A good friend of mine recently purcased an 89' f250 4x4 w/ 200,000 miles. After getting it he replaced the glow plugs, turned up the fuel, advanced the timing, and ordered a turbo and inter cooler. A week before his turbo package from hypermax was to arrive his motor began to knock. He decided to pull the motor and tear it down. When the motor was apart we found that a glow plug had broken off and melted to the top of the piston. My question is, is this something that commonly happens? Has anyone even heard of this before? My friend has decided to rebuild the motor and it is currently at the machine shop and if anyone has any thoughts on this process or ideas I would love to hear them.

 

i bet the timing was advanced too far and melted the tip and/or he installed cheep glowplugs , u should only install motorcraft glowplugs

 

They were motorcraft plugs but you are probably right about the timming considering the fact that he bottomed out the screw on the ip.

 

...timing is adjusted by rotating the pump not with a screw, this should probably only be performed by a shop with timing equipment anyway. Theres a thin line between just right and too much. And takes more experience than most, including myself, have to accuately tune by ear.
The screw that your friend bottomed out, I assume, was the max fuel, (under a little cover on the side). This may well melt your glow plugs, as well as your pistons, if you dont have an egt gage to keep an eye on things. I would use a little more caution if you want the engine to last more than a 1/4 mile, and studying a little would help, but thats just my opinion.
dave

 

If your friend bottomed out the screw and did not back it off a coupe flats he's probably screwed it up too....

Posted before by a friend.......


You'll feel it if you bottom the screw out. Just turn lightly. 40-60deg should be no problem though. Actually, you'll still have a good amount of travel after that point, but start out right around 40-60.

The reason for not bottoming out the screw is -
When you turn the screw in you're increase the piston travel length in the pump (inside the charging chamber) Good thing? Yes, more fuel. BUT, if you turn that bugger in too far, (bottom it out) the pistons will actually have too long of a travel, and as soon as you go to WOT, they'll start to compress the fuel before the discharge ports line up with charging chamber. In a nutshell, instant hydrolock. The input shaft for the pump will shear clean off.

Don't want to scare anyone, I've just seen it happen (many times, unfortunately). Most recently was a kid at a county fair tractor pull. They hooked the tractor to the sled, he took the slack out, slowly let out the clutch and increased the throttle. As soon as he reached full fuel, the tractor instantly died. He tried to start it again, and had no smoke from the exhaust. Talking to him after the pull, I found out that he had just learned how to turn the pump up from a local shop, but they didn't tell him not to go too far with the screw. "So I thought that if you turned the screw in all the way, then that would be the maximum setting for the pump" I guess he found out the hard way.

I told him next time he wants to pull, let me know. "We've got a few ways to get a lot more fuel out of these pumps than you can by just turning that screw in."

Ken......DPS

 

Guppy, I was talking about the ip screw and the timming was advanced in a shop by a mechanic. However I do agree it was it was too much.

PLC7.3,
I did not know that if you bottom out the screw it is to far for the pump its self. If you have more info on how to get more out of the pump than just turnning in the screw than please share it, that is if its not too big of a secret. lol. By the way is 180 deg too far?

 

Everyone here says one flat at a time.

 

blake 7.3L,
DPS is a a rebuilder/hot rod diesel machine shop.
Without many dollars worth of special equipment to set the IP up, there is nothing you can do to the inside of the IP. No user servicable parts inside the IP.

A very small mistake can result in a run away engine. No way to regulate the speed, no way to stop the fuel, no way to turn the engine off. Your only hope is having a set of cutters laying on the front of the truck and cutting enough fuel lines to stop it before it self destructs. The only other way to stop a runaway is shut off the air, and that is easier said than done.

IP work is best left to the professionals that have the proper equipment and knowledge.

Adjusting the fuel screw, the only tine I will ever tell someone to go two flats is if they just installed a turbo on a NA engine for the first adjustment.
Other than that one flat or 1/2 flat at a time is about it.
180 degrees or three flats is way to much fuel for a NA motor to burn.
If it is not smoking pure black after three flats, there is something wrong with the IP already.

 

Dave,
The truck did smoke pure black, it smoked more than any cummin's I have ever seen. If you held it to the floor coming on the highway you could not see anything behind you, including the bed of the truck. However is 3 flats too much w/ a turbo & ram air?

 

That depends on how well your exhaust and ram air work and where the IP was set before the three flats.

Three flats from a NA pump setting after installing a turbo and open exhaust, you could probably do.

Not sure what a Hypermax turbo can do, ATS recommends two flats as a starting point after the turbo install.

Three flats from a 7.3 turbo setting, never going to get that much air into the cylinder
without turbo mods and head studs to keep it together.

Three flats on a NA motor, never get enough air to burn that much fuel.

Also a pyrometer and boost gauge are rather important when turning up the fuel.

Remember, black smoke is cool sometimes.
But it is also wasted fuel.
The black is from not enough oxygen present in the cylinder to completely burn the fuel. That much fuel is also hard on the rings and can be hard on the bearings because of fuel dilution of the oil.
If you have air police (EPA) in your area, they would also have a very dim and expensive view on black smoke like that if they saw it.

What kind of rebuild is he wanting to do?
How much money does he want to spend?

 

i had my pump juiced 3 flats, but backed it down to 2 1/2. 3 was just to much, and that was with no muffler on a 3 inch pipe after the turbo.

 

Dave,

He is buying a rebuild kit from Hypermax, he is getting the heads port & polished, and he has spent around $9000 (w/ turbo, intercooler, exhaust, rebuild kit, & heads (they were cracked)). The block is being bored .20 over for the new pistons and the heads are being machined for the new exhaust valves and seats. Do you have anyother suggetions on this rebuild?
P.S He also has gauges and an oil cooler.

tjc transport,

What size exhaust and type of intake are you running? Is it just aa 3" down pipe or is it 3" exhaust also and would 4" help? Or is it still just too much?

 

i run 3 inch out of the turbo to a 3 inch splitter at the back of the trans, then 3 inch pipes from the splitter to each side of the bed, into a 3-4 adapter, then 4 inch stacks out the top. no mufflers.

 

Boring a 7.3??? ahhhhhh...