I second what Keith said. I have seen it for years from back when I worked at a speed shop, guys see a vehicle (in this case a truck), have no real mechanical knowledge or experience and want the biggest cam. HP, carb, injectors, etc... they can get. They have no concept as to how parts function together and basically build something that will never come close to their perception they have envisioned. When you don't have the skills or knowledge building anything becomes expensive. Post your location as stated (so someone can offer help), do a lot of research and then make a decision. I know a lot of people post HP numbers and desires but this engine is designed to be a torque monster, torque is what moves a vehicle not HP. If you are rich (which it does not sound like you are) then break out the "Buckzooka" and stockpile ammo because that is the road you will going down without skills and knowledge. I wish you the best of luck but don't jump in the deep end of the pool if you can't swim.

As to the blow-by issue with your truck there are a several things that could cause that some of which could be a bad valve, bad rings, bad piston, etc... Take it somewhere else of better yet start building experience, study here and elsewhere and then do the work yourself.

Good luck.

I'm in grand junction colorado also I do understand that I could really muck myself and my truck up if I'm not careful. Which is why I've been asking so many questions before I begin to do anything. So what are the things that I could check for myself that could be causing blowback?

Lots of things cause blowby. Tell us about it. Maybe I missed it, but tell us how it runs. What caused you to think something is wrong? What exactly did the shop say? How does it start when cold? How does it start when hot? If possible, expand on the oil blowing out the dipstick. Do you have lots of crackcase pressure when you remove the fill cap on the valve cover?

Any other issues? Have you had the valve covers off yet to visually inspect the injector o-rings, glow pugs, rocker arms, and push rods?

I totally get it if you just want to go for it all and build an engine right off the bat no matter what. Actually that would be cheaper than building it a little at a time. But it is also a much more intense learning curve. But a nice stock engine will do pretty good for ya with some single shots and tuning. You might not need that race engine. It's all going to depend on your desires and pocketbook.

There's a couple guys on another forum who are kind of going through where you are starting from and in the end they realized too late they kept throwing good money after bad and were in it even deeper. Not saying that's the case here, just saying again...be careful! Having help to do the labor yourself is a great start!

The truck starts great cold or hot but blows out lots of purple grey smoke even when idling. If I take of the oil refill lid you can feel pressure coming up and even see some grey smoke coming out. If I run down the road the dipstick ends up getting pushed up about an inch and oil starts bubbling out. I have to constantly fill new oil and no i haven't done anything to the truck yet the mechanic said he came to that conclusion because that's the only thing that made sense. I initially knew there was a problem because while driving the truck home it died and after getting out the entire left side was covered in oil. I had accelerated and when I did it blew all the oil out the dipstick.

I took my truck to a guy who has a solid rep around here for power strokes. especially the 7.3 and 6.0. After talking to him I got the warm and fuzzy because he knew what he was talking about. After I got my truck back I started finding several things that suggested he didn't put as much time into my truck as he should have to fix it properly. I've had to go back and re fix everything he did. I've found a couple of pens with his business name on it, and a couple of tools through out the engine compartment, and things that were broken and put back together with zip ties and duct tape.

Wow, that throws all kind of flags up for me, did you test drive the truck prior to purchase? Just asking.

Just about everything that Keith and I mentioned can be checked by you. It just takes some time invested in reading, watching videos, and acquiring tools to perform the test. There are several members in CO so may be someone can come to your assistance as long as you fridge is filled with beer :-drink.

Is your doghouse (left valve cover breather to turbo intake hose set-up) hooked up properly or even at all. Problem could be it is not and that is pressurizing your crankcase. Check simple things first.

Your new on here so pictures might not work very easy but they would tell us if things are normal under the hood or not. Give it a try.

Ok and yes I did test drive but I bought it in Arizona and drove it back to Colorado I was about 300 miles into the trip when it did it. And I will try some pics I just had knee surgery so taking new ones may be difficult but I think I have some on my phone.

That is good news to me, that it took 300 miles to do what it did. It could be something as simple as the breather system plugged or partially plugged and that driving it for that long of time allowed crankcase pressure to build to the point of spewing. My guess it it will be something simple, but very rarely I try to be an optimist.

Good luck on the knee recovery.

I suggest a compression test.
Without hard measurements, all we can really do is guess.

Blowby does NOT have "lots" of causes.
It has 1.
It is a descriptive name for a symptom.
The symptom is combustion gasses(read compression) blowing by the rings/piston.

The causes for the symptom include:

Broken rings
Cylinder wear/scoring
Incorrect ring gap
Hole/crack in a piston

And thats about it.

To give you an idea how bad what you describe sounds...

The engine I'm currently rebuilding had less than 100psi compression when tested.
Pretty much a dead hole.

The blowby was pretty intense... but it was not enough to blow the dipstick out of its home.


What a coincidence that it too was an Arizona truck before it moved to Texas.

Ok so is everyone under the agreement that a compression test is first?

Chris,
A defective crankcase vent system will also cause crankcase pressure to build as the air below the pistons gets compressed on the downstroke and needs to have escape routes and when it doesn't it finds its own through seals, past rings and hopefully in this case out the dipstick tube. Your examples are also causes but I am trying to be optimistic and if he has a dead hole I hope he would feel it.

Hows the rebuild coming?

I have yet to do anything as I am still bedridden from surgery but does anyone have a link to the tools I need to run a compression test

So far pretty smooth. Im in money saving mode to purchase all the parts going into the build.


An easy way to check for a blocked ccv on a stock configured engine would be simply remove the intake boot from the filter box to the adapter mounted on the bracket and then remove the boot between adapter and turbo. With the engine running (having taken care to remove anything from the area the compressor wheel might try to consume) look at the quirky little doo dad sticking up from the bottom, and see if you see blowby gasses/smoke exiting said port.

For compression testing i use a harbor freight diesel compression test kit(the cheap red case one) and a harbor freight grease hose as a glow plug port adapter. To connect the grease hose to the compression test rig quick connect... i used a 1/8npt to 1/8npt female coupler. So dont get the grease hose with the big fitting...

You are right, I should have said crankcase pressurizing. I suspect everyone knew what I meant.

Let me as a question to everyone though...has anyone ever seen a glow plug break to where there's nothing left of it in the hole? Just wondering.

When the truck is cool and just started, flip the oil cap upside-down on the fill spout and see if it hovers or pops up. Check your Crank Case Ventilation system. You can have a kinked hose, a plugged "filter", or a modification to it that prevents it from venting altogether (a used modded truck can have weird stuff done to it). This could be a simple matter of the oil dipstick tube or the dipstick itself being the wrong length, and overfilling is taking place. How does the degas bottle look - any oil, fuel, or soot in there?

A compression and leak-down test is in order for a mystery engine, before making your next plan. I did one thing right from the beginning - I bought a scan tool and the Ford Powertrain Control and Emission Diagnostics (PC/ED) manual. I didn't do a compression test until all of my mods were in, and that was a mistake - but I lucked out and my compression is "in the green".