So I just got done replacing my oil cooler mating gaskets which made me realize my coolant leak wasn't coming from the oil cooler in the first place... I suppose I didn't look too hard because I didn't think I saw any cracks but right at the top bolt on the front oil cooler, there is a crack where I assume the coolant is leaking from. It looks like it starts from the top outside of the bolt hole and extends down about 3/4" or so. I read about this happening before, so I know I was careful putting the cooler in back when I put the motor in, and also after changing the gaskets.

Is there any way I can repair this crack without taking the cover off? I'm kind of assuming the answer is no..... Maybe just glob JB weld or RTV for a semi-permanent fix....

If I do have to buy a new cover, the motor is a 96 motor. Most of the covers I see for sale say they either fit 94-95, 97-99 or 97-03. What year cover do I have to look for if I do need to buy a new one? I know the 94-95 covers are different with the HPOP mounting or something to do with an oil drain back, but I'd think the 96-97 or even 96-03 would be the same.

If I do need to replace the cover, should I pull the motor? Or is it feasible doing with the motor in the truck? I think I'm going to hold off doing this job for a while because I don't have the money to spend on a new cover and gasket set right now, on top of the time it may take if I do have to pull the motor....... This sure is upsetting news...


Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

Hmm I did happen to find some more info. It appears the 96 cover is unique... something to do with the oil pickup tube location being the same as before, but changing the drain back valve... I might be able to get a newer cover and pickup tube, but that may cost just as much as the 96 cover I found..(418 bucks on riffraff)

I hope I can just band-aid fix this for a while... I won't have the option to pull this motor for quite some time so if I do need a new cover, the Bronco will be sitting probably for the rest of the year....

 

Well I think I'm going to slap some JB water weld on it and see how that goes.

I did end up picking up a 96 motor without the turbo and missing an injector for 450 bucks. I have spare turbos and injectors lying around as well. I ended up lending my compression tester setup out before I got station in Wyoming so I had to order that mightyvac glow plug adapter again, but it should be here tomorrow. The guy I bought it from had it for years and said he bought it off someone else who said the motor was good to go. He didn't need the whole motor, just the turbo and injector though so the motor has been sitting indoors for a long time. Since the 96 timing coves are 418 dollars, I figured 450 for a whole motor wouldn't be too bad!

If the JB water weld doesn't work, then I'll just swap covers. I'm hoping this new motor is in good shape, because then I could start the 7.3 swap in my shortbed single cab F-150 I just fixed up. I'll just take the Bronco's timing cover somewhere to get welded up if the water weld doesn't work.

 

Good luck Bubba! I hope that guy at least covered the motor if he just let it sit outside!

 

Thanks Glenn! He said it was indoors for the whole time he had it. I took the valve covers off and initial inspection seemed good. There were two spare glow plugs on the passenger side loose under th valve cover where he took an injector solenoid out, and the rocker arm was loosened (I think he did it to help get out the solenoid but not too sure.)

The motor cranks over by hand so it's not frozen either.

The compression tester adapter I bought only works with the mightyvac compression tester which I don't have and won't be able to be delivered soon. So, I took my old harbor freight tester and welded a spare quick connect fitting to the end of the mightyvac adapter, then globbed JB weld over my welds and the hose just in case there were any small leaks. I hope I didn't mess up the hose too bad by getting it hot next to the welds, so I'll see what happens with it!


I'll have to wait a bit for the JB weld to cure, so I'll probably get back to this later tonight.

 

Haha well my welds didn't hold at all between the two pieces so I have to get a different adapter...

The starter that came with the engine may be too weak, so I swapped it with another starter I had lying around. I think I'll have to get some thicker gauge wires to try and jump the motor because it doesn't quite seem to be turning over as fast as I think it should. I'm just using some wimpy gas station jumper cables to connect everything so that's probably the problem.

 

So... only waited like a year to start this daunting project. I'm moving back to AZ soon since I'll be discharging from active duty! I will probably go reserves but I'd like to use my engineering degree now which should suit me much better than enlisted pay, so I don't think I'm re enlisting and figured I'd take the Bronco home while on leave this next week! Plus, Cheyenne winters last like 14 months a year so I can't wait to not deal with that (okay not 14 but it's legitimately about 7 or 8 months of winter here.)

I tried to drop the oil pan without pulling the transmission... I don't know if the F250 TTB setup is a different geometry but there was absolutely no way to lift the motor up enough to have room to drop the pan in the Bronco. I still used a one piece gasket from Moroso since I have my other two 7.3s on engine stands and didn't want to buy a 3rd stand to put this motor on.

Here's hoping things go well back together! My replacement cover isn't cracked thankfully. I don't know why my old cover cracked because I was pretty careful to not mess it up... maybe the previous owner had it cracked and it just got worse over time. The crack was really damn hard to see, even up close holding the cover, but it's definitely cracked.

 

Nice to see you back brother.

 

Thanks man!

I thought I was going to have a good day... ran into some problems and managed to fix them all too... almost.

I got everything back together and running. The truck started really fast for having the oil drained from the system. I purchased some new headlights to put on while I had everything off and the wiring and instructions were not clear, so I had to do some fiddling around to get it right.

After getting that all correct, I tried starting the truck again, but the batteries were almost dead, so I charged them. After that, the truck started and died right away, so I checked under the hood and saw oil everywhere. It ended up being an hpop line burst going to the passenger side head. Thankfully, I had a spare one on the other motor, so I swapped them and checked everything again.

It drove great, I took a long drive around town and seemed to have no problems. I filled up with diesel and all seemed fine too. Then, when I got home, I parked in the garage and did a last check for leaks and noticed a stream coming down the rear of the pan.

It ended up being the new oil pan gasket was ever so slightly too big, which pushed a bolt from the TTB into the bottom of the pan....... I now have to find a way to fix this hole on the pan. I really hope I don't have to pull the motor again.............






Does anyone have any advice on how to go about fixing it? I'd REALLY rather not pull the motor all over again. If I have to, then I suppose it is what it is, but I'd rather try some other fixes first. Maybe they make nylon wedges I can shove up there with RTV, and have it press itself into place? Or maybe I can lift the motor high enough to tap a plug into that spot, and get a shorter bolt and nut that is sticking up in the first place.



Edit: I did some reading, maybe I can get enough clearence to clean that area okay, then slap some JB weld on it? I'd have to still get a shorter bolt and nut from the TTB, but apparently people have had decent success with JB weld.

 

Dam that sicks dude.
maybe loosen the engine mounts and dent the oil pan and fix with JB weld or FoMoCo TA-31 sealant?

 

That's what I'm going to try and attempt! I got back from leave this Sunday, and I was busy all this week, but I took two more weeks of leave so I can get this house ready for sale and fix my truck! I tried lifting the motor up today with my hoist..... the hoist ended up failing on me. The frame that holds the boom cracked before it lifted the motor. I over abused that 1 ton harbor freight hoist by over extending the boom on way too many occasions so I'm actually very impressed with how long it help up. It was a great hoist, but now I have to get a different (preferably longer boom and heavier duty) hoist.

I got one from O'Reilly's coming in this Tuesday that is a 2 ton hoist and looks to be significantly longer. It didn't mention boom length though, which is frustrating, but I think it will be a much heavier duty hoist. Hopefully I can lift the motor without removing the transmission this time!

 

So I ended up putting my new hoist together and trying it out. It's awesome! It's has about 2 feet more reach on the last setting, which is 1/2 ton, while my old hoist was at 1/4 ton at that range. I had to over extend my old hoist where I imagine it was only rated at 250 pounds based on the markings when moving my motor before.... so I'm glad it's held up so well from years of heavy abuse.

This new hoist though can reach in the engine bay at a 1 ton rating and still have about 6" of room on the front end when it's fully installed! I shouldn't be having any more hoisting issues.


As for the hole, I managed to jack the engine up enough without unbolting the transmission, I just had to take off the downpipe. I believe I should be able to patch the hole with either JB weld, Motorcraft RTV, or (what I'm going to attempt first) a universal oil pan plug with RTV around the edge.

I just have to reverse the one bolt coming up through the TTB axle so the bolt head is on top and the excess threads are sticking down... I don't know why I didn't do that when putting it back in. I physically held it before and said it may be an issue, but when I went to put it back in I just figured I'd put it in the way it came out.... oh well!

 

Dam, glad the new hoist is working out.
It's little things like that you give it a pass and in the end bite you right on the ***, i had my fair share of those, don't let it get to you just shrug it off and save it in the memory jar for future references

 

Haha yeah. Either I can get away with what I did to fix it now, or I'll have to pull the motor again. Overall, it's not really THAT big of a deal. I could get a new pan (or take one of my older pans off my other 7.3's sitting in the garage), and swap them again. Or maybe just try welding the hole shut instead so that I won't have to purchase another 100 dollar gasket on top of the pan purchase.

It's just unfortunate that this happened when we're getting ready to try and list our house on the market so we can move back to AZ once I'm out of the Air Force.



For the patch I tried, the universal plug wouldn't sit level on the hole. https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds I cut down the thread quite a bit, then cut down the arm that grabs on the inside of the oil pan. I barely had enough clearance to get the plug in there, but I did, and it started grabbing. I believe the oil pan baffle was in the way for the thread to sit straight up and down however. I couldn't tell if the plug sealed all around the hole (because it was tightening down at an angle due to the thread hitting the baffle inside the pan), so I globbed a ton of the Motorcraft RTV (which I bought for the oil pan in the first place before buying the one piece gasket). It looked fully sealed, but I have yet to try it.

When I lowered the motor down, the plug is getting squished up against the pan, so maybe the tight clearance in this situation will help me by keeping that plug wedged against the pan until the next time I have to pull the motor. My batteries keep dying, I think it was due to the corrosion on my old fuel sending unit, which randomly turned the fuel pump on even when the truck was off. My batteries are still under warranty, but I have to keep charging them before starting the truck!

I'll find out after my wife and I get some food if the plug situation is holding! It's definitely not the most ideal situation, but if it lasts me a year or two, I'll have enough time to settle back home and have a garage where I can work on it and not worry about moving!

 

So I got a chance to drive it today and it seems like the patch I did is holding up. I feel like it should be good until I need to pull the motor again! No more coolant leaks, and no more oil leaks! It's nice to not have to worry about anything leaking anymore.