I have only driven it around the parking lot. Just got tags, but no insurance yet. It also needs 7 new tires, so I was hoping to make sure the engine was good before dropping a thousand bucks.

I used standard (conventional?) OEM Motorcraft oil (15w-40?). I think one of our employees added a little bit of basic engine cleaner additive to the oil as well. Definitely not Archoil.

The truck was not originally delivered to CA, so I don’t think it’s a CA emission truck (unless the swapped motor came out of a CA truck).

For diagnostics, I have read that AE is the gold standard. Is it required for the buzz and cylinder contribution tests? Would CCT show if the motor is dusted?

If the motor or turbo needs a rebuild, how much $ am I looking at? Obviously I don’t have high hopes for a free truck, but I need to balance repair costs against the truck’s value.

 

Wait... What? Did you say Free?

You are going to owe some FTE members some beers before this is all over....

If the donor motor was CA they probably would have ditched the CA stuff and stayed with what was in the truck. Its in the wiring and ECU Programing.

There are other ways to do the Buzz test and CCT besides AE. I wouldn't get AE unless you are planning on becoming a pretty serious OBDII backyard mechanic.
Almost any professional scan tool can do it, if you had no other need then it would be cheaper to just pay your favorite mechanic $100-150 to pull codes, buzz test and CCT.

None of those will tell you the compression or if your engine is 'dusted'. They measure balance, not power. If all 8 cylinders are crap, they will probably be pretty even and pass a CCT.
If one cylinder is down (and misfiring, like your experiencing at idle) the CCT and buzz test will help narrow down and isolate the problem child.

Turbo replacement/repair is reasonable. There are overhaul kits available and still some serviceable take offs available. I just saw one w/ 150k for $250.

Engines are expensive. Not sure what your plans are, but for a free truck I would be looking for a junkyard motor if it comes to that. It doesn't seem like you need to go that way though... time will tell.

 

Everyone's welcome to come over for some free beers. Hell, bring a scanner and I'll buy you a keg! Not even joking lol.

The actual truck was free. It took a whole weekend to drive over, get a hotel room, pay the back fees, and get it towed back home. Bad paint, engine issues, water leaking into cab, 4x4 doesn't work, and a TON of deferred maintenance. I have spent around $2,000 so far, with no issues rectified. I'm not sure where to set the spending ceiling. I am hoping to get everything running perfectly for a couple grand, excluding paint. Also, diesel mechanics are surprisingly scarce in my area, which complicates matters further. Might be worth springing for AE since the local dealer charges $360 for a diagnosis!

It sounds like I need to pull the intake off again and play with the turbo. However, it's pretty hard to see what's going on in there without climbing into the engine bay.

 

Well, a running driving CC DRW 4x4 F350 7.3 is worth $5000-7500 all day any day.

Set your budget at $5k and you can't get hurt IF the engine and tranny are servicable. If the engine is scrap I'd think really hard about going past $2k. It sounds like thats about where your at.
You got it running, if it actually does have catastrophic damage, someone will still give you $3k for whats left. 7.3 will draw people out of the woodwork to fix it, 5.4 or 6.8 gas and they would crush it.

Isn't Cali legislating diesels out of existence? or is that just commercial?

 

I have plans to take my grandson to disney, probably not until next fall now. I'll bring a scantool....

 

I charge $106 for Diag..... normal shop rate. If I could convince myself to charge $360 I would be alot more comfortable.

I don't think $360 is unreasonable... I'm just not a good enough salesperson to sell it.

Diag is the most costly thing for a shop. Usually use your highest paid tech (mine is $33/hr+benifits and overhead, figure at least $45/hr) using your most expensive tools (verus scantool is $10k, plus $1000 a year for updates), and don't make anything on parts. Also need to pay rent, utilities, Service advisor, Parts guy.... Oh, the business owner wants to pay his mortgage? Well... we will see about that.....

 

Yea exactly, trying to see if we're talking about a $250 injector or a $7000 motor. I can handle some things on my own. For example, based on what I'm reading online, I think I could handle a turbo rebuild on my own. However, I'd be scared to undertake an engine rebuild (and it would take months). If the engine/trans are toast, I can sell the truck as-is or part it out. The original motor is also sitting in the bed, not sure what to do with it.

CA clamped down hard on commercial diesels a while ago, and the new trucks are incredibly complicated. The government also charges significant penalties/fees during annual registration. I'm paying a weight penalty, smog penalty, all that fun stuff.

Honestly, between my trouble finding a diesel mechanic and the coronavirus pandemic, I might still need some help. I'll road trip up there.

Keep in mind we're talking about one of the largest (if not the largest) Ford dealerships in the country. They have a full-blown restaurant inside. I'm not even sure if their quote includes a manual compression test, or just scanning. They also charge $360 for a PPI, versus $180 at the dealership near the truck's original location. I'd be out $700 just inspecting and diagnosing the truck, and I have no clue who would be working on it. Other dealerships are just completely refusing to take the truck right now, saying they can't run a compression test or don't have the staff. So much for being "essential businesses".

 

Well, I assume PPI is a pre-purchase inspection. For $360. I spend an hour for a PPI. I start at an hour for Diag. Neither of those would include a compresion test. I would guess 3 hrs for a 7.3 compression test. Maybe 4.
Based on that I would guess there is no compression test included in their $360 Diag/PPI


We'll see you and mickey this fall. I like Hefeweizen/Wheat beers.

 

Ordered a OBDLink MX bluetooth dongle today. Trying to see if I can figure out a way to run Buzz Test and CCT at home. Not sure if I can get CCT done using Torque Pro or another Android app (and I'm not sure how it would output data). I've seen videos of people running Buzz Test, but not CCT.

 

Torque Pro is good but imo Forscan is better. Load it up on your android device and read what the OBDLink says. Ffs do *not* buy AE.

In TP the CCT is a bit weird in that it is not a "test". Instead ya monitor the PIDs for PERDELS for each cylinder. You'll see something like the pic below from my truck, typical numbers.

Surprise! There's a learning curve! But you can do this. The engine systems are rather unique but they are simple. The things that go wrong are generally easy to fix. It is powerful reassuring the oil fill cap rattled off instead of blowing off!

On edit: where exactly are you?

 

Interesting metric, is there an established "normal" range for PERDELS?
I'm in Los Angeles. Gonna do my own investigative work first, but I found a shop about 30 mins away willing to work on the truck ($130 diagnostic, waived if they do the repair). They're also able to run a compression test and a full-lift inspection. Overall, sounded competent and reasonably-priced. They also stock Archoil, so I assume they're in touch with PSD needs.

 

Yes any cylinder that contributes 5% less than his brothers will throw a code. #8 on my screencap above is 4.81% off the others, which is not great, but ok. #8 always shows worst fwiw.

As for additives like Archoil, the conventional wisdom on 7.3s is always use a fuel additive (to replace the lubricity lost when ultra low sulfur diesel was mandated long after engineering/production of the 7.3) and never use an oil additive. The HEUI fuel injectors are hard on oil but they are simple mechanical devises that are designed for specific oil properties. Add the wrong thing and the injectors will chew that chit up and you can get problems like oil foaming.

I'd recommend posting up a pic of the engine bay so we can see more what we are dealing with. Specifically I'm looking for a GPCM instead of a GPR. If the truck is out of state it prolly has a GPR. CA trucks had GPCMs, and I do not know if you can pass smog with just a GPR. Agreed with kbeefy that diag does sound reasonable and they could answer that question. Or another member here who knows more than me.

Also, climbing into the engine bay... this is the way. We all have that T shirt. Watch out for that sweet hood latch.

 

Nevermind....10 char

 

Where are you located in CA? There are a few of us here that might be able to help. As an example I have the grease whip and fitting you could borrow once you are ready to do a compression test.

 

Scanner came in today, gonna try it out once i find the time. Linking a video of engine bay, let me know if you need a different angle. https://imgur.com/a/Csun1ug?s=sms
Appreciate your willingness to help. I'm in the San Fernando Valley. However, the truck is currently parked near Hollywood. I wanted to tow it to my house to make it easier to work on, but the neighbors might complain to the HOA lol