I just did one last test after the truck idled for about 15 or so minutes. The numbers don't seem great by any means, but are somewhat better than before so I think things are okay. 8 is a little low unfortunately, but I read that that's usually the lowest based on the intake.

1: 325
3: 305
5: 295
7: 325

2: 295
4: 320
6: 305
8: 280

So this seems to confirm no dead cylinder. Do these numbers still seem okay with a warmed up engine?

Also, with no dead cylinder, I'm guessing I'll move to the injectors next to the fuel in oil contamination? I'm still waiting on a test bottle from blackstone labs so once I get that I'll send in my oil sample.

 

I watched a video by Dieseltech Ron (RIP) where an injector on a Superduty had a cracked solenoid I believe. It had the same long crank time issue. He did all the other tests and popped the valve cover. He started the truck and let it idle while he looked at each injector for oil spitting and found fuel to be pouring out of the top of the injector at the #1 cylinder, IIRC. It's something to check.

 

Hmm I'll take a look at that to see what I can find. Oil was coming from each of the injectors at the little spout thing, I'll try and see if I can see fuel coming out as well.

I'm going to grab some dye today as well to pour into the fuel filter so I better pinpoint where fuel may be coming from.

 

It will be very obvious if it is coming form the top of the injector.

 

Here ya go....

 

Thanks for that link. I'll check to see if anything like that is happening when I get back tomorrow after work. Nothing looked out of the ordinary when I took a quick look last night but I was only paying attention to the oil spout.

I believe the guy in the video said he was leaking oil, but maybe if that top o ring is bad and the top fuel one is bad, oil could leak out through the top where there is no pressure and fuel may leak into the oil passageway. That's a long shot since the oil pressure is way higher, but I'm running out of ideas on where to look!

I'll probably be pulling the injectors soon as well so I can visually look at them and see if anything looks weird.


I've tried to look online for this but couldn't see anything on it. How is the fuel galley in the head set up? I'm was wondering if something with that may be off, but there is no diagram I could find that shows the fuel galley. I don't imagine it's anything difficult, but I'm unsure how the fuel travels to the injectors once it enters the rear of the heads.

 

Here's something similar to your problem
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...dBZVJwX6QswSlQ

 

Black cups can be one thing if the injectors look new. But then you said the injectors were also black. Which is it? If the injectors AND cups are black, then those 2 injectors were never installed and torqued properly and they came loose. This can take a few days, few weeks or a year. When they come loose, the injector moves up and down in the bore allowing combustion gas to get to the lower part of the injector (when the copper washer and lowest seals blow out) turning everything black. It's not really soot/carbon that you can just wipe off, but kind of 'baked' on blackness. This is the cause for the knock you hear (injector going up and down) and why there was a ton of oil in the fuel--because as the injector moves up and down when it's supposed to be stationary, all the other seals fail, too.

Absolutely no possible way fuel can come out the top of the injector, that's the oil side, fuel is a mile away. And the only thing that will happen if/when a solenoid cracks or goes bad is that injector is dead, won't fire. No damage to anything, just a dead miss.

Max, those cold numbers look horrible to me. Think about it, when the motor is cold and it's trying to burn all the fuel being injected, it can't, that fuel has to go somewhere. You don't have a dead miss when it's running so I wouldn't expect to see a couple very low numbers. Overall I'd say that motor is very tired.
This is possibly the cause for diluted oil. The typical causes are mechanical fuel pump failure, possible injector O-rings (though I personally don't see how), and very low compression.
We see this all the time with 6.4 trucks, the 7.3 is just another engine. The 6.4's come in running fine, no miss, no knock, but have an extra 5 gallons in the crank case. Pull the heads and a few of the cylinders measure at .030" or more over oem bore. (Side note, the 6.4's can also puke fuel out the K16 high pressure fuel pump just like the OBS mechanical fuel pumps, but those are not nearly as common as worn cylinders.)

Max, I emailed you what we can do with the injectors. If you feel you want this done, send them on their way and we'll flip them asap. But my gut says you need an engine rebuild. At least have the heads fully fluxed and pressure tested first, just to make sure, though I have never seen or heard of cracked heads allowing fuel in the oil. The fuel rail is deep in the head.

Fresh injector seals, no mechanical pump, fuel still in the oil = rebuild. I'd love to hear from anyone else with other thoughts on this.

 

Dang Jim you're probably right! If I pull the injectors and the Orings look fine, are they reusable? If so, I may just have those pulled and look for another motor to put in while keeping this one on the side for a rebuild. If I shouldn't Reuse my o rings and stuff, then I may send them your way, potentially upgrade the nozzles then as well but I'll have to see my financial situation!

I think I can grab a spare motor for about 1000 around here, I can't imagine a rebuild being anywhere in that price range.. If I could do a mild rebuild for about 2k or less, I'd go with that option but I don't know if that's possible.

 

It's ~$1200 for an overhaul kit (more it you upgrade pistons), plus whatever additional costs you need for machine work.

 

on the lowest reading ones, can put air to cylinder at 40 PSI through GP port when at TDC fo rthat cylinder and see if leaking by the rings, intake or exhaust


if by the rings, then that is how some fuel is getting into the oil

 

My mistake on that video. I made the statement before watching again and was recalling from memory. Dieseltech Ron did say it's the top seal, I THINK, and that fuel is pouring out past that. Either way, that video shows a TON of fuel pouring out.

 

I had low compression for a while and I never had fuel on my oil, I was using a quart about every 600 miles.
Just spoke with Matt from Rosewood, I'll send mine out I'll post a pic of the injectors in a bit to see what I'm talking about.

 

It's often much cheaper to get a good used engine than to rebuild yours. But it seems to fluctuate with demand. When we have an abundance of engines, the price is low, when we need one and can't easily find one, the cost is high for the ones we do find.
$1000 for a good used engine is a good price. Figure $2500 - $3000 and up for a proper rebuild.
But...there is a big difference between a rebuilt engine and a 'good used' engine that someone says has low miles.

As for injector O-rings, if your intention is to pull the injectors and drop them in another engine, you should be fine. I'd at least put new copper washers on them if the rest of the O-rings look good. Just inspect the O-rings and make sure they didn't get torn up at all from the install/removal. Worst case just throw on a $80 set of o-rings and know for sure they are good.

EDIT: How much blow-by does it show?
A leak down test would also be a good idea to see what the cylinders are like, in addition to the compression test.

 

Yeah I called a shop and they said about 1500-2000 for the work and I think that included the assembly, then there is the parts at about 1200. I won't be able to have that much soon, so I'm going to look for a used engine that hopefully is in good shape. I want to keep this motor and rebuild it since I think it's going to be a good core, but I do want my truck up and running again in a few months or less!

There are a few used engines near me, but they are all around the 290-300k mark. My engine apparently had 189k when I got it, but it was neglected heavily. I suspected issues with how awful the first turbo wheel was and the small dirty K&N filter on it, but since it ran well I didn't think it was going to be very bad. I hope that motors in the 300k range will be in decent shape. I guess my best initial look would be to inspect the turbo wheel.

As for the blow-by, there is a decent amount of smoke that comes from the oil cap, but it doesn't get blown off. It seems to rattle off and I can't feel any sort of pushing against the cap so it did pass the blow-by test in that regards. I can see if harbor freight has a leakdown tester I can buy, otherwise I may just pull my motor soon and have a shop do work on it when I get the funds (I'm planning another powerstroke swap in a different vehicle so I could use this motor as the core.)

I may also do some testing. Maybe have the oil drained with the drain bolt off and turn on the fuel pump. If I see fuel start leaking out of the drain pan, then I know there will be an internal leak somewhere that would be besides the bad compression.


Thanks a lot Jim, Glenn and everyone else so far for the help and advice so far! I'm going to keep posting on this thread for things I find out and if I get a used motor or have mine rebuilt. I'm just afraid if I go the rebuilt route, I may not be able to get it done before having to leave for active duty! Then my truck will really be sitting for a while.