I had a small bit of delay due to the holidays, but overall it was less than 2 weeks turn around. I really enjoyed my experience with Rosewood, though.

Jim was incredibly quick and detailed in his responses via e-mail, which is what gave me the confidence to send them all the way to Ohio.

He had suggested a basic overhaul package at 500 dollars. This allowed for a complete inspection and rebuild at just barely double the cost of what I was going to pay for a bench test.

I was called after the work was complete, and told they were in good shape and there weren't any additional things needed. Gave him my CC and they were on the way that afternoon.

 

Big day, today! All final pieces should be arriving.

Guess I should get to work.

My .015 shims arrived Saturday, I finished up my 910 spring install yesterday. What a pain the in the ***. My experience with the cheaper over head spring remover wasn't fun. Had issues with the pullers slipping off and releasing the spring.

Felt like a bomb technician a few times, under the stress of knowing that a released spring would send things flying. On top of that, the flying things would likely land in places I couldn't reach because some jackass has his F350 sprawled out in the garage.

Exhaust housing is on.


Springs, rockers, delete pedestal, and manifolds are on.



While this was going on, I started thawing out my work space a bit.

 

I think some of these cell pictures are blurry either because I've begun taking them in a hurry and or I get stuff smudged on the camera. I should really try and take better photos, sorry.

 

Keep up the good work brother! I always get some Alaskan pride when seeing your threads. A+++++++++

 

Rockin' and Rollin'

Rock on

 

Looking good. Remember you can always unplug the ICP sensor if there is a problem to get by in a pinch since it appears you still have the original one installed.

At least that's an easy change when the time comes.

 

Not upgrading plenums? Seems as far as you are into this you would have some riffraff billet plenums on there.

 

They were actually in the original plan but I had to start cutting costs after going the extra mile on so many other things such as injector rebuild, new hpop, 1000 dollar driveshaft repair. 😂

 

Alright, crazy couple of days. Not a ton of progress, but I'm not going to stress about it.

Get ready for a long section of reading. You'll laugh, or at least, you should.

I knew going into this that I would not have the benefit of time and research, so I knew mistakes would happen and **** would go wrong. Also, that I'd panic and get upset when everything couldn't be perfect.

So, its been a **** show but F-it, I'm still going for gold here.

Injectors arrived, installed my cups and felt good about that process. Had waited to install them, so I could seat the injector immediately. Turns out my inch pound torque wrench was misplaced, so waiting this whole time was a waste.



Went out and bought one the next morning. Installed my injectors. Was really happy with Rosewood Diesel from start to finish, assuming of course my injectors are going to work well and I expect them to.





Injectors went in, then I realized that I should have already installed and torqued the upper injector retaining bolt, so back out they came. And back in they went.

Installed my new UVCHs, hooked them up, installed and attached the valve cover gaskets as well. Double checked some torques, prayed to the mechanic gods and installed the valve covers.

Really starting to doubt my decisions making at this point.

Roll the engine over, time for the oil pan which arrived same day as injectors.

Long story short.

I installed it with the Ford TA-31 sealant, skipping the Moroso gasket. In my rush to do this as precise as brain surgery, forgot to install the oil pan dip stick flange nut. Cursed the gods, and removed the pan. Also found that I had not put enough sealant on the front and rear curved sections of the pan under the mains, so perhaps removing it was some kind of weird blessing.





Find my old flange nut to have been so tight it warped the seat for the O-ring.



Also found that my new oil pump didn't come with a wear ring and that the 300 dollars in tooling spent at Freedom Racing, actually wasn't a complete enough set to do the job. And a no return policy, so I hurt myself on that one.

Call 1023 Diesel, and they have both for me. Made the two hour round trip to see them in Wasilla, the day after I drove out there to return the cup pulling/installing tools, that they lent me through Clay of Riffraff. Clay's kits were all out to customers, so he had arranged for 1023 to lend me theirs.

More on those guys later, they have been great to deal with.

Get back last night with my new front crank oil seal and my flange.

I now have no TA-31 sealant left and I want this oil pan on and curing. We moved our roll out date back, but are still under the gun. At some point I just have to accept my situation and roll with it.

So: I volunteered as tribute and went completely ****ing experimental. I went with the Moroso Oil Pan, with gasket and International RTV goop. Having used it on the plenums, I knew it was quite tacky.

It was that or lose 12-24 hours to find more sealant and wait for it to cure.

Well, in the middle of installing the pan the second time in a day, Taco Bell (something I had on my drive to get parts) decides to hit me like a MOTHER F-ING freight train. I haven't had to crap that bad in years. And of course, I'm elbow deep in this oil pan.

With sweat beading on my forehand and tears squeaking out of my eyes, I installed a bead of RTV, then the gasket and then more RTV .

As I'm about to put the pan down on the gasket, I realize that older TA-31 sealant had dried in the grooves on the front and back of the pan, specifically where the Moroso gasket will need to insert. Use a pick, panic scramble to clean and remove it.

Still crying/sweating/dying during this whole time.

Drop pan down onto engine like I'm laying a baby to rest.

Begin tightning oil pan bolts too tight by hand, and find the front and rear sections sucked them selves in. Panic.

Lift pan and use 90 degree pick to pull into proper place and seat pan.

Then, like a bomb technician, slowly tighten the bolts while going around the pan and a monk style prayer fashion.

Check my gasket, looks great, RTV coming out of all mating surfaces in a non violent fashion. Feeling good. Hating life. Feeling Good. What have I done?

Methodically torque all nuts down to 15, re-torquing every couple minutes, as RTV moved and the gasket settled. Did this for maybe 5 minutes till the nuts were not moving much on a re-torque.

Opened a beer and stared at this thing for 10 minutes, wondering what on God's name had happened here. Decided its 3 am, and that I should go to bed and look at this with a fresh set of eyes.

I haven't even gone down there today. I'm posting this strictly for the lessons and entertainment of any future visitors to this thread.

I try to be humble in success and defeat, while also being the kind of person that rolls the dice with a "see what happens" attitude. I think this became that kind of moment.







I won't mind doing an oil pan again, especially in the summer, when it isn't 5 degrees outside and I get over 18 hours of daylight.

Also got the oil cooler together and installed.

 

Hopefully you got 'er all ironed out there. And you are right about being lucky that you had to remove that pan and found a bad sealant job. When I sealed up my plenums I applied a bead of sealant to both surfaces in sufficient amounts that they would have to get all over each other and not have any missed spots. It's hard to judge how much is enough and how much is too much.

For those who still wonder what a 'freeze plug' looks like...in that picture of the engine upside down and the dipstick nut on the side of the pan, those are them (3) across the mid section of the block.

 

Some people have all the fun!

At least you didn't put the pan on backwards

Thank goodness you are catching this "crap" before you get the engine reinstalled.

I know all this work is simple and goes like clockwork for some people. I don't know those people and I am certainly not related to any of them! LOL.

Taco Bell is hilarious! Now you know what it is like being a "bomb technician" and trying to beat the clock

Do you have access to one of those USB snake cameras? If so, maybe stick it inside the oil drain plug and inspect your gasket seal. Have the lights on bright in the garage and cover the hole. NO LIGHT AT ALL should be see, nor any dim light (thin spots). Also make sure you don't have any glaring globs of goop squished out inside that will break free later.

Glad you caught your bolt torquing oversight while you could still easily access the bolts.

Sounds like it is going well overall, though. Keep up the good work!

 

The Taco Bell scenario had me crying!! I have been there, and always at the point like you, where you really can't go anywhere. Holy chit!! Hahahaha....nice work though!

 

"The Taco Bell scenario had me crying!! I have been there, and always at the point like you, where you really can't go anywhere"

I had the same issue only it was from Dennies. But I was in a small rental boat ~ 2-3 miles off shore with only the bait bucket to use as the head. My buddy was NOT a happy camper!

 

Burger King once got me. Gives a whole new meaning to "Whopper."

Subscribed, good luck!

 

Now you just have to worry if the dip stick is pointed in the right position!