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The rain finally let up and I was able to get back to the engine this weekend. I spent last week soaking the intercooler with dish washer detergent. After 2 washes and multiple flushes with hot water I'm still getting grey/green water/oil sludge coming out. I'm going to try flushing it with diesel fuel next.
Everything is off the front of the engine, including the ground strap at passenger side firewall. I spent more than an hour trying to disconnect the fuel lines at the "quick" connects near the oil cooler. I used 3 different types of disconnect tools, to no avail.
Finally I gave up. Instead, I disconnected the lines at the fuel bowl, removed the oil cooler, and laid the lines off to the side. I hope once the engine's out I can disconnect the lines with more room to work.
I removed the crank pulley bolt. Figured it was easier in the truck than on the stand.
Finally started on the trans. It's been as much of a pain as I expected. I haven't been able to find a lot of info for 2 wheel drive trucks. To remove the driveshaft, I unbolted the 2 shafts, supported the front shaft with a jack, and then unbolted the carrier (right term?) from the frame. As I lowered the front shaft the 2 separated. I made sure to scribe everything with a dremel so that it goes back together in the same orientation.
A couple of the electrical connectors at the trans broke when I tried to disconnect them. I hope I can find replacement connectors to solder on. I definitely don't want to have to replace the entire wiring.
I only used the wrenches to remove the bolt. It didn't take nearly as much effort as I expected. I doubt the balancer was damaged as the wrenches only kept the pulley from spinning, but I'll look closely when I remove it. I need to rent the puller when I return the fuel line tool.
I got the trans out on Monday. As I expected, it was the worst part of the job. Laying on my back trying to remove greasy parts and drop a 250lb trans was no fun. It was definitely much easier to remove top bolts from above, with the turbo out of the way, than from below with long extensions. I was shocked how loose some of the bolts were. I could remove one of the top with just my fingers! I'll try to post pics tonight.
The harbor freight trans jack worked but it was definitely tipping backward. I'm going to rig up some sort of jig when I put it back in.
The trans had been leaking for some time:
Engine's out:
Trying to move it from the hoist to the stand was a bit of a dance, since the stand legs hit the hoist legs before it was in far enough.
I folded up one stand leg, bolted the engine to the stand (12 x 130mm bolts), then supported the engine on a jackstand while I swung the hoist out of the way to lower the other stand leg. Definitely nerve-racking.
Had to travel out of town for work and then got sick this week, but the tear down is almost complete:
Unfortunately but not surprisingly I discovered that I have metal rods:
County Machine said that the rod bolts need to be replaced and they would be about $250. I found forged rods on quickparts for $550 for 8. So I decided forge rods were worth the slightly higher price.
Just ordered new injector cups from RiffRaff. Hope to take everything to the machine shop in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I'm going to start rebuilding the turbo.
The rods are about the same one way or the other. Not to mention how many folks on here have had a rod failure? Not many. I am sure it was not a stock tune as well as a higher RPM than normal. Rpm will kill rods. Tunes and more fuel burns pistons. Keeping the revs low will not be a issue for rods. As long as clearance is with in reason. I did however have plans on making a diet plan on those large pork chops of weight on each end and see how light I could make the rods. The stress is the weight of the extra on the rod. Look how skimpy the new rods look(6.0/6.4/6.7). But hold fine.
Yeah, Riffraff has a great price on forged cryo'd rods, but they've been out of stock since I started checking months ago. The other rods are way out of my budget.
Some times when you talk to Clay he can get things done faster. Anyway, I know what you mean on the other rods. If I could pick money off a tree, no problem.
I packed up the engine in my wife's van yesterday and drove it to County Auto Machine:
The guy at County, also named Brian, really seems to know his 7.3s. I'm confident the engine is in good hands. I should know what exactly it needs by early next week.
County charges an additional $200 to install the heads. So instead, I'm going to install the heads myself and put the money towards ARP studs from RiffRaff. So much for the "stock" rebuild. Money well spent though I think.
Brian showed me the rods for the 7.3 he's building for himself. He had ground the rods to balance them and drilled a small hole on the bottom of each to allow oil through. In hindsight I wish I had taken a couple of days to balance my rods, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary for a non-performance engine.
Non performance or not, balance the rods. You're be happy you did.
Damn. I was afraid someone would say that. I might drive back next week to pick up the rods. Brian said his set was off by about 10g, fwiw.
I have a "postal" scale I use to weigh bicycle parts. As I understand the process, you weigh all 8 rods and record the numbers. The lightest is your reference point. You then grind the 7 heavier rods at the top, smallest part of the rod, until you reach the weight of the lightest rod.
01-16-2017, 10:22 PM
