7.3 down for count?
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7.3 down for count?
Noticed that the truck was taking longer to start (longer cranking time) thought it was cooler weather.Driving the truck on monday it started knocking along w/white smoke, stopped and turned off and had it towed to a repair place.I got a call back today with the news that #8 injector tip blew/broke off and possibly damaged the piston,head,turbo. Any thoughts or anyone hearing of an injector failing this way? I do not have a scope small enough to scope the cylinder so I know I'll have to pull the head. Also if any one out there knows where a 7.3 turbo for a 2000 f350 dually could be had I would appreciate it.
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First off you were very smart for turning it off and having it towed to the shop. I am not familier with the injector hole size on a 7.3 or the tip size but if you could get a scope that is what I would start with and you could probably visualy inspect the turbo before you buy one. Good luck I know it sucks to have something major happen like that.
Post Fiend
Joined: Mar 2007
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From: Texas
Pull the valve cover, unplug #8 injector just to be on the safe side, then start the truck and check the blowby. It's rare, but possible to blow a nozzle and burn a hole in the piston. Smoke out the oil fill tube is pretty normal in a 7.3, compression gasses are not. Unscrew the oil cap and flip it upside down on the fill tube. If it shoots the cap off at idle, it's time for a rebuild. If the cap just vibrates off, then you don't have a dead hole and it's time for more questions on how the shop came to this diagnosis.
Another option would be get an adapter for the glow plug hole and hook up a compression tester on #8. If it is worst case, Ford actually has a pretty good deal on either a rebuild kit or a short block. Wait for Ed to chime in here and you can buy one from him (he's a Ford dealer that is a sponsor here and sells parts at a discount to members. Goes by partsguyed)
Another option would be get an adapter for the glow plug hole and hook up a compression tester on #8. If it is worst case, Ford actually has a pretty good deal on either a rebuild kit or a short block. Wait for Ed to chime in here and you can buy one from him (he's a Ford dealer that is a sponsor here and sells parts at a discount to members. Goes by partsguyed)
Posting Guru
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From: Fort Worth
Rebuild the turbo yourself if it wasn't too damaged. Check the engine as stated above and rebuild it. Unless you have another 7.3 to buy to replace it, you will want to fix yours. The 7.3 is the toughest and most reliable modern diesel.
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Thanks guys!! I talked to some friends at a auto machine shop and they are all flabergasted by the the whole injector thing.They are saying get the truck back and take the head off to see what is going on.We dont know if the cyl walls were damaged,what is going on w/head,turbo,etc and even if I was going to repair the damaged cyl the motor still has to come out to replace cylinder #8 piston.
Post Fiend
Joined: Mar 2007
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From: Texas
While it's possible you need to replace #8 cylinder, it's also possible that you've just got a blown injector o-ring or something else just as simple and don't need to pull the engine at all, just replace a $2 part.
The #8 cylinder is the most likely one to throw a code during engine diagnostics. If you pull the valve cover, you'll notice Ford even stuck a different injector (AE) in the #8 cylinder to try and minimize the issues in that hole picked up by scanners and the SOTP meter.
The #8 cylinder is the most likely one to throw a code during engine diagnostics. If you pull the valve cover, you'll notice Ford even stuck a different injector (AE) in the #8 cylinder to try and minimize the issues in that hole picked up by scanners and the SOTP meter.
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got the truck back and there is a chunk of the injector tip broken/blown off talked to a good local ford guy he looked at injector and std that this is the first time in 15-20 yrs he's seen this happen.He has heard of it but not seen it.I am located in Central East Tn near Knoxville if someone has a borescope small enough to look into the cyl via the injector hole that is willing to come scope it or allow me to rent/borrow it that would save me alot of work/money.
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