A little preface for this escapade: daily driver truck (minimal towing) with 305K miles. Started having the following symptoms last spring:

- +1mpg overall
- Oil out of the tailpipe (smoke and the exhaust tip, bumper, and edge of the bed were black)
- Black fuel filter
- Using (burning) 1qt of oil every 100 miles (no oil leaks/pools visible).

There is nothing in the coolant degas bottle but I do have the "slowly decreasing level that nobody knows where it goes so everybody just considers it normal" phenomenon. Injectors were still running like a champ (easy start, smooth idle, good power, and no stumbling).

I will say that I don't know how I would have gotten the cups done without Clay's injector tool. If you can spare the down time to get it you won't be disappointed. You can buy the cups through Clay and rent the tool. If you go that route I recommend buying some M6 bolts of your own. Who knows how much fatigue the ones in the kit have had. I had two of them break off in the head.

I know some of you have been following my saga. For those interested in the background:

Considerations, accomplishments, and troubles with the injectors:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-band-aid.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-the-cups.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ole-fixed.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ctors-out.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...tor-cup-s.html

Here are my issues with the factory alarm:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...larm-woes.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...y-related.html

My battery research:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...endations.html

And my Racor PS 120 question:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-question.html

With the issues I ran into, if you already have all the injectors out for new rings I would recommend replacing all 8 cups if you've got some miles on them. It’s a judgement call and if you pass the pressure test you might want to leave well enough alone (pressurize cooling system to ~20psi and look for leaks at the cups). I did not do the test but saw fluid buildup (coolant) in several of mine and decided to go whole hog since I don’t want to go back under the valve covers for the next 10 years. When I pulled my cups there was no Loctite on the upper portion of any of the cups, only the bottom seat. It could be attributed to several things so I won’t speculate but at the end of the day there was no sealant on the upper portion of my cups.
I also recommend cleaning the injector tip if you don't send them out for testing/rebuild. Many of mine were caked but I was sending them in as cores.

It's been a slow process. Trying to spend some summertime with the kids, give my wife some time to work on her business, buying a house, and still work 40 hours/week adds up quick. If I had nothing else to do I'd be done by now. On to the work:

Done so far:

Cut out the factory alarm
New injectors (including new upper and lower hold down bolts)
New injector cups
Gages installed (trans temp, boost, dual EGT, and fuel press)
650 dash
New fuel pump
New thermostat
New upper and lower radiator hoses
Fresh coolant
New batteries
Most of the purging has been done from the cylinders
New power steering pressure hoses
Wired seat heat (installed when I re-skinned the driver's seat with new covers from The Seat Shop)

Still to do:

UVCH and valve cover gaskets
New glow plugs
Racor PS 120-02 install
S&B intake (new design) with dry filter
Get it to start!

Things I thought I was going to get to but won't this round:

Wire the 03-07 mirrors (installed years ago but haven’t wired them up yet)
Solder my overhead computer (hasn't worked for at least 5 years)
New ATS rear springs (sitting in my garage)
OUO traction blocks and bars (sitting in my garage)
Assemble relay blocks for switches going into the 650 lower dash (9 switches)
Detroit Locker (sitting in my garage)
Driveline u-joints and carrier bearing (all still original)
Install the OEM ’05 lights (sitting in my garage)

My "Done so far" list looks pretty measly for 7+ months. Given the man-hours I've actually put into the project I think it's not as bad as it looks. Plus you have to count all the runs to the parts store for the little things that I forgot, needed, or broke. Not planning on doing the cups from the outset definitely pushed things back and breaking two bolts off in the head wasn't a move in the right direction either.

My biggest concern is going to be starting it up. I took this opportunity to do a number of things because I had it apart or the time to do it. If it doesn't start I'm going to have a bear of a time half-splitting (troubleshooting) to find the problem(s).

I will update this thread as I make progress towards the point of holding my breath and turning the key. I will also post write-ups as I get them done. I have the pictures but don’t have words to put to them. Unfortunately this process has been over 300% longer than expected so some of my knowledge on sizes (sockets, wrenches) has escaped me so I will put ‘pen to paper’ on what I remember about the process and the pictures.

I welcome any subscriptions, comments, suggestions, criticisms, and sarcasm along the way.

EDIT: If you don't want to follow the whole saga here are the links to posts with the write-ups:

Alarm Module Removal (Post #47)

Intake Spider Red Line Port Cap (Post #50)

 

Subscribing!

You've been through the wringer, for sure. But you got it on the run now

 

I hope so! I'm always looking for a slice of time to do a little wrenching but this is ridiculous.

I just hope it starts on the first round otherwise I'll be looking to a lot of you guys on here for some recommendations!

 

I know you have changed/updated A LOT of parts, I really hope the stars align for you and she fires up and wants to run like a champ right out of the gate.

When it does fire up, you can holler at the fellas in the skills center and say something like "OH YA, NOW THAT IS WHAT A REAL DIESEL SOUNDS LIKE!"

 

I can tell you now that my shouts of elation are not going to be nearly that PC or appropriate for small children!



NOTE: Thanks for letting me know that my first set of links didn't work. Post #1 is fixed and all the links work now.

 

brian42, i noticed you mentioned the cody test a couple of times, did you just hold the tip of a air hose to the head? or did you come up with a contraption like expacamper? Good luck on the start up man , that is a lot of work you did, hope it fires right up . you definitely deserve it after all that!!

 

Funny you mention that... I'm in the beginning stages of cup replacement and the several I pulled didn't appear to have sealant on the tops either. I'm going by the cups appearance only, haven't looked in the head real well yet.

 

Unfortunately I did not do the pressure test. I know I'm rolling the dice (as I did with tunes and no gages for the past few years) but sometimes you have to make a judgement call. My timeline has been constantly fluctuating and I did not have the time (so I thought) to get all the parts to build the rig to pressure test the coolant system before installing the injectors at the time. Using the Riffraff tool gave me the confidence that the cups were properly seated and I used plenty of Loctite on the cups (the small bottle that came with the cups had more than enough to apply a generous amount on each cup). I bought batteries, started the re-install, then life happened. In hindsight, obviously, I would have bought the parts and done the test since my timeline fell apart (my original plan was to be done last August...only two months of down time).

I have subscribed to ExPACamper's journey so I can assemble a setup like his if the need arises (fingers crossed that I don't).

 

I think we need to true up the version of the "Cody" test being mentioned here.

As I understand the "Cody" test, it is applying air pressure to the oil gallery, via a HPOP line, to determine if there is leakage in the oil side injector o-ring. The "Cody" test is not used for check the coolant seal on the injector cups.

Or? Is it "Cody 1" and "Cody 2"?

 

True. There is a separate test that pressurizes the coolant system via the overflow on the reservoir to test the cups. I think it takes about 15 psi, whereas the oil rail test takes 100-120psi

Wouldn't want to mix those up

But...doing the high pressure oil pressure (Cody) test can reveal other injector issues, such as improperly seated, injector orings, stuck injectors, etc. Things that would rob ICP from the HPOP/oil system.

 

You are correct. I apologize for crossing the streams. I have done so many different things and have a pile of parts sitting in the cab and bed of the truck that I almost don't know which way is up. Add the fact that I've been at this off and on for 7 months and everything starts to look and sound the same as my aging brain cells don't retain information like they used to. My bad. I have gone back and edited my posts to reflect the correct test.

The Cody test is the oil side and the coolant side is just a pressure test.

When this is all over I am going to have a pile of extra pieces as I either bought some when I couldn't find them or just forgot I already had them (easy enough to return at the store but it is not worth the hassle and shipping cost to return on-line items).

 

Can you not use a pressure test kit from like autozone tool loan program. It has an adapter to screw on the tank and pump with gauge to pressurize the system to 15 lbs.

I would think with that and the "cody test" on oil side you would know for sure the cup were in good shape or not.

ps: can you or have you posted a break down on the parts used for cody test.

 

Following along Brian. Sure wish I could lend a hand. You got this though! It's gonna be like a new 7.3 short of a rebuild.

 

Since I got to tear the hoop out, I'm thinking of doing the test..here's my madness..

..install AN fitting where oil rail plug is
..use hpopp line to connect heads
...pump up rails thru the AN fitting

Yo Brian, hopefully hitn Santee here Saturday for a few parts. How close are you to there

 

I believe this is what you are looking for. Post #10 from ExPACamper:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ts-thread.html

I've replaced/refreshed/rebuilt just about everything that bolts to the engine over the past three summers. Could have bought a new car and had the title if I would have cashed out of the 7.3L business in 2015 (some nights I dream of what that would have been like). Decided to make the investment back then so I'm in for the long haul. Short of pulling the heads and doing a rebuild the engine should (better) last me awhile when I'm done with this round! Then it will be on to the rest of the truck. Fingers crossed that the transmission makes it awhile longer before it needs attention. I'm currently at 185K on the no-frills Ford 4R100 (original owner had it rebuilt/replaced at 120K). The good thing is I only live 2 hours from John Wood Automotive. The bad news is that it's going to take me some time to refill the truck wallet before I can give him a call.