The story begins about 1 month ago when I noticed oil dripping from the bell housing of my '99 F250 SD. Since it was coming out of the bellhousing I took it to the dealer and told them it appeared that hte rear main seal had crapped out. They yanked the ZF 6spd out to investigate and the mechanic said it was the trans input shaft seal, not the rear main. Since he was already in there I asked him to go ahead and replace all of the clutch components too. I bought the truck with 36k miles on it in March of '02 and didn't know how hard the original owner worked it so I figured the clutch and associated pieces should be retired while we were at it. Total bill was just shy of $1300.

3 days later I notice oil running from the bellhousing again and take it back to them. This time I asked to watch while they dye tested the motor and they agreed it was the rear main seal(warranty!!). Most of the money was refunded,except for the cost of the clutch parts, which I thought was more than fair.

The next day I get home and see oil dripping AGAIN. I take it back and they dig further and say that the turbo pedestal was leaking and repair it under warranty. No cost to me other than fuel for the 3 100 mile round trips to the dealer I've made, the clutch, the $100 warranty deductible and a total of 6 days without my truck. Not a big deal.......yet.

Next morning I hop out of truck when I get to work I take a peek under the truck to see if it's leaking, and sure enough it's dripping oil at an alarming rate. I get back in, drive straight to the dealer and tell them it's leaking....again. They hook me up with a rental and I go back to work. Two days later they call and say the oil pan gasket went bad and it is now ready for me to pickup and there is no charge.

That evening I go to leave my buddy's house and the truck was hard to start and ran like ##### for about 10 minutes, I figured the glow plug relay bagged out and went home. I go to start the truck the next morning and again it runs like ##### and sounds like it's only hitting on 6 or 7 cylinders. Soooooo, I head back to the dealer again and I'm pissed off now. The truck runs like ##### the entire 50 miles to the dealer and idles horribly at stoplights. I ask them to please keep damn thing until they are sure it is fixed. They call me a couple of times over the next 1 1/2 weeks and tell me that they have replaced 3 injectors, all of the valve springs, all of valve seals, and damn near everything else in both cylinder heads. They also tell me that the oil leaks were a symptom of crankcase pressurization due to the weak exhaust valve seals allowing gases in to the valve covers. They also say that the pressurization was causing bubbles to form in the oil and thats why it was running so badly. All of this and the truck only has 49k miles on it, scary to say the least.

I got it back today and it does seem to run much stronger and smoother, except at idle. The shop foreman tells me that it may take more than a few miles to work all of the air out of the HP oil and fuel lines and to drive it for awhile and see what happens. He also adds that PSD's tend to idle roughly in cold weather sometimes and that I should cosider using 10-30w truck oil instead of 15-40w which is what I'm currently using. Does this sound correct?

After all of this I must say I don't trust the truck like I used to. Hopefully they have made all of the necessary repairs this time so I can get on with life. If not I think it's time to ask Ford to replace the motor entirely, not just continue to pick away at the current one.

Has anyone ever had or heard of a PSD with less than 50k miles needing a complete top end rebuild like this? Is there anything else I should keep an eye on? I don't work this truck hard and am hoping this was just a fluke occurence rather than a common one. I would love to hear from those of you that have experience with these motors. I love the truck but I'm not to happy with it right now. I can say that Ford has lived up to it's end of the deal so far and I have no complaints about there customer service.

 

the first question is how hard did the original owner work her?
i still think it could be a fluke.
i had 543k miles on a 94 f350 psd with no major mech problems
hope all is well and ford stays behind the problem.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 05-Dec-02 AT 00:03 AM (EST)]>the first question is how hard did the original owner work
>her?
>i still think it could be a fluke.
>i had 543k miles on a 94 f350 psd with no major mech
>problems
>hope all is well and ford stays behind the problem.


I don't know what the guy towed with it, if anything. I'm pretty sure it had a good sized pop-up on it. It looks, and ran like it was very well taken care of. Hopefully it will stay healthy from now on.

The only towing I do is a 1750lb car trailer with a 2200lb rock crawler on it. I would think that's not enough to really put a load on this truck.

 

Well,
On the 9th trip back to the dealer after having several more oil leaks Ford has told the dealership to replace the motor because they found lots of metal in the motor oil.
Does anyone know if the motors Ford uses as replacements come as a complete assembly with the HP oil pump, injectors, and turbo already installed? I hope so, I would hate to think that they would try to use potentially damaged components on a new motor.
Has anyone else had a motor replaced under warranty for this kind of thing?

 

I have never seen a dealer fix the problem right the first time. It is a sad state of affairs to say the least.



Reggie

 

I can't say for an absolute fact but I am pretty sure you will get a complete engine from Franklin Power and even though it will probably say "reconditioned" on it, it is in fact a new engine, complete with high pressure system, new injectors and a new turbo.
My guess is the oil leak was neither the transmission nor the rear engine seal. It was probably something leaking in the valley (turbo pedistal maybe), and running out the drain hole at the right rear of the engine, down inside the bell housing and onto the ground. If so, this all could have been avoided. I hope you have better luck with this engine installation than you have had up to this point (I am assuming you are using the same dealership which employs the same morons who screwed it up in the first place).
If, by chance, they are going to use your old turbo, have them remove the turbo from the aluminum pedistal and helicoil the (2) 10 mm bolt holes that hold the turbo to the pedistal. Then check the stock bolts that hold it on -- they should be 10.9 grade or higher. If they are not, throw them away and get some that are. The torquing up of the engine on the rubber motor mounts has a tendency, over time to work that turbo joint loose (those 10 mm holes in that aluminum pedistal should have been helicoiled from the factory).

 

the company i work for has several psd superdutys f-450s i work in the shop. i know you dont wont to here this but a normal person cant afford to own one of these engines. i dont wont to hurt anyones feelings but thats the way it is from my tax bracket ...... ok the leaks i have seen are as follows always an o-ring on the high pressure oil pump eiter on the high pressure oil line or the plug on the back of the pump. my good friend is a ford diesel tech. he said ford warranty says you cannot replace the oring it could leak again. so they have to replace the high pressure oil pump. this is to cover their butts. he also says that if he replaces the oring and the truck comes back he has to fix it or replace thepump for free meaning he doesnt get paid to fix it.ok we have had good luck repacing the oring with a good high pressure oring. i can tell you how to find the leaks if anyones interested. p.s. i only go to ford to buy good parts not to use the service department my 2 cents

 

I can understand why it took them awhile to isolate the trouble since the leaks kept coming from different places. I just want to make sure that the new motor has a new HP oil pump and turbo since metal was found in the motor oil. Evidently that's very critical on my early '99 because I have heard it does not have a screen on the intake of the HP oil pump like the later trucks do. I can only imagine what kind of havoc it would cause to have metal particles in the HP oil system.
On a positive note the dealer (Burt Ford in Denver CO)has stood behind their vehicle and continued to troubleshoot it while providing me with a loaner when I needed it. Their customer service has been great and for that I commend them. That is also why I will buy my new 6.0l PSD SD from them when I'm ready. Not once did they give me a hard time or try to say the truck was abused or anything like that.
Hopefully this will all be history in a week or two and I can once just enjoy driving the collest truck I have ever owned!

Thanks for the input guys!

 

I got to speak with the service manager today and he said the motor does come with the HP oil pump and turbo already installed. He said he is also replacing the intercooler just to be safe even though there isn't anything wrong with the current one and it wasn't full of oil.
The motor arrived at the dealer today and they are already working on it so, hopefully, I should be set within a week or so. We'll see what happens..........

 

Well I got the truck back with a new motor, new turbo, and new intercooler and it runs like a champ. The service manager dug in to the service records for my truck and found that the previous owner had similar troubles with oil leaks and running rough. It had been in for warranty work at least 8 times before I bought it.
Navistar said they believed there was some "casting flash" left in the block that was being released periodically and causing the weird oil leaks and rough running. It turns out that the turbo had been severely damaged as well and probably wouldn't have lasted another 100 miles.

Although the entire a process took almost 2 months, I am glad that Ford stood behind their vehicle and replaced everything in question. The best part is that I've got a nice new mill under the hood that should run for a LONG time. I love my truck!


'99 F250 PSD 6SP 4X4 ESOF SUPERCAB LONG BED

 

I don't know why "casting flash" would cause oil leaks but, who knows?
The new 6.0L engine has all (most) of these problems engineered out (they'll be replaced by other problems, we just don't know what they are yet). It uses a modular oil pan gasket instead of RTV and all the high pressure fittings are enclosed inside the engine, so if they do leak it won't make a mess on your driveway. It is a very nice package.