Hey Guys,
Newish to me 2002 7.3l. 346k on the truck. 4x4 automatic. Runs great. Drove it home from SC to NY with no issues.
Since it has been home, I have done the following:
Oil cooler o-rings
Coolant flush
New Thermostat
Oil Change (Rotella T 15w40)
Glow plugs
Glow Plug Relay
CPS
One new battery - (other was tested and is above spec)
I bought the truck last October. It did not use any significant oil during the drive home. As we were backing into the driveway bringing it home, I blew an oil cooler o-ring and lost quite a bit of oil at that point. I repaired that and left the truck sit over the winter to keep it out of the salt.
I put the first tank of fuel through it this spring and I went through between 7 and 9 QTS! I don't typically check the oil between fill-ups so I didn't catch this sooner. I caught it because the truck quit running on me.
There is no sign of any oil leak on the ground, the fuel bowl is spotless, there isn't a trace of smoke of of the exhaust, and the tailpipe is bone dry. The truck does have some blow by but by no means excessive.
Just yesterday I pulled the down pipe and charge pipes to check for oil there and found them the down pipe to be dry but sooty and the charge pipe to just have traces of oil in them. I suspect the charge pipe oil is coming through the PCV system. I also dried up any oil/fuel in the valley at the same time. There was nothing excessive there.
From the research I have done, I can only suspect injector o-rings. The truck had hard-start issues this winter that was narrowed down to not enough clearance on the poppets in the injectors. I switched to 5W-40 and it has improved the situation a great deal until I can either shim the injector poppets or replace the injectors.
Am I on the right track with my o-ring suspicion? I plan to build a high pressure oil system tester next week and see if that shows me anything. in the meantime, is there anything else I haven't looked at or am missing?
If this was a quart or two over 1000 miles, I would write it off to oil use on an old, worn motor. At 7-9 quarts in 500 miles, there is a serious issue somewhere.
Thanks,
Caleb
Newish to me 2002 7.3l. 346k on the truck. 4x4 automatic. Runs great. Drove it home from SC to NY with no issues.
Since it has been home, I have done the following:
Oil cooler o-rings
Coolant flush
New Thermostat
Oil Change (Rotella T 15w40)
Glow plugs
Glow Plug Relay
CPS
One new battery - (other was tested and is above spec)
I bought the truck last October. It did not use any significant oil during the drive home. As we were backing into the driveway bringing it home, I blew an oil cooler o-ring and lost quite a bit of oil at that point. I repaired that and left the truck sit over the winter to keep it out of the salt.
I put the first tank of fuel through it this spring and I went through between 7 and 9 QTS! I don't typically check the oil between fill-ups so I didn't catch this sooner. I caught it because the truck quit running on me.
There is no sign of any oil leak on the ground, the fuel bowl is spotless, there isn't a trace of smoke of of the exhaust, and the tailpipe is bone dry. The truck does have some blow by but by no means excessive.
Just yesterday I pulled the down pipe and charge pipes to check for oil there and found them the down pipe to be dry but sooty and the charge pipe to just have traces of oil in them. I suspect the charge pipe oil is coming through the PCV system. I also dried up any oil/fuel in the valley at the same time. There was nothing excessive there.
From the research I have done, I can only suspect injector o-rings. The truck had hard-start issues this winter that was narrowed down to not enough clearance on the poppets in the injectors. I switched to 5W-40 and it has improved the situation a great deal until I can either shim the injector poppets or replace the injectors.
Am I on the right track with my o-ring suspicion? I plan to build a high pressure oil system tester next week and see if that shows me anything. in the meantime, is there anything else I haven't looked at or am missing?
If this was a quart or two over 1000 miles, I would write it off to oil use on an old, worn motor. At 7-9 quarts in 500 miles, there is a serious issue somewhere.
Thanks,
Caleb
