Hello all,
I have one of those silly questions about an odd noise that came from my engine yesterday. I am driving a 2000 F250 SuperDuty, 7.3 Turbo Diesel.

K, I was driving down the road doing about 25mph and then proceeded to excelerate to 35mph at a very normal rate. A couple of seconds into my excelleration the engine, for the shortest second, stuttered and made a metallic cluck sound, then continured to run as normal. The time that it stuttered the engine was completely silent. This silent period could not have lasted for more then .1 seconds. It was just long enough to recognise that it wasn't making noise.

Has anyone ran into this condition before? The truck has 84k miles on it right now and has never done this before. A friend of mine, who doesn't drive a diesel, said "maybe your engine was in just the right configuration to allow a small air leak into your compression chamber, causing the engine to stutter?" and continued to say " I am just guessing about this, but I would just pay attention to see if it does it again. Sometimes engines will make weird noise from time to time, as long as it doesn't do it consistently, you should be ok."

Does anyone have any input on this? I am reluctant to bring it to have it looked at for a noise that could be a one time thing.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

-Tuna62

 

First, I would have it checked for codes. If you show codes then the shop will know what to do to fix it. If they came up with none, I believe you would not get a thing accomplished by taking it to the shop to have it checked. In most cases if the problem is not occuring at the time of inspection by the shop they will come up with nothing. Either that or the shop will start fixing/replacing things that are not necessary. Something like what you discribed happened to me once awhile back ad it turned out to be the "Cam Shaft Position Sensor". If this is your problem you should show a code of PO344. Best of luck.

 

Thanks alot for the advice. If I was to get this code and had to replace your mentioned sensor, how much would that cost me?

-Tuna62

 

I would also lean toward the CMP.

 

Tuna, I would go to the International dealer, it runs around $90 there. Ford will be a lot higher. You might check on ebay also.


Steve

 

Tuna62,

If as I mentioned, the "Cam Shaft Position Sensor" is indeed your problem and you are even somewhat mechanical, then you can replace it yourself and save the labor cost. It's located in the front of the engine and takes either a 10mm or a 11mm socket to remove the only bolt that holds it in place. Pop it out, put a little greese on the o ring of the new one, pop it back in and put the bolt back on.

The cost for the sensor is $180 at the Ford dealership. Part number F7TZ-12K073-A. As mentioned by 01stroker above the cost at International will be around $90, but it has a different part number that I do not know. I bought one on e-bay for $75 to keep as a spare. Good idea because these sensors are nortorious for failing. It can leave you stranded because quite often when they fail, your truck will die and either not start or start then die again.

Again, this may or may not be your problem. This is just a "best guess" on my part from the information you provided. Have the codes pulled. If you find this to indeed be your problem and need a diagram of the sensors location, e-mail me and I will e-mail one to you. Good luck!