giannid
New member
I have a 2001 Ford F550 Automatic 7.3 diesel that I purchased a year ago and up fitted with a contractor body I built. I'm in Ohio and wend down to Alabama to purchase this truck as I wanted something clean and wanted one of the older diesels as I have another 7.3 in my fleet that has been absolutely trouble free. The truck had 165,000 mile on it when I purchased it. Last winter I did all the maintenance on the truck such as all the filters and fluids. Also put an AIS intake on it and a straight through walker muffler. It also needed a water pump and I dropped the fuel tank to clean it out and do the in tank mod. Other than that, the truck ran good, started well and produces good power. The truck is always loaded and works pretty hard. Anyways, I figured I'd run the truck for a season and see what it needed and make any repairs that it needed in the winter months, our off season. Well, at about middle of the year the service engine light started coming on under hard acceleration. I figured it needs a hpop as it seems like that would be a common culprit. One day in November, the truck died coming off the off ramp of the freeway and wouldn't start. Took it back to the shop and removed the IPR and inspected it. Found it was stuck and had a little chunk of metal in it. Cleaned it out and put it back in and started right up. At this time the truck had a little over 4000 miles on the oil and figured it was ready for the first oil change since I've owned it. I removed the plug and to my surprise there was a glob of silver metal almost like powder on the magnet of the oil drain plug. It was a considerable amount as I've never seen this much on the any truck I've owned. I also cut the oil filter open and found a bunch of silver particles on the paper pleats in the filter. The silver is almost like dust. I change the oil and the truck has about 2000 miles since then. I obviously know the truck needs a HPOP in it as I believe it's coming apart as I found a chunk of brass in the IPR. My question is do I need an engine and what can I do to make sure? I really don't want to put a HPOP on the engine if the bottom end is coming undone as the metal will wipe out the new HPOP. The truck does have some blow by but I don't think it is really that bad. I can flip the oil filter cap over on the oil fill tube and it won't blow off. The truck uses some oil. I probably added a gallon to it in 4000 miles at different intervals but it does leak a little also. Haven't found the leak yet but I believe it's coming from the valve cover area and was going to address that this winter. The truck does run pretty good other than the ses soon light coming on climbing hills and when it's cold. It also starts up cold well. I don't think the silver metal is coming from the HPOP as I was told everything inside of it that wears is brass. I can tell the HPOP was remanufactured before as it has a tag on it. Can the metal be coming from anywhere else other than the mains? Are there any other tests I can do to help me decide what to do? I have a oil test kit from blackstone I was going to send it but they've never told me much in the past. The big problem I have is this truck has to be 100% reliable as it's for my business. We don't work much in the winter and now would be the time to do an engine swap as I can do it myself in my shop. If it goes down in the fair weather months I'm screwed as I'll have to pay a shop to do it and the truck will probably be down for weeks. I don't mind putting a rebuild in it but I hate do do it if it doesn't need it. I really don't have any ideal on how the truck was maintained so have no history on it. For me, it's hard to believe the bottom end is bad with less than 180k on it. ANy help in pointing me in the right direction would be highly appreciated. Thank you
