise came kind of like when a lifter is not functioning properly, then the dead miss on start up, constant shakiness at idle, then lastly white unburnt fuel dumping out the tail pie with lots and lots of white smoke. I removed the engine install a junk yard one. Took it apart (this is the engine that's going into my obs BTW) and what I saw was next will have you throw up
Cylinder 5&7
My guess was that one of the piston rings took out both cylinders.
It would be nice to note what kind of tuning was being used, if any, on the failed engines.
Without knowing what got the ball rolling on an engine fail, that could create some undue tuner bashing. That being said, a series of identical heat-type failures by a specific tuner may very well justifiably raise an eyebrow.
Mine just went out. No signs, no misses, no rough idle, no nothing. The truck had been running beautiful.
I got on the skinny pedal to pass a slower moving vehicle going 40 mph on a two lane highway. As i passed him and looked to my PS mirror to merge onto my lane i saw a plume of white smoke.
Are you kidding me? I've been working through at least half of every weekend except one for three months straight. I haven't even popped the oil pan off Frank, and I'm still driving Stinky in a hurting state. I'm just trying to suss out what all my stuff is telling me, and I thought this would be useful to a number of people now and in the future.
Instead of agonizing over what you need to do, take inspiration from this young guy who swapped his engine somewhere in BF Alaska, on a gravel parking lot, using plywood as a rolling surface for the engine crane! Sometimes you just have to dig in: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...and-story.html
07-31-2016, 07:30 AM
