My kit comes with a dipstick oring, is this the right place for it?

 

I don't know about the dip stick oring but if the glove fits...???

The bottom left is not the thermostat gasket. Maybe exhaust? Get the proper Motorcraft thermostat, comes with a gasket.

 

No. The o-ring doesn't go there. That's a good guess though! haha I never thought of it fitting there. The dipstick tube on the 7.3L is surprisingly in two parts! Strange, right? While the engine is out, this is a good time to replace that. That's really smart they include that.
Anyway, pull out your dipstick tube and you're going to see there is just like a 1 or 2 inch section way down low into the block. When you pull that out, you'll see the o-ring.

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Oh I didn't see the post a page back. Yes, there will be an unused/ different oil cooler gasket. The one that doesn't fit, you just don't use. No worries............... Oh, hey, I didn't know that was for the van engines, big blue.
Looks like they give you a new CDR o-ring. Look at the old one, there's a match. That big one on the right, I believe. I'm drawing a blank on the left o-ring. I wonder if it's (factory/ats) turbo related?

The lower left gasket, I wonder if that is for the CDR mount?......... No, too small..........turbo oil tube drain back mount?

You'd think a guy would list and mark them for ya haha.

If you do want to replace the t-stat, it's Motorcraft #RT1049............ Not exactly something you replace as preventative maintenance, but gosh, it's so darn easy with the engine out, so. I did on my replacement engine going in the F450 but that's only because I didn't know it's condition. If I knew it was working, I doubt I'd change it. It's not that hard of a job to replace in truck.....stupid easy compared to modern engines in fact.

 

I have the tube pulled out. I see the area where it goes into the block but no obvious place an oring would go.

 

Pull the two sections of tubes apart............OH hahaha you did and that IS is where it goes. My bad, bud! Brain cramp. I don't even know what I saw when I saw it the first time, where it looked wrong hahaha. I have no excuse for that one. You got it.

 

The thermostat will be easier with the engine out. But it's not that bad with the engine installed. If it was working properly before it will probably be fine. I have a rule I try to follow, if it works , don't fix it.

And even a motorcraft thermostat can be weak out of the box. I still recommend motorcraft as they do have a two year warranty. I had to take advantage of the warranty recently as I replaced one after only one year of operation. Be sure to test your thermostat in hot water to make sure it works properly before installing. I did that on both of them. If its not within a degree or 2 of opening temperature consider returning it.

 

I have had a thermostat last for 300,000 miles, probably would have gone longer but blown head gasket caused me to repower. The old stuff can be good stuff. The one I just replaced lasted 130,000 miles. First replacement lasted about 7,000 miles. I don't know how many miles on the second one, probably about 10,000 so far.

 

No worries, you got me scrambling there wondering where else that could go haha

 

Yeah im keeping it on for now, replaced the gasket and it looked new and shiney.

Any tips on how to get this thing out without breaking it from the base? Also, is there a proper way to clean a CDR? Anything to look out for?

 

I remember when I installed the dipstick tube that I didn't use an o-ring, just cleaned the hole real well and used a glob of good rtv, I *think I remember at the time some folks recommendimg not using the o-ring, either way, i've had no problems with the straight rtv and letting it set up real good before running it.

 

Where did you place the RTV, where the dipstick meets the block?

 

Yeah, it was just a short tube adapter that went into the block, I cleaned the hole on the block real well, smeared a lot but not too much rtv on the dipstick tube itself and in the empty o-ring grove, and inserted it like that

 

I didn't know about the CDR. I've never done anything to mine. I've seen them before but didn't know what it did. LeRoy posted this I found in a search:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...r-service.html

 

Regarding this seal - do I just pull out the torque convertor by hand and this seal is right behind it? Do I need a puller? Thanks.

 

Regarding the oil pan install. I know I need to reinstall the dipstick tube but I don't have the heads or the exhaust manifolds installed yet, do those need to be in so the dipstick has somewhere to bolt onto?

The hole on the block where the dipstick is supposed to go into seems a lot smaller than the dipstick tube itself, I know this sounds dumb because that's where it's supposed to go but it seems so much narrower.