I have 2 quick questions. I saw a post the other day, and for the life of me can't find it again. It was a list of suggested things to do while I have the valve covers off to shim the poppets. Anyone else seen this or have any suggestions? Besides the .25 mod?

Then I have a noise that I can't locate for the life of me. Under load, giddy up and pass someone load, I have what sounds like an exhaise leak. The manifold bolts aren't loose, I've gotten under the hood and under the truck when it's cols and smoking to see if I get anything showing up up front, but no such luck. Been like this for a while. Before and after pedestal orings and uppipe replacement. There is no soot or any other evidence that the up pipes are still leaking. Anyone else even had this?

 

Your air leak could be a boost leak, those are prime conditions for it. Build a quick and easy boost leak detector and pump the intake system up a little. I would say check all the bolts under the VC's while under there...injector hold down bolts, oil deflector bolts, roccker nut or bolts aren't a reported problem but you could check them too. There might be other things but that's all I can think of right now.

 

Check the torque on the injector hold down bolts and rocker arms while you're in there.

For the exhaust leak, check the up pipes where they go into the Y collector behind the turbo. There are donut gaskets in there that are known to fail and will leave black soot streaks on the up pipes. (from exhaust manifold up to back of turbo). That's the most common exhaust leak on these trucks.

 

Visual reference with torque values for what Walleye Hunter and F350-6 said above.

 

Ahem.... The injector hold-down bolts may be 10 ft pounds, but I wouldn't use that in the real world. Most of the ft/lb torque wrenches I've seen have that 10 as bare-nekkid minimum. Using a torque wrench at either extreme of its operating range is bad juju. I use a 0-240 inch/lb torque wrench, with dead center (120 in/lb) being the proper torque for the hold-down bolts.

Am I always this **** with torque? No... just with these freaking injectors that would like nothing better than to start a game of Whack-A-Mole.

 

I'm gonna try not to sound like a total newb to 7.3s (even though I kind of am). Now, for the injector hold down bolts...the one bolt that the arrow is pointing to in the picture by Brian42 is the only one I need to worry about correct? A hot torque is recommended for the hold down bolts too right? From what I've read, 120 inch lbs is spec, but many recommend 130 inch lbs to get a quieter running motor. Is this recommendation correct, or will I end up breaking a hold down bolt by going to 130 inch lbs?

As for the rocker arm bolts, they can be done with a cold motor right? Reason I ask all of this is that I think I will finally be doing glow plugs tomorrow since I have free time and it's gonna be a nice 75 degrees.

 

I agree with 120 in lbs since 10 ft lbs is typically not reliable at the bottom end of that wrench. 130 won't hurt anything. You won't break the bolts with an additional 10 in lbs, but putting it back to 120 in lbs will quiet it down too.

Rocker arm bolts on a cold motor is fine.

 

Correct. But... Start with the rocker arms, 20 foot pounds, 8mm socket. Then do the injector hold down bolts, also uses a 8mm socket. Test the inch pound wrench and get a feel for where the setting is on the rocker arm bolts each time before you move the wrench to the injector bolts. Start at 50 inch pounds (with inch pound torque wrench for exactly the reason Tugly mentioned) if they are less than 50 you are supposed to replace the injector orings. Then you can step up to 120 inch pounds, or go up 10 at a time if you are curious how loose they are. I know I was/did. You can carefully go up to 130 inch pounds, the engine will run quieter than at 120.

Reconnect the batteries, and 42 pin, make sure the belt drive is clear, and no leaves/dust/paper towels can get sucked in the turbo or spider and let it idle or high idle up to operating temp, takes 30-40 minutes. You can do this without valve covers or intercooler pipes on to hot-torque. Once you shut it down be ready to dive in fast while its still hot and retorque it.

Just for additional reference,
glow plugs, 14 foot pounds
Valve covers bolts, 98 inch pounds
Also,
Loctite 242 has a break free hold strength of 110 inch pounds, Loctite 243 has a break free hold strength of 150 inch pounds, but is designed to be more oil resistant during curing unlike 242 which needs extra cleaning prep and loctite primer if you want to get super technical. They both cure to over 75% strength in 1 hour (their lab results, controlled environment yada yada, pdf's on their website)
Pick your poison if you go that route as well

 

 

 

 

That's not a big deal. If you don't remove the injector then no fluids will pool in the cylinder. I used a Q-Tip to get some of the oil grime around the GP hole before I re-installed them. It takes a lot more than a couple of drops of oil before hydrolocking is a concern.