1994.5 - 1997 7.3L Power Stroke Diesel  

Another 7.3 consuming oil thread...

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  #16  
Old 04-16-2018, 11:51 PM
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I wouldn't go down chasing the rabbit hole of the glow plugs system considering your oil consumption issue just yet, IMO it's irrelevant to your oil issue. I once had this happen as well and was consuming 7 quarts within 35 miles. Truck did not smell like oil nir did it have black fuel or the filter . A couple of torn upper O-rings turned out to be the issue.

I'm not sure how many miles are on the injectors or how old they are. You won't know until you pull them.

The part that has me concerned is the fact you can smell the oil burning and you're seeing a white plume when under load. Even when I was burning 7 quarts within 35 miles I didn't see any smoke, The bypass oil burnt completely. What I'm getting at is if you're losing that much oil I would think it be bypassing the turbine side seal on the hot side of your turbo. Take your downpipe off and see what it looks like inside if it is not dry Coke and black soot, and it ends up being a bit sticky or gummy you need to rebuild your turbo. It will be very clear and you will have to guess if that's the issue or not. Same thing goes for the injector O-rings. You will know once you pull them.

if the truck is starting just fine under 10° I wouldn't really worry about a dead cylinder Or low compression. If you do end up doing your O-rings yourself would be worth your time to plug the truck in and do a compression test after six hours. At least then you know the general health of the motor. If you're replacing the O-rings on the injectors do all 8, not just half of them, and in order to purge the motor oil have, you to pull the glow plugs when you reinstall the injectors. It's a great time to replace $90 with the glow plugs and know they are good for another 200,000 miles if you use motorcraft or BERU. Great time for a compression test. If you're buying new injector O-rings just buy them from riffraff diesel. There 8$ a set, for will want 20$+. Play at riffraff only sells oe are alliant (international) parts for the most part not doorman junk.

I hope these little bits help you out, as they are just general observations. Just be wary of Internet help it sometimes leads you down the wrong path and over thinks the problem at hand.

Best of luck
 
  #17  
Old 04-18-2018, 08:53 AM
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knottyrope, my phone is nearly as old as the truck.... I can probably find someone that has a android who would be willing to let me use it.

nossliw, thanks for the comments. I can definitely smell oil burning, when I start out under load there is a strong odor of burning oil even in the cab with the windows up immediately following starting out. When I am running down the road, or at idle sitting, there is no smell in the cab. The exhaust absolutely reeks of burning oil.

5 new injectors were supposedly put in about 60k ago, 3 new injectors put in about 40k ago. 5 had new orings about 35k miles ago. These are all relative, the odometer is not original, and I can only go on the word of the previous owner. That is also assuming that this is actually the motor that was in the truck when the invoiced work was preformed. All told it had $13,476.94 in engine work done over a period of 2 years and 20k miles. Why they didn't just repower it with a new motor from Ford is beyond me.

I will pull the down pipe hopefully this weekend and see what I can see. I may also pull the valve covers and turn the engine over manually to check for leaks as recommended.

If there was a shop around here I could trust to take the truck to, I would drop it off and let them figure it out. We have several "high performance" diesel shops in the area, but their reputation for basic maintenance and diagnostic trouble shooting is, shall I say, less than desirable.
 
  #18  
Old 04-18-2018, 10:47 AM
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Where are you located?
 
  #19  
Old 04-18-2018, 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted by FAL Grunt II
knottyrope, my phone is nearly as old as the truck.... I can probably find someone that has a android who would be willing to let me use it.

nossliw, thanks for the comments. I can definitely smell oil burning, when I start out under load there is a strong odor of burning oil even in the cab with the windows up immediately following starting out. When I am running down the road, or at idle sitting, there is no smell in the cab. The exhaust absolutely reeks of burning oil.

5 new injectors were supposedly put in about 60k ago, 3 new injectors put in about 40k ago. 5 had new orings about 35k miles ago. These are all relative, the odometer is not original, and I can only go on the word of the previous owner. That is also assuming that this is actually the motor that was in the truck when the invoiced work was preformed. All told it had $13,476.94 in engine work done over a period of 2 years and 20k miles. Why they didn't just repower it with a new motor from Ford is beyond me.

I will pull the down pipe hopefully this weekend and see what I can see. I may also pull the valve covers and turn the engine over manually to check for leaks as recommended.

If there was a shop around here I could trust to take the truck to, I would drop it off and let them figure it out. We have several "high performance" diesel shops in the area, but their reputation for basic maintenance and diagnostic trouble shooting is, shall I say, less than desirable.
Well if all true you got a solid heart for that truck and should be in great shape, same with the injectors. If it smells like oil it will most likely be a blown turbo. I can almost guarantee it. Unless they dropped screws in each cylinder when installing injectors, bypassed injector oil will fully burn on a warm motor and really not leave much of a stench behind.

That being said if the injectors were ringed with orings in 2012, they could have failed. There were quality control issues with rings from alliant and Ford suppliers. I doubt this is the case. I had a set of injectors that went 200k miles from that era and had other issues vs rings.
 
  #20  
Old 04-19-2018, 03:14 PM
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Originally Posted by nossliw
I wouldn't go down chasing the rabbit hole of the glow plugs system considering your oil consumption issue just yet, IMO it's irrelevant to your oil issue. I once had this happen as well and was consuming 7 quarts within 35 miles. Truck did not smell like oil nir did it have black fuel or the filter . A couple of torn upper O-rings turned out to be the issue.

I'm not sure how many miles are on the injectors or how old they are. You won't know until you pull them.

The part that has me concerned is the fact you can smell the oil burning and you're seeing a white plume when under load. Even when I was burning 7 quarts within 35 miles I didn't see any smoke, The bypass oil burnt completely. What I'm getting at is if you're losing that much oil I would think it be bypassing the turbine side seal on the hot side of your turbo. Take your downpipe off and see what it looks like inside if it is not dry Coke and black soot, and it ends up being a bit sticky or gummy you need to rebuild your turbo. It will be very clear and you will have to guess if that's the issue or not. Same thing goes for the injector O-rings. You will know once you pull them.

if the truck is starting just fine under 10° I wouldn't really worry about a dead cylinder Or low compression. If you do end up doing your O-rings yourself would be worth your time to plug the truck in and do a compression test after six hours. At least then you know the general health of the motor. If you're replacing the O-rings on the injectors do all 8, not just half of them, and in order to purge the motor oil have, you to pull the glow plugs when you reinstall the injectors. It's a great time to replace $90 with the glow plugs and know they are good for another 200,000 miles if you use motorcraft or BERU. Great time for a compression test. If you're buying new injector O-rings just buy them from riffraff diesel. There 8$ a set, for will want 20$+. Play at riffraff only sells oe are alliant (international) parts for the most part not doorman junk.

I hope these little bits help you out, as they are just general observations. Just be wary of Internet help it sometimes leads you down the wrong path and over thinks the problem at hand.

Best of luck
I agree with Nick! My brother in law's truck had a black fuel filter. I knew it needed injector orings. We waited a couple years untill it REALLY need them. Literally in 8k miles the filter didn't go black again. We finally did injector orings....fixed the issues he was having and still no black fuel filter. If it's not going anywhere externally then it's either external inj orings or internal seals. 9out of 10 it's the external inj orings...cheap to do and in an afternoon they are done.
 
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