7.3T Motor problems

[gonecrazyi]

I picked up a 94 f250 with a factory turbo not to long ago. It had a leaking oil cooler which I prompty resealed. I havent had a chance to get the oil out of the radiator yet but I also dont run it much.

The motor itself will start with no glow plugs after sitting for a month on the second turn of the motor.

The problem I am having is there seems to be foamy white froath on the oil dipstick tube and inside the oil fill cap. I figured it was from the oil cooler leaking internally. The wierd thing is that I can never find any water in the oil when I drain it after the trucks sat. Also the oil level doesnt seem to be going up or down. The oil itself isnt black but more of a brown. It was put in fresh after I did the oil cooler.

As for the coolant levels, it doesnt seem to be going down or bubble when the motors running. If I take the cap off after its been running it pushes a bunch of water out but stops as soon as the pressure releases.


Im at kind of at loss, the motor runs great and besides an exhaust leak, it doesnt seem to have any other problems.

I replaced 4 of the glow plugs today and found that the ones that were bad were also Beru's which was a bit of a surprise. Now the Wait to start light stays on longer. The other four will be replace when the motor comes out. I also tried to check the compression but my guage wasnt working very well.

Any thoughts on the froath?

 

[93f250idi]

i know on the older fords with the long dipsticks, condensation would build up on the dipstick.

 

[dieselM715]

It could be condensation from not being run at operating temp long enough to evaporate the moisture out of the engine.

 

[gonecrazyi]

Im hoping so, I plan to swap it into my truck next week, since the trucks not driven daily anymore I can afford to test things out in the truck.

 

[Diesel JD]

Billy before I even thought about swapping that engine I'd do a used oil analysis on it. Caterpillar does this pretty cheap. I just would hate for it to be the early stages of cavitation and you to do all that work for nothing.

 

[gonecrazyi]

I may just do that, Ill have to give them a call tomorrow during lunch. I dont think its cavitation, or at least I hope its not. It runs so and starts so great its not even funny.

 

[gonecrazyi]

Anyone else have any input.

 

[Devilish]

If it's a true turbo block then cavitaion won't be the problem. The turbo blocks have thicker cylinder walls. If oil got into the radiator then it goes that antifreeze would get into the oiling system. The head gaskets could be in early stages of failure. With the engine out it would be advisable to replace them anyways. Don't waste money on oil analysis just replace the head gaskets and maybe the rear seal too. You can inspect the bearings with the pan off but they are probably fine

 

[Diesel JD]

If it's a true turbo block then cavitaion won't be the problem. The turbo blocks have thicker cylinder walls. If oil got into the radiator then it goes that antifreeze would get into the oiling system. The head gaskets could be in early stages of failure. With the engine out it would be advisable to replace them anyways. Don't waste money on oil analysis just replace the head gaskets and maybe the rear seal too. You can inspect the bearings with the pan off but they are probably fine

I partly agree with Devilish about the possibility that you'll find evidence of antifreeze in a UOA even if it is not the big C. I am pretty sure that the 7.3IDIT blocks were prone to cavitation as well and maybe even the early PSD. However he is correct that they were thicker in places ad maybe this reduces the chances of getting it in your favor, maybe by a little but possibly by a great deal. It may be that the 92.5 and later c and k VIN code engines simply were better taken care of because by this time Ford admitted that cavitation could be a problem and warned people to use SCA/DCA in the coolant which was not true for earlier 7.3 IDI engines. The thing that would concern me is that you might think you have the problem solved and put it back together in your work truck and it could really let go on you. This happened to a few guys back in the TDS forums days. Guys thought they had a blown headgasket only to realize it was far worse. Now, I'm not saying it's cavitation but the oil for sure shouldn't look like chocholate milk, it should be jet black unless you have a fancy bypass filter then it'd probably look new, but never like what you describe. I think I remember towcat or maybe it was someone else here used to suggest some sort of cooling system leak down test to mostly rule out cavitation. I don't recall how it was done but it sounds like it might not have been too bad of a test particularly with the engine on a stand. It probably isn't cavtation but I find it hard to believe it's from the oil cooler orings, the oil pressure is on the order of 10-20 psi hot idle and 40-70 going down the road warmed up on a good motor like this. The water pressure is maybe 10-20 psi depending on what cap you have and if you have any slow leaks. This is why oil cooler is almost always oil in the coolant not the other way around, but you may see potassium, sodium and boron at some level in the oil, hard to say how concerned you should be. If it is a head gasket well you'll have a chance to fix that right when you swap it and it won't be at all a bad job out of the truck.

 

[gonecrazyi]

I may drain the oil to see if theres any water it. Ive never seen brown oil in a diesel before. '

When I did the cooler I replaced the oil with rotella and it came out black and not brown. The truck does have some blow-by but no worse than my 6.9.

I plan to retry the comopression test when I have it on a stand, the turbo kind of gets in the way in the truck. The problem is I cant test the motor running it around the farm, without a load it doesnt really warm up.

Another thing I noticed is a gargling noise when I shut the truck off, Im use to the sound of oil returning to the pan but this sounds like water going down.

I suppose the motor really needs to be opened up to find the problem, but by putting it in my truck and actually being able to run it ill be able to getting a better diagnoses on what problems the motor actually has.

 

[Black dawg]

how many miles on the oil? I think id do an oil change, and put a t stat in it and put some miles on it. Also the oil draining back from the turbo through the valley pan can sound wierd.

 

[gonecrazyi]

It has maybe 20 miles if that on the oil. I think Im going to pull the filter first to see what it looks like, thats a lot cheaper then replacing all the oil.

I will try the tstate. It does seem to work because the radiator fluid was getting hot after running around on dirt roads for about an hour. You may be right on the turbo, Ive never had a turbo idi before (besides VW's) so its a bit new to me. I did find Berus when I pulled the glow plugs, they were just all fried.

 

[Diesel JD]

Billy it's sufficiently warm to do the compression test even if you let it idle a few minutes and snap the throttle a bit. In fact I've very rarely seen a difference in a cold versus hot compression test in my engine or in other gas engines I've messed with, yet that is how the books all say do it. Mainly all the parts have got to be moving and lubed as they might be in normal operation. I'm guessing the blowby isn't too bad. See me if you want to see some blowby! Yikes. Still runs pretty good though, just a bit tired and too much compression between milling the heads and adding the turbo.

 

[BioFarmer93]

Billy,
Brown is low-level emulsification, change the filter & oil again and drive it like ya' stole it for an hour without going any higher than fourth gear (giant donuts in the field until you have created a flat track!) then check the oil again... I'm betting that the brown is left over coolant that didn't get flushed with the first oil change. Per our conversation yesterday, you think maybe you might have needed to lift that engine just a wee bit? As in "How confident are you in that seal job?" If it's brown again then the seal might still be the problem, but if the oil looks good this time, or even a lot better but still just a tiny bit funky, then it was left over coolant. Best of luck

 

[flareside_thun]

Geez, nuthin but good advice here.... subscribing anyhow. I'm glad those GP's are workin good for ya, as mine are. JD, you were right, he is a hellova nice guy. It was a pleasure meetin you Billy and I look forward to the same JD!