good news, and bad news

JohnDeereFarmer · Dec 25, 2012

(Yes its 2am EST and no im not awake waiting on santa, XMAS eve duty!)

Well its been quite some time, but this weekend i was able to get up to ohio and pick up the truck. The no HPOP pressure issue was a VERY small hole in a supply line. Needless to say this isnt an easy issue to find, because when pressurizing the system we couldnt see the oil coming out of it, and it wasnt losing enough air for us to notice on the leak test. However it "runs" now.

I was extremely hesitant to drive it the 405 mile trip when i picked it up from the shop. I have some serious issues to figure out on this beast. For starters i think i have a serious tuning issue and will be contacting No Limits tuning after the 2nd, however i think some underlying issues may be the culprit of the tuning issue.

Ill get AE on it when i get off duty this morning, and spend my christmas day diagnosing this.

I have very long crank times when it is cold and slightly longer than normal when warm. While the truck was at the shop the fuel pressure was solid, so im thinking glowplugs (relay) or UVCH's on this one. However in stock, tow, and high idle it throws an SES light (ill get all codes this morning) and has a really un even/ choppy idle. Once the truck is finally started (cold) it throws a TON of white'ish blue smoke, however after about 1-2 mins it disappears.

In almost all the tunes (except performace) it has a very sluggish throttle response, makes it almost hard to drive. For instance while in stock if i put it in reverse and dont use the throttle it will stall sometimes, same going forward. I think this could be Duty cycle or ICP related? If the icp is bouncing around i have a new sensor ill throw on to see what happens, as ive seen the rough idle/sketchy power issue with the ICP before.

Last but not least, im losing boost somewhere. In every tune except performance its a dog and takes FOREVER to light up. I know where it is too

Almost 100% sure my uppipe collector to turbo isnt on ALL the way (grrr). Its obvious when started cold i can see white smoke coming from under the hood in the vacinity of the turbo/up pipe connection

Truck has 180k motor 150ish thousand. 4x4 Automatic

New 160/100% from jim at rosewood, No Limits Tuning, FRx, Rebuilt stock turbo with wicked wheel, Oil and fuel filter have 500 miles on them, Brand new ipr, IH Bellowed uppipes

Also worried i have a cracked flexplate, because i get the grinding noise (only at idle though occasionally), but never while driving. Gonna look into this once i get my starting/power issue figured out.

JohnDeereFarmer · Dec 25, 2012

just want to add in it makes some different noises while cranking than the old motor used too, its wierd i cant even explain it ill take some videos and get them up here, potential starter issue as well, dang nothing comes cheap with these..........i just want a good running truck again!

bluedge8 · Dec 25, 2012

can you also mention what the previous problems and fixes were, I forget whos who here, thanks.

JohnDeereFarmer · Dec 25, 2012

I did a motor swap (99 into my 2000), it wouldnt build ICP pressure (tried everything literally) http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26795

Finally they found where it was leaking, just enough to not let it build pressure, replaced the line and it fired up. I honestly think i just have a GPR issue ill check it out today, gonna take a nap then run out with my AE and see whats up.

bluedge8 · Dec 25, 2012

sounds good, it is amazing how small of a hole will keep the truck from running.

JohnDeereFarmer · Dec 25, 2012

Alrighty after running AE on it for awhile today here are my results:

Cold start, first crank session (only 10 seconds) dont know wtf happened. didnt even seem like it was trying to start, icp was some weird number really low crazy reading.

Second session turned key off back on icp was instant. fired in less than 4 seconds, still a little slow but it is 40ish degress. Had white smoke for about 30 seconds but thats also what i expect on a cold 7.3

While warming up the ICP fluctuated like crazy while duty cycle remained the same (13ish%) if i recall correctly. Unplugged ICP after monitoring a bit and it leveled off. Took it for a run with ICP unplugged ran really well actually. DC was about 35% with about 2100PSI from 25-55 about 3/4 throttle (dont wanna get a ticket on base), this was all in DD tune. Also noticed i was not getting SES light in ANY tune and the high idle tune idled solid.

Came back plugged ICP back in (truck warm at this point) and everything remained the same. However there is a SLIGHT lope in the idle from 667 RPM up to 697 RPM VERY slow lope though hardly noticeable, but i dont like it.

Now heres the kicker. My oil cooler is either leaking REALLY BAD or i have some big splits in my injector cups. I put a new de-gas resevoir on it (the clear one) and it has about 1" of black **** on top, doesnt look or smell like diesel mixing, which leads me to believe i need to re-seal the oil cooler which im gonna order the kit from bob and should tackle it after the first. Another thing (think i found my reason for weird sound when starter hits) the idiots forgot to put my tranny inspection plate back on, honest mistake but still a mistake, the plate is buried under my vast assortment of parts in the truck, whether or not the bolts are there has yet to be determined, so ill be trying to order those bolts from ford as well. I think im just hearing the more distinct metal on metal sound because the inspection plate isnt blocking or distorting the sound

Another thing i wanna ask is, when i was pulling the motor i broke the green line that runs from intake to spider, and forgot all about it, will this have impact or trucks running/performance?

I have a brand new ICP sensor i may throw on for peace of mind, later this week but im much happier with it today than it was when i started it last night im sub 30 degree temps (3 crank sessions), Also sorry for no exact AE #'s couldnt hardly read the screen with glare while driving and im still learning to use it, so if those sound WAY OFF they could just be me not seeing the number correctly.