7.3 No start warm long crank cold

[jeremy0726]

I'm helping a friend with his 02 f250 with a 7.3 it started out losing antifreeze into the oil. We finally tracked that down to a hole worn in the timing cover from a bad water pump that some one had jb welded up and had started leaking. We installed a new timing cover and oil pan. Started it up and it had low engine oil pressure we found a sticking pres relief valve in the oil cooler adapter. we replaced that and re oringed the cooler and when ahead and installed a melling oil pump( the original had 250k on it but still looked fine). Now when it starts it has good oil pres (80psi cold)but it will only run until the oil pres drops to around 40psi as it warms up. Then the hpop oil pres drops below 500psi once the lpop pres drops below 40psi and the engine dies. As long as I keep the rpm's up and oil pres above 40psi it will stay running. I pulled both valve covers and don't see any injectors spraying oil. No start with ips unplugged. Installed a new ipr no change. I plugged the oil line going to each head one at a time and still didn't have a pres increase (we installed a gauge in the head when we tested each side to double check what the scan tool was reading). We then pulled both lines off the pump put a plug in one and a gauge in the other. We got 1000psi out of the pump cold then hooked everything back up and ran it until it warmed up and died. We unhooked the lines and hooked the gauge back up to dead head the pump and 250psi is all we could get out of it when it was warm. I'm guessing its time for a hpop but I hoping you guys can tell me if I'm missing anything. Hes already got a ton of money in this thing and I hate to spend the $$$ on a new pump and there be something I missed.

 

[gnxtc2]

Cracked/loose oil pick up tube. Missing gasket for oil pick up tube. Did he put the correct timing cover in.

Any starting issues prior to the timing cover swap?

Check injector orings?

Billy T.
[email protected]

 

[jeremy0726]

The pickup tube looked good I checked for cracks and didn't find any. I made sure it bolted up to the timing cover and tightened down and seated good and all the way in the cover. The oring gasket matched the old one and timing cover and pickup tube. I'm not sure its never really started the best or at least it hasn't since ive started messing with it(I did put a new starter on it also because I thought it was cranking slow). It was getting water in the oil to fast to really run it by the time I got it to drive it. He had taken it to a local shop and they had it for 2 years and told him it needed heads but never wanted to mess with it and kept pushing him off. I used the hpop to pres up each bank and they held the 1000psi it put out cold.