Possible cracked block?

[Lt.Dan]

Hey guys, so i have a long story here, so bare with me.

I have a 96 F350 7.3, with an E4OD and 352,000 miles on it, it was a fleet truck, owned by an asphalt company, for 280,000 miles, then sold to a friend and he drove until 320,000 miles, than i purchased it in Serptember of 2014. So far it has been a fantastic truck, completely stock, other than K&N intake and removed exhaust after downpipe.

Then i got ahold of it, and did a custom eFuel system (my pump was leaking out the weep hole), a 3" DP, PHP Hydra tuner with Swamps custom tunes, Wicked Wheel 2, Glowshift gauges, and a few other things...

I installed all these things around May of 2015, and the truck was an entirely different truck! It was simply AMAZING! The only issue i had with it was i had EXTREMELY high EGT's, they would spike 1500* almost as fast as my foot would hit the floor board... No exhaust leaks, had bellowed up pipes, very little blow by. So after going back and forth with the guys at swamps about why i had high EGT's, they finally just told me its a mechanical problem, NOT a tuning issue.

Well then in August i had a problem with all my gauges quit working out of no where (except Speedo). Which was another problem ill come back to another time, just something you guys should know, as i couldn't watch coolant temp.

Well i took a trip on Halloween, and towed a 5000lbs trailer for about 500 miles round trip. Before so, i checked all the fluids, coolant was full, Oil was at low mark (so i added 3 quarts and it put it right at Full), and everything else was great. So on my trip i went, EGT's werent an extreme problem, and was still able to do 62mph up and hill i came at, without passing 1250*.

So i get back from my trip, and a week later i go to get out on the freeway to test ICP pressure with a scan gauge, in stock mode on the chip. So i do a WOT run for 3 miles from On-ramp to Offramp on the local freeway. Everything looked really good, and i was sitting at the stop light right off the freeway when i noticed some odor. To my surprise it was coming from my truck, and white/blue smoke was coming out from underneath the truck! So i pulled off and stopped in a parking lot, shut the truck off, and checked for codes. No codes. So i popped the hood, and saw the radiator had been cracked at the top of the tank near the upper hose, and had sprayed some coolant on top of the motor. So no big deal, i was gonna drive it the .5 miles to my shop and take a better look at it. So i go to fire up the truck, and its misfiring really bad, and jumping around etc. Then i look behind me and i damn near FILLED the entire parking lot with white smoke! I quickly realized it and shut the truck off... Got back out, and checked under the hood, no coolant in the reservoir bottle.... Pull the dipstick and its over Full about 3/4" or so... Damnit...

So i thought it was a blown head gasket or something, and several friends had confirmed it with me as being the diagnosis without actually looking into it (Stupid thing to do). So i went ahead and pulled the heads (damn those are heavy sons-of-b*tches....), only to find the gaskets are in perfect shape. And the cylinder bores look perfect with an awesome looking crosshatch still clearly visible on all 8 cylinders. I also found out that my truck is a Cali-Emissions truck with AB code, split-shot injectors, and the guys at swamps were giving me tunes for single shot AA code injectors! (hmm, coincidence that a couple months after getting "bad" tunes from some place, that the motor lets loose?)

So now i call my buddy who owns a diesel shop in the next town over, and he says it might be a cracked block due to overheating or decaviation (which my coolant was exchanged about a month prior to this happening, but who knows when it was done before then...). So he brought over a cylinder tester, which basically bolts over the bore, and you apply shop air to it (150psi), and listen for leaks. Well we didnt find **** on all 8 cylinders, everything sounded quiet other than air escaping into the bottom end past the piston rings.

So now its been sitting for almost 2 months now, and i want my truck back! So what would your guys' first step be in solving what went wrong here? Possible cracked front cover? Possible cracked oil cooler? Possible cracked injector cup? Possible pinhole in the block? All of the above?

Thanks for holding through what seemed like my entire life story, and i do appreciate any help!
-Daniel

 

[rusty1161]

Are you sure the raised oil level is coolant? It could be fuel from bad injector cups.

Rusty

 

[Lt.Dan]

I was not positive no, another reason why im an idiot and didnt do a compression test before pulling the heads or something, i just assumed since there was no coolant in the reservoir, that it had all been sucked out, and into the motor.

How can i verify that was the issue?

Thanks again!

 

[Magnum PD]

Time for a rebuild I believe

 

[Lt.Dan]

You thinking a cracked block Magnum?

 

[Magnum PD]

Might be oil cooler rings.

 

[rusty1161]

I was not positive no, another reason why im an idiot and didnt do a compression test before pulling the heads or something, i just assumed since there was no coolant in the reservoir, that it had all been sucked out, and into the motor.

How can i verify that was the issue?

Thanks again!

Do you still have oil in the crankcase? Inspect it or send out sampling to confirm. Your coolant loss could be unrelated to your increased oil level and only due to the leaking radiator. Injector cups or oil cooler are common problems with these trucks as the mileage and years add up.

Rusty

 

[mandkole]

^^^ need to confirm what raised the oil level.. oil or fuel

 

[Lt.Dan]

I drained the oil unfortunately when I removed the heads, and when I pulled the heads too, some coolant might have fallen into the crankcase, contaminating it...

And your correct, coolant loss could be unrelated, could've cracked the radiator on my trip, and been losing coolant for a whole week...


Do you guys think I should replace the oil cooler, injector cups, new head gaskets and bolts, and put her all back together and see what happens? Or is the risk too high?

I already have new cups, new glow plugs, and a bunch of other parts for this thing, I can have an oil cooler, head gaskets, and bolts here by Tuesday and give it a shot...

 

[Vader's Fury]

What did the oil look like when you drained it?

 

[Lt.Dan]

Looked like half oil, half coolant, BUT, like I said, I pulled the heads and coolant poured all over everything (from not draining the coolant out of the block prior to removal). So it still leaves me guessing if there was coolant in there prior to head removal, I just dont know, and ive already disposed of the oil as well... Is there any way of removing each injector cup and inspecting for damage? Or maybe even reinstalling the head with new gasket, and doing a compression test? Either one of those will tell me if its the cooling system or the fuel system corret?

Thanks for the help guys, I really do appreciate it, and sorry for making it this difficult as well, my ignorance is really irritating me now...

 

[Vader's Fury]

Was the oil milky brown? If you had coolant mixing with the oil while the truck was running, I would expect it to be a milky brown.

If you drained the oil after you pulled the heads, and it had coolant in it, I would suspect that it was from you pulling the heads.

You can pull the inj cups to check them for cracking, but you can not reuse them, and there is no guarantee that you will be able to see the crack.

I think that the rad blew, and you may have overheated the motor and caused fuel to get into the oil and raise the level.

 

[Lt.Dan]

How would over heating the engine cause fuel to get in the oil other than a cracked injector cup? And if an injector cup cracked, wouldnt that put oil into the fuel? Since oil is higher pressure than fuel?

 

[rusty1161]

You have an electric fuel pump? Right? 65psi regulator setting? That is higher than oil pressure unless your are at high RPM's.

Rusty

 

[Vader's Fury]

Burn up an injector o-ring.

 

[79jasper]

You have an electric fuel pump? Right? 65psi regulator setting? That is higher than oil pressure unless your are at high RPM's.

Rusty

Uh, what?
Isn't the oil that runs through there, the high pressure oil?
That's how you get oil in your fuel bowl.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[rusty1161]

Uh, what?
Isn't the oil that runs through there, the high pressure oil?
That's how you get oil in your fuel bowl.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

You're correct. I was thinking of coolant. Wrong path.

Rusty

 

[elrodalexander73]

Ok... lets break this down, you bought a higher mileage 7.3, added some tunes, had EGT issues, and then you popped a radiator, this is what I would have done first, and I know it's useless now BUT it would have been wise to replace the known failed radiator first, get the truck to hold coolant, then do a pressure test.. Fill with coolant, let it sit over night, if you don't loose any by morning you can rule out any thing going into the engine, if you pull the pan plug in the morning and coolant run's every where you've got a problem.
2nd you shoulda drained the oil and had an oil analysis done, and if it was confirmed fuel from say a cracked injector tip, these injectors prolly have 330,000 on them, it does happen, I've rebuilt two 7.3s and had to have one sleeved cause of this failure, then you know where to go. BUT if you have excellent cross hatch in the cylinders, no evidence of trashed fire rings, buy some ARPS now, get a set of 910s, replace your cups, maybe even have a basic valve job done, have your injectors tested and put it back together.. You can always pull the oil cooler down and look inside it and see if the rubber is really rotten.. If it looks super bad replace it, hope this helps.

 

[superpsd]

Might be cheaper to find a lower mileage long block with good tested compression and drop it in. Not sure about calibration but they are all over up here...

 

[Lt.Dan]

Well, I can't seem to find one cheaper than $1500, which is more expensive than a full machine job on mine, so I would rather just put mine together.
I think what I'm going to do, is take the heads to a machine shop, have them inspected, milled flat, inspect injectors and have them tested, put new injector cups, new glow plugs, new head gaskets, new head bolts, new oil cooler, and put it all back together.

Does any body think that's a bad idea? I'm still just a little afraid that the block is cracked and im gonna spend all this time and money puttting it back together, to find out it didn't fix it...

Now I understand the importance of head studs, and I want to do it if I have the money when I get ready to do this, but what about the 910 valve springs? What are the advantages over stock?