The rear of a 6.0L PSD showing oil at the bottom of the rear engine cover. (see arrow) Notice there is no oil on or near the rear main crankshaft seal. This is the infamous "bell housing leak." |
Here is the close-up of the rear crankshaft oil seal of the same engine. The discoloration is baked on "assembly" grease that has melted and whipped out from behind the rear crankshaft adapter. |
Same engine, root cause of the oil leak identified. This is the sealing surface for the bed plate on the cylinder block assembly. Oil seeped through the gouges in the metal past the seal and ended up on the bottom of the rear engine cover shown directly above. |
This is another example of machining defects in the bed plate sealing surface area of a 6.0L PSD engine. The lines in the metal do not belong there. This is not repairable other than replacing the block or engine assembly. |
This was not an easy oil leak to pinpoint. The green tint of the oil in the oil cooler reservoir is caused by ultraviolet dye that is added to the oil which glows bright yellow under ultra violet light. The arrow points to the location of the leak. See the close up to the right. |
A crack in the casting allowed oil to leak under the oil cooler seal and down the back of the engine. This was a pressure leak that was hard to pinpoint because there was oil all over the top, front and rear of the engine. |
On a 7.3L Power Stroke® a common place to develop a leak is at the high pressure oil pump. The o-rings on the outlet ports tend to fail from time to time. Not shown is the pressure relief valve plug on the rear of the pump which commonly leaks as well. |
A leak from these fittings usually starts slow but when one completely lets go it usually pumps out enough oil to keep the engine from running because there is no longer sufficient oil to actuate the injectors. |
This is a camshaft position sensor (CMP) for a 6.0L Power Stroke®engine. Oil leaks from this sensor mounted on the left front of the engine often show up on the bell housing or at the front oil pump cover which can lead to mis diagnosis. The red arrows show the position of the seals on the sensor. |
There are two seals for this sensor, an inner and an outer which looks like it was cut up, however some o-rings appear eroded as if they were just coming apart. The likely cause of this o-ring failure was a lack of lubrication during installation causing the seal to roll and fracture. |
You are looking at the glow plug connector for cylinder number 7, right bank rear. The oil tracks down to the head gasket area and then the block where it travels to the rear engine cover and transmission bell housing. |
This is a 2003 6.0L Injection Control Pressure Sensor (ICP) that has failed to withstand the pressure of it's job. This caused a dripping oil leak down the back of the engine and it incredibly continued to provide an unbiased signal to the PCM despite the physical damage. |
Sometimes the HPOP fitting does not fail after separating because the rear engine cover held it in place. Unfortunately, as the engine runs this contact results in wear of the cover which will eventually crack and leak oil. |
Here is another cracked cylinder block. These cracks like the ones shown above are on the right side of the oil cooler reservoir. This time two cracks in the casting were found. |
