My truck is a 2000 7.3 auto with 205,000. I have had it for 10 years but just recently did some mods, the 6637 air intake, a RR FRx, and a switch to 5w40 syn. On the highway ride today, the truck pulled fine but was noticeably louder when I stepped into it. Seems almost like there is an air leak somewhere and air is getting into the fuel. I also installed a new lift pump with slightly higher volume than the OEM..
The only thing I can think of is that I might have installed the spring wrong in the FRx. Might be bent? I would like to be able to check fuel pressure at all times and am interested in anyone's thoughts or opinions on what I should try next. One option is to put it ALL back to stock in the realization that Ford engineers knew best. These mods have made zero difference.

Installed a new fuel filter yesterday and noticed these gooped up lines. Could wastegate be failed?

 

So first off the waste gate is fine. It's inside the passenger side of the turbo. Those hoses are the waste gate solenoid hoses going to the waste gate actuator. If they are leaking it's a win/loose scenario. Good that they aren't supplying enough pressure to open the waste gate, bad that they are leaking boost to atmosphere

Your profile says SC, so I know you don't have the scrutiny the bunch in CA does, but I have no clue as to your state's inspection process. If it's lax, ditch the red/green hose permanently. Or remove it between inspections.

Put vacuum caps on the hose ports off the spider, and zip tie them on. Put a large head short screw into the black intake hole. Next remove the waste gate actuator and do the "7 turn mod" I went 9-10 on mine. You're shortening the waste gate rod length a little. It will keep the waste gate closed longer and go off the tighter spring pressure of the waste gate actuator to open it

That will give you the best free bang for the buck while you are focused on waste gate stuff and you will be able to feel the difference, and if you have gauges it will be oh so obvious of the improvement. The turbo will be fine without the waste gate beginning to open at 5psi liike a stock setup does. The hoses enable the stock programming to start opening the waste gate just as the turbo is actually starting to gain ground doing it's intended job. To make boost

The warranty period is way over, it's only there to try and buy Ford dealerships potential warranty claims for 5 years of whatever stupidity people could try and throw at it to try and sue. "My coffee is too hot after I demanded it that way and I intentionally spilled it on myself, give me $10million..."

Your truck will love making over 14psi of boost which is about the max most of us would see being 1000% stock. Most of us see 14# while towing on flat ground nowadays. Once you hit 28ish # the PCM will throw a quick service engine light on hard pulls, but that's pretty rare without a tune. Most tunes cancel the SES light. The engine will be perfectly fine till you're hitting 40#, but at that point you're more likely to require a lot of mods to even get past 32#

Have you performed a boost leak test? Any leak is hurting your performance, and more importantly, mpg.

How are you monitoring your fuel pressure? Which spring did you go with on the FPx? I'm running the middle one

 

I see in another post that you said it gets louder and sluggish on hills now after all the other work you also did at the same time. I'm wondering what fuel pump you put in. And why you changed the pump in the first place. Usually they'll either work or they don't. When they don't put out the right psi it's usually because the internal screen is plugged up. Which points the finger to the in tank screens. Did you put in a new Bosch?

 

Thanks for responding. . . and not laughing at my ignorance. As I understood it, Ford originally sold the HD's without a wastegate controller and as they improved the brand, it was like "oh, and we have improved performance by installing a wastegate controller". Yeah, sure. . . . like that complicated variable vane turbo on the 6.0.
SC does not have vehicle inspections and I doubt they will. I wanted the 2000 year version because of simplicity, so I am very interested in your advice.
My problem is that I do not have a good trustworthy shop around that knows the 7.3. You guys are it.

I have never tested boost or fuel pressure. (no knowledge as to how). I understand the mechanics of the fuel bowl setup and the HUEI injector pressure. Pretty cool concept. When I romp down on it now, I get some pull but its grandma going to the mailbox performance. Is the increased noise level from the injectors when I romp on it telling me they simply are not getting enough fuel and getting air mixed in? Not sure how to set up a fuel pressure rig but I think it would be excellent as a monitoring tool. I used the spring RR advised, the gold one. I could have muckked it up though on the install bending it or something.
Boost: not sure whats going on. The boots and hardware are OEM and cruddy looking. I ought to just replace everything. I did tighten down the fittings when I installed the 6637 intake. I used to have a turbocharged Piper Lance airplane, a 300hp turbo with no wastegate. You took off with about 2/3 available power but you had 30inches of pressure. Simple. Wish I could have that situp on the truck. Oil: I just wanted to try the 5w40 but thus far, no benefits. Could the oil be foaming inside and causing injector pressure issues due to it being too thin? Might just go back to 15w40.

Fuel pump- I replaced it "just because. 24 yo and 200,000 miles. I am still in airplane ownership mode, replace BEFORE it breaks. Plus the OWM pump was making noise and taking a tad longer to build up the fuel bowl pressure. The new one smooth quiet and quick. This is what I put on.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c...uel+pump&pos=1

 

I have always wanted to drop the tank and do those tank mods, just have not been able to. As I understand it, that lift pump is not so much about pressure but flow. The HUEI does all the grunt work, correct? So, the flow path goes to the bowl first, then through the FRx. Perhaps I screwed up the spring install and bent it. The fuel inputs on the engine seem tight and are not leaking. I used that goop that came with the fittings.

 

Regarding this "7 turn mod" why not just totally bypass the wastegate? I thought the only reason for it was to prevent an overpressure/overboost to prevent a boot from blowing off. True?

 

Responses above in red.

Bypassing the wastegate? I assume you’re meaning to lock it down? The gate opens to relieve pressure. Tightening the rod as Wes mentioned will cause the gate to stay closed more often and require more pressure to push the spring open. I guess you could call it a partial bypass if you’re using the terminology as I think.

Edit: I want to reiterate, the 6637 filter is a noisy sucker.

 

The 6637 air filters permit more noise, so I wonder if that's the extra noise you're hearing. Put the oem stock air box on to confirm. The other place you could here air/boost noise coming from is the CAC boots between the spider and intake plenum given it's a common leak with the thin weak metal of the plenum, and the crappy worm clamps. I would look at just installing a set of good 5 layer CAC boots with the stainless steel T-clamps. To fix the thin weak metal on the intake plenums, install a set of Riffraff plenum inserts so you can get them tight and leak free.

The stock fuel bowl filter setup is good about keeping air out of the fuel being fed to the injectors. The quick disconnect on the back of the fuel pump is notorious for letting air into the system given they close under pressure better than on the suction side. You can...and should...remove the black flexible line between the frame mounted hard line from the tank to the back of the fuel pump, and install fuel grade hose in there with a screen filter in between to keep crud out of the fuel pump...most use something like a Baldwin BF7725 or NAPA Gold 3007. This is definitely a must need after getting rid of the in tank screens, but do it now.

The only way to get rid of the wastegate is to either weld it up to keep it from opening, or wire the actuator arm up so it can't move. You'll be fine with doing the 7-turn mod...especially on a somewhat stock setup.

For the gauges, the things that can't be monitored through the trucks PCM and read through something like Forscan, would be fuel pressure and EGT. Boost can, but it's better to just have a gauge...same for the transmission temperature. I am fixing to install Boost, EGT, fuel pressure, and possibly transmission temperature if I can find a good place for that fourth gauge. Since you're mainly interested in fuel pressure, there are 2 ports on the fuel bowl for this. On the back of the fuel bowl where the drain valve is, there are 2 fuel pressure ports. The upper one on the driver side is pre filter, and the lower one on the passenger side is the post filter. I just installed the post filter setup on the Excursion. It probably won't get gauges, but I installed Diesel-O-Rings 90* adapter along with the schrader valve assembly to be able to connect a temporary gauge for monitoring when doing an oil change and/or trouble shooting. I will be installing the other 90* adapter in my F350 when I figure out the gauge situation.

 

Thanks for the info. I screen shotted it all and will save in my fix file.
At first, things ran kind of quiet after adding the FRx. Truck just seems that it is not getting enough fuel now.
IMHO, the 6637 brought nothing of value.

 

Thanks, great info. When it makes its final shift at around 40mph it is quiet. When I romp down on it, lots more noise from the injectors but a weak pull.

 

Sounds like you have a good plan. On my old airplane, the oil pressure gauge was an actual copper line running into the cockpit. The pilot knew it was correct and could see instantaneous fluctuations. Fuel pressure, nada. Injectors either worked or not. Our trucks are a lot more complex.

 

Is it possible for a turbo to actually fail and the wheel turn very slow or not at all?

 

It’s difficult to say. Hard to pin it to lack of fuel without a gauge to confirm. Boost leaks and uppipe leaks may feel similar IMHO.

I agree. Have ran them before but am not a fan.

Are you sure it’s injector noise? Is it rattling?

How much fuel is in the tank?
Could be sucking air inside the tank. Or it could be related to you recently working on the suction side at the pump. Checking for foam from the fuel bowl drain during a key cycle may help determine.

Is it possible you left a rag or something in the intake?

I wouldn’t say it’s impossible for the turbo to be bad, but based on your recent service items I would be looking at those first. You can pull the intake off the turbo inlet and check for endplay of the shaft.

 

On another note, there is an unfortunate common failure point inside the tank, known as the pickup foot. It can break off when it gets brittle from age and then you'll run out of fuel by sucking air at 1/4 of tank. If you're close to that mark now you might have a partial break and be sucking air like a straw from a cup with a split in it. Are you above a half tank to confirm that's not the problem?

With it being new to you you may want to research the "Hutch & Harpoon" mod so you can get a plan together on when you want to tackle this known problem. A lot of us do it preemptively when we see entrained air to eliminate the mixing chamber and re route the return line so it's not directly above the pickup line. Unless you live somewhere where it's really cold the mixing chamber is of no benefit and will recirculate entrained air. Its intended purpose should help prevent gelling and speed up fuel warming since you're returning engine warmed fuel to the tank right above the pickup foot.

I went with the Racor filter version of the mod cause I wanted a filter bigger than what comes on my riding lawn mower and I'm familiar with that type from farm equipment. It will hold a lot crap compared to the small filters mentioned. You don't want to get carried away with super fine micron pre pump filtration tho and starve the pump. It's not designed to suck fuel. It's intended to be gravity fed and push it. You just want it to protect the pump. The pressurized fuel bowl does the fine micron filtration


As to the FRx, it's actually on the return side of flow, it doesn't feed the motor. It regulates the pressure after it, by which spring you go with. It returns the fuel to the tank from the driver's side of the component

 

I took a lot of time and moved slow like the old guy I am. No rag left in there but for a monster 7.3L engine, the beast seems like the turbo is non existent. Again, with a manifold gauge like I had on my turbo lance, you could instantly see what was going on. I see no advantage to a wastegate controller. We ought to be able to just romp on it and go. Like a Glock pistol.