I have a 2001 F-250 with the 7.3L. It has 180,000 miles and the rod bearings went out on me. I'm going to do a complete teardown and rebuild while I have the motor out. Does anyone have some suggestions about what I should do while I have the motor out?

 

replace the rods with forged instead of the powdered metal ones, shot peen them if you like. Not sure if balancing the whole rotating assembly is common practice but wouldnt hurt. clean and deburr all the oil passeges and drains.

Im not sure what the diesel guys do, but thats some of what I do on my gas engines.

 

Here is what I generally do. Gasser or diesel.

First and foremost, find the reason WHY the con-rod bearings failed. Most people just sit fine with getting everything cleaned up. There could be dirt, failed part or something else to make this happen and they would not know about it! Look at the bearings and look at a chart of pictures with different symptoms and results. You can have you oil analyzed, many of the heavy truck techs send an oil sample out to see if everything is where it should be in regards to part condition inside the engine. I know Caterpillar does offer this service. Look at the crankshaft journals also. measure bores of both connecting rods and main journals in the block. Check camshaft lobe wear. Check the camshaft journals and bearing conditions. Check the rocker arms etc etc.

I get the heads, block, intake and whatever else may not be cleaned efficiently by myself or another in the parts washing bucket to a machine shop for a thorough cleaning. Since those parts are there, get them magnfluxed for cracks. Have the valves & seats checked. Clean up the turbocharger if you can (check the manufacturer for that process).

Tools besides the basics:
~Gun barrel brushes & possibly those small bendable fuzzy pipe cleaners if you can find them.
~Castrol Super clean does a pretty good job. I actualy use it to break up rusted bolts too.
~Some gloves unless you love having your skin stained with black sooty oil for a couple days.
~Scraper for carbon build up on the combustion chamber surfaces (pistons & heads)
~Outside micrometers, telescoping gauges and if you want to, a dial bore gauge.

I don't know if you have ever heard of "dusting out an engine" but what that is, it simply means 1 tablespoon of dust can destroy a diesel engine!!!

Anything in the engine, outside of the engine, look at, observe, and write down what you see and compare it to normal wear and abnormal wear. Its simple, albeit, some things can slip past you. Taking time in the observation & diagnosis department pays off

One thing about this engine is you do not have a mechanical method of opening the injectors, you have oil pressure! HEUI - Hydraulically actuated Electronically controlled Unit Injector. You don't have to worry about setting lash for the injectors which is nice. Just maintain proper oil level.

You could roam Engine builder magazine's website for more information if you like. As I stated prior, just check everything that is involved with the rebuild, be patient and KEEP EVERYTHING CLEAN!!! That means covering the parts at the end of the day with a sheet or something similar.

Hope it goes well for you.

 

Thank you. The reason the rod bearings went is because I hit some debris on the road and pierced the oil pan. I did a simple patch job that held the oil, but the damage was already done. I was planning on taking most of the internal parts to be checked at a shop near my home. Really, I'd like to increase horsepower and torque as much as I can while I have it out.

 

Well are you talking add-on performance modifications mainly? Because having things machined will dig into and use most of your budget.

 

7.3l Short Block

You could do this!

 

This is a long term project. I have a spare vehicle. I'm looking at about 6 months to do this project and plan on doing it piece by piece. Really, my budget is only limited by how many overtime hours the boss will let me work.

 

dont forget to have the oil cooler cleaned or replaced if its a high mile unit.

 

How can they do that with no core charge. I'd think that they would need good rebuildable cores to be able to continue rebuilding them.

Will an obs shortblock work in a superduty.

 

I have been trying to aquire an obs longblock for 100 dollars for a while but I can't seem to get to the guys place when his loader is running to load the engine. If I can getthis obs engine what parts can be used with the superduty.