dieseldoc

Working on a 97' f350 federal emissions. Harnesses looked good upon assembly, and has 8 brand new alliant injectors in it. Have P1272, 1273, 1274, and 1293 with both koeo and after buzz test. The buzz test sounded good, all 8 sound crisp and the same. Have not had time to troubleshoot yet. I am leaning toward a possible idm failure, is an aftermarket idm in the truck now. Will be looking at it tomorrow. I have an idm out of a 96' f250, want to use as a test idm if needed. I am pretty sure it will work for test but want to verify. thanks guys

the only real accurate way to get a blowby reading is on the dyno. we actually compare the reading given by the tool to the hp reading. there is a mathematical equation used to compare the two readings. I dont remember the equation off hand. Perhaps take it to your local cat dealer for the test. NXS is a pre-07 engine if I remember correctly.I know we did have some turbo trouble on our 07' engines. If you do decide to bypass turbos I would suggest bypassing the turbos individually, to verify which has the trouble.

I just put my brothers 7.3 back in his 97' crewcab. We opted to rebuild his engine instead of getting a reman. Im about 500 over the cost of the reman complete. However after hearing these stories I am glad I went the route I did with it. At least this way I know exactly what I have. . .and cant blame anybody but me if something leaks or doesnt work.

Fuel in the coolant is a fairly common issue on cat engines. It is very typical to put a set of sleeves in. The worst part of the whole job is flushing the cooling system afterwards. The original 3116 and 3176 engines had copper sleeves that required cutting threads, however the newer engines come with stainless sleeves with threads in them already. Pretty gravy job actually depending on the chassis its in.

It is funny you guys start this thread. I am at this very point in my career/life right now. I wake up and hate going to work in the morning. I just have no passion for the job anymore or desire to bend wrenches for a living. Maybe it is a phase that will pass maybey not. My dream is to be a career firefighter. When I was looking for colleges I wanted to go for a degree in fire science/technology, however the program was full. I really liked fixin cars so went for diesel instead. I dont regret my decision in the least. My philosophy is "there is no regrets, at the time it is what you wanted" Hard to decide what to do right now though. I have to provide for my wife and pay bills but would have to go to school for a certification I still need to apply. life is full of decisions I guess

I have seen this with holset turbos off cummins engines. If you set them on end for several hours, will find oil on the bench under the exhaust housing. In those turbos the design of the seal and shaft it will let the seal leak when in that position with no oil pressure. Have put them back on with no ill effects. Unless you have smoke, or oil consumption I would not worry about it.

So I stumbled across these multi-meter test leads that apply a load to a circuit when you press the button. They seem interesting, just wondering if anybody has any of these and is actively using them? If so how well do they work, reliability, etc.

So complete brain fart today. The change to 10 bolt intakes was in 96, it was the intake port size that changed with the superduty's. For refference you can put an 8 bolt manifold on a 10 bolt head, just cant go the other way. The only change in heads is the number of intake bolts, and injector sleeve material. At least according to the information I could find.

Ok guys I am overhauling a 97 7.3 for my brother. It had cylinder damage in number 7, which included some dings in the bottom of the head. I have a set of 00' cylinder heads at my shop that are ready to go. Here is the question: the 00 head have 10 bolts for the intake while the 97 heads obviously have 8 bolts for the itake. Can I put the 8 bolt manifolds on the 10 bolt heads? I would just get reman heads but he is on a bit of budget right now an at $700 a head for remans would like to help him out with mine right now if they would work. thanks for the input guys.

A buddy of mine dropped the block off and told me second hand what the machinist said. I called and talked to the machinist. He told me it is not the erosion he is worried about. The blocks are sand cast and when you machine them sometimes you will see a black dot in the cylinder wall and it will be a sand flaw in the block and than it will leak coolant. He told me the only way to be sure is to put 8 sleeves in which he doesnt have time to do. I asked him what ford reman does, and he told the reman ones he has seen all had 8 sleeves in them. Not sure what to do yet. If it was my truck I would take the chance, he will find a flaw and I need to wait for sleeves, but it is ultimately up to my brother.

I have a 97 7.3 needs an overhaul due to poor air cleaner practices. Stripped the block n took to machine shop. they said they wont warranty anything if they dont put sleeves in, because of erosion an coolant leaks into the crankcase. I looked in the jackets with digital borescope n saw no real signs of erosion. Anybody seen one leak after boring? Worth takin the chance, its my brothers truck he just bought cheap because it needs n engine.

Yes sir, I believe so. You get the virtual college cds. Then go to quickserve online and access the training portion and download a smart program guide and it will prompt you to put a certain cd number in to acess the part you need. the first group you have to complet is BETT( basic I mean BASIC electrical) and than you can go on to the engine courses you need. I would contact your local cummins distributor and they should be able to help you get set up.

We have tested an inline 6 for cummins and worked pretty well. Getting the adapters is not a quick process from what I have experienced. +1 on the training. . . . if it is warranty they will not pay unless a certified technician works on it. I dont see to many f-series chassis but plenty of mid-range. Hopefully you will get your in-line soon. Will help if I can

I have done several 7.3 idi engines(virtually the same engine). You do not need to remove the rear cover to replace the seal. You can remove the seal from the cover, i use a sheet metal screw and small slide hammer. I buy the seals from international and they come with a wear sleeve and plastic seal installer. You will most likely need the wear sleeve. Use the installer supplied and tap it in. Kind of a bear, I dont like the tool they supply but it works if your patient with it. I'm pretty sure the flywheel bolt holes are through holes. spray and dry them with brake clean. I use blue breakaway strength loc-tite on the bolts. like I said that has worked on the idi 7.3 engines for me and I am pretty sure that part of the 6.9 is the same. I love those old trucks, you cant break em. just change the oil and fuel filter and they run for ever. not power houses but they sound cool.

Food for thought here. Cooling system pressure raises the boiling point of coolant, keeping it from boiling off. If there is only 5-8 psi, half what it should be. . . . When he pulls hard it boils the coolant off creating an air pocket as Bruce stated. Now the system is not cooling as it should and overheats. Just a thought. Raidator cap is probably the cheapest and most overlooked component on these rigs I had a very similar situation with the f-550 service truck I used to drive. All looked great but the radiator was restricted inside after removing the tanks. They put a radiator in and all was well.

I am also curious about the change to ulsd josh. I do a lot of pump and injector work at the cummins dealer I currently work for. we have seen a lot of pump and injectors coming in with leaking shaft seals, etc. I asked the other guy I work with in the pump room and he said he saw the same rush of leaking seals and injector failures when we made the switch to low sulfur. I think the fuel definitely has something to do with it. I resealed the filter base and all the engine fuel lines on my 96 7.3 in 2005. now that we have made the switch to ulsd a few years ago those lines and seals have started leaking again one by one since about 2008. I personally dont think it is coindidence that things like this happen after switching the composition of the fuel or lubricant.

Alright guys I finally found the culprit. . . .Lesson learned about not test driving before starting on an issue like this.I get it all back together and my brother takes it for a drive and says it does the same thing. I take it for a test drive and it did it to me right away. Feel the levers when it does it and it's damn transfer case jumping out of gear not the transmission. I removed the linkage for the case and pushed the lever on the case to the 2wd position and test drove again with same result. So I am pulling the case tomorrow to see what is wrong in there. I am thinkg the shift fork in the t-case is not located correctly on the shaft, after rebuilding it. Thanks for the help guys. will let you know what I find in there

Thanks for the input keith. I finally got the parts to put it back together today. Will assemble tomorrow and see what happens. I sure hope it works this time. I really dont want to pull this trans again. I have never seen this issue before so want to make sure it is all correct before assembly

there are plugs on each side of the cylinder block. If I recall the starter is in the way of one of them or it may be just above. I would reccomend pulling one of the block plugs and the lower radiator hose when the engine is warm(BE VERY CAREFUL SO YOU DONT GET BURNED). Flush with clean water a couple times(fill with water and drive it a few miles so it gets to operating temp). Dont forget to have the heater on to clean out the heater core. Once satisfied it is clean put one gallon of straight coolant in(to compensate for the water you can not drain out) than fill the rest of the way with 50/50 coolant and DISTILLED water(in fact I even use distilled water to flush with). Test drive a while to get engine to temp and mix everything well. Than test freeze protection and sca level. It depends on the coolant you choose to use wether you need to add sca or not. Is it just a maintenance flush or is the coolant contaminated with something? judging by the age of the post you have already flushed but better late than never I suppose. Welcome to the dts.

Got the trans out friday night and found the dowel pins are there. however I have always had to pry the trans back off the dowels and really push to get it on the dowels, this truck however the trans just pulled right back like they arent even there. I found the pilot bearing very loose on the input shaft as compared to the new one. I also found the release arm was half worn through from the throw-out bearing. The clutch fingers too are worn considerably. I am thinking the slave cylinder is not retracting completely and keeping pressure on the throw-out bearing to the clutch all the time. I got the flywheel cut and ordered a new release arm and hydraulic set-up. Not sure however what to do about the dowel pins.....I am thinking of ordering new ones to see if they fit tighter. Anybody else run into this before?

I too jim am with you I am not good I am fussy, I told my boss the other day that I am not slow I am picky and watch for the details. He said I know thats why you get the rework jobs because it most likely wont be back. I got him to haul it in for me work on. He wanted to bring it in friday night and take it home sunday. I told him not happening drop it friday night and I will bring it back when I am satisfied it is fixed and as correct as it can be. He only made it into 4th gear one time when it popped out of gear he turned around and parked it, so hopefully it hasnt done any damage to the new trans. Will see what I find saturday morning. Will keep you up to date.

The truck is actually my brothers truck and he r&i the trans himself. I talked to standard trans and gear this morning and they to said the pilot bearing is most likely the cause as well. I didnt tell him to replace the pilot and throw out bearings(i sort of figured that was standard practice), guess I should have told him. I talked him into bringing it in to me to do the job this time. He is a great tractor technician but doesnt always pay attention to the details. will replace the pilot bearing and check things out. will let you guys know what happens from there. I didnt figure a pilot bearing would cause it to pop out of gear i could see the hard shifts thoug, but like I said I am more an engine guy than gear guy. thanks for the input.

Got problem child guys an looking for a few ideas. Workin on a 94 F-250 7.3 powerstroke and 5 spd manual. Trans jumps out of 4th gear on coast and wont go back into gear until you stop completely. original customer complaint of hopping or jerking when letting clutch out in reverse and four wheel drive not working right. Has a luk single mass converison already. I found the chain stretched in the transfer case and bad bearing. I rebuilt the transfer case, and four wheel drive working great. However still occasionally jumping out of 4th gear on coast, and happening more frequently. Trans has 270,000 mi on it, and was grinding into several gears. Suggested trans rebuild figuring synchros worn and possibly finding a worn sliding collar. Customer sent trans to standard transmission and gear for rebuild. they replaced a sliding collar, 2 shift forks and reverse gear as well as bearings, seals, and synchros. I figured for sure we had it because worn sliding collar has been the cause of this on the few trans have worked on before. put trans in and still jumps out of 4th gear on coast. Not sure where to go from here. . . all u-joints ok, motor and trans mounts ok. once the trans pops out of gear you can push the clutch in and you still can not put back into any gear until vehicle comes to a complete stop. Have checked clutch operation and all appears to be working ok. Going to call the rebuild company and talk to them tomorrow. wondering if I am missing something obvious here or maybe something still isnt right in the trans. could a worn shift tower cause this type of symptom? thanks for the help guys I am an engine man and not so much a gear guy.

My day started with the truck not starting, an hour later its running. Customer concern lost power and smokes black. I hear a miss. Find number 1 weak and slobber leaking at the exhaust gasket. Truck has 850,000 on it original squirters, and customer want to replace all 6. I pull them and find two coppers leaking( have to replace heads, cant put coppers in). pull the heads and find scratches starting in all 6. Customer opt for complete in-frame. Truck is a long hood 379 peterbilt with N-14. Can we say GRAVY TRAIN!!!!!!!!! we are backed up almost 2 weeks and no sign of slowing, good for christmas cash.

i highly highly reccomend getting bruces books and dvds. They are well worth the money. I would never be with out them. Reading through them and watching the dvds is great training. The books are great reference material. I keep them in my tool box and go to them often. I hope to be able to get to at least one of bruces public classes.