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Know that's only part of it. You have to weight each end and match that to the lightest. That means little end, and then larger end. This is your rotating mass, it's very important to know where your at. Can't your engine guy do it for you? Or is he to high priced? Anyway, you'll be glad you did this.
Know that's only part of it. You have to weight each end and match that to the lightest. That means little end, and then larger end. This is your rotating mass, it's very important to know where your at. Can't your engine guy do it for you? Or is he to high priced? Anyway, you'll be glad you did this.
I'm not following this, could you help me to understand this process? Are you removing the lower end and weighing it?
If your going to go through the work weigh your old ones. Maybe shoot for that weight on your new ones. That way you do not have to get your crank done as well.
I do not think at 2500 it is a big deal but to each there own.
Agreed on piston weight as well. Not the way I use to do it with rods, I weighed each end as he did with the small end. After that you can see what the total weight is. And yes it is important at 2500. When I'm on the road with 4.10 and stock tires I can hit 2700 or even 2800 at cruise. Every little bit helps for vibration and motor life span. These are just little steps if you plan to keep the truck.
Thanks for all the input. I should hear back from the machine shop this week and then I can make some decisions. I'm not in a huge rush but also not sure I have the equipment to balance rods and pistons myself. I'll ask how much Brian would charge to do it.
County Auto Machine charges $150 to balance rods and pistons. At that price it's a no-brainer for me. He could have the crankshaft balanced, but it's quite a bit more expensive and he doesn't recommend it. I'm skipping that step. Brian will also drill the small hole in the bottom of the rod for oil access.
He's boring 0.03 over and ordering the kit as soon as I send the deposit.
Tore into the turbo this weekend. Loosening the exhaust-side bolts wasn't easy. I secured the turbo in place by bolting a piece of 2x8 to the bench and then bolted the turbo to the board.
I had expected to rebuild the turbo but it's in decent shape. No marks on the compressor housing and the compressor itself looks good. One blade is slightly dented but I don't think it's anything to worry about.
Judging from the wear on the compressor nut, I would guess someone tore into it already. Since I don't know a whole lot about these turbos, I'm going to bolt it back together and plan to do some more research before making a decision and any changes sometime in the future. This saves me a few hundred bucks.
County Auto Machine charges $150 to balance rods and pistons. At that price it's a no-brainer for me. He could have the crankshaft balanced, but it's quite a bit more expensive and he doesn't recommend it. I'm skipping that step. Brian will also drill the small hole in the bottom of the rod for oil access.
He's boring 0.03 over and ordering the kit as soon as I send the deposit.
Just thinking outloud but if the piston and rod assemblies are cleaned up to match in weight, I would get the counterweights on the crank also matching as close as possible. Basically get the rotating assembly with rods and pistons balanced.
I would overbore only the minimum necessary to clean up the cyl walls. 30 over will not give you much chance at a second rebuild when that time comes around if a skirt tears up a cylinder wall or your taper is too far out. The Ford rebuild kits comes in 10, 20 and 30 over and it seems like most rebuilds I have done have been 20. If you get an aftermarket kit it would go up to 40 over but if you start at 10 or 20 over you have a few more overbores to use in the future...
As far as the hole in the bottom of the rod, I would not do this. The bearings for the big end of the rod do not need this and I cannot see why it would be necessary as they do not have oiling holes in the bearing anyway. I wouldn't want them drilling holes in the bearing for any reason either to make an oiling hole.
Every thing that matters is new. Rods are checked and crank is also checked and ground. Just like if they were doing yours. Except you get a better warrinty. If your building HP then go rebuilt with all new parts and rods etc.. Thing is you want 10 or 20 over max. I guess some have gone 30 but I feel better about 10. Ford brings it back to stock bore by bring up the cylinder with a weld process of some kind. Heads are gone threw with new cups guides valves etc. It's all in what you want. I'm not against rebuilt at all, it just getting the right shop for machining. I'd put it together myself.
The newest Ford engine catalog no longer lists the 7.3 as having the centrifugal spray weld bore reconstruction process anymore! Only the 6.0, 6.4 and 6.7 were listed with it on the chart. There is even a youtube video of them going through the process but the chart missed the 7.3. Not sure if it was a typo or what.
On the last few 7.3s I ended up doing my self, only sending out for machine work. Ends up being around half the cost of Ford's long block and I know how it was put together
Tore into the turbo this weekend. Loosening the exhaust-side bolts wasn't easy. I secured the turbo in place by bolting a piece of 2x8 to the bench and then bolted the turbo to the board.
Looking at the pictures of tools on the shelf you're obviously a tool guy. For future use on tough bolts try one of these Sears.com
Doesn't have to be craftsman, lots of people make them. The combined shock of the hammer blow and the twist makes short work of even repetadly heated bolts like the ones in the turbo.
Yeah, I question how much oil is actually going to reach the bearing through the hole, but at some point you have to trust you machinist and Brian really seems to know his stuff. He said 0.03 is the most he would go before sleeving.
I own an impact drive but fortunately didn't need it for this. I soaked the bolts in PB blaster for a couple of days and once the turbo was secured, they came off easily with a breaker bar.
The compressor isn't chipped but rather has a small bend on one blade. There doesn't seem to a consensus about "balancing" these turbos, or much info on how to do it if you want to. If I ever do replace the wheel, I planned to bolt everything together to the 10 ft-lbs on the wheel RiffRaff recommends, index the wheel to the shaft, and then disassemble everything again. I would put the wheel back on to the index marks and take the assembly into a local turbo shop. I think this is the best one can do with these spin-on wheel, unless you sent the entire turbo out to be balanced as an assembly. Then again, I'm still learning.
About 30k miles ago I did the Hutch mod and installed an inline filter behind the frame-mounted pump. I figured this was a good time to see how the filter was doing. I was surprised to see how dirty it was:
I'll have to remember to check it every 30k from now.
Also transplanted the 7.3 trans cooler to my wife's 2006 Sienna over the weekend:
Not much to do on the truck until the motor comes back from the machine shop.
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