PSD troubleshooting & repair part II

[tonkadoctor]

For those that havn't followed my previous thread, here's the quick and dirty...

She starts hard cold, runs great warm. Part of the problem was a worn timing cover and Lube pump which is fixed.

• No trouble codes
• Entire GP system tested good
• Oil pressure builds fine now and resevoir stays full

Now to get down to business.

Put on a HP oil gauge, fuel pressure gauge and lube oil pressure gauge today and did a little testing to hopefully rule a few things out.

• Fuel pressure at the filter housing inlet maintains a steady 52 PSI from idle to 90MPH with it floored...Not the greatest but still good...will do a shim mod in the regulator shortly to see if I can get it to maintain a nice 60 - 70 PSI I'll do a regulated return mod down the road as soon as I get lucky and get my paws on an Aeromotive regulator fer about $50 -$60
• HPOP pressure ran a nice 500 PSI at idle and would hold above 2200 - 2400 PSI after spiking to 3000 when keeping it floored so it's OK (did have to shut down my testing earlier than I wanted at 90 MPH when I passed a cop that thankfully didn't mess with me for doing 90 in a 55 on a country road.......Havn't checked the gearing in this truck yet but it was still pulling hard wanting much more at 90 (IIRC 65 is about 2000 rpm so I think it has 3.55 or 3.73 in it.)
• Lube oil pressure stays at 14 PSI warm idle and maintains a nice 40 PSI running 55 mph at about 1800 so this gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling about the engines bearings and other internals

Gonna run some more tests & inspections on the injectors tomorrow as well as try remember to check some sensor voltages when it's cold in the morning. Then fix a few leaks on Sunday

• Check for oil leaking past the injector poppet valves cold
• Check for armature impact marks on the bottom of the solenoids
• Check armature clearance
• Check for loose poppet valve adjustment screws
• R&R rear main.......Again
• New O-rings in the oil cooler....OOPS wish I did it when it was out.
• New trans pan gasket.....Putting in the correct reusable pan gasket to replace the split cork gasket that was put in by the PO

Spoke with David at Swamp's again today...$1450 to rebuild my injectors into 175 CC single shots with no core surprises as the single shots already get new plungers and barrels when they rebuild the AD injectors

Me thinks it's time to scrape some do re me together for the injectors and a PCM reflash from Jody as there isn't much else that could cause it. I am quite pleased with the findings on the gauges today and damn glad I did it.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Ohhhhhhhhhh Looky what I found today Bean's 120 HP Stage II Injectors

Waiting for a reply to a couple of questions I had for him and gonna call Bean's to see what the real story is here. If I'm right they should be single shots for the '99 - '03

 

[SKimballC]

There's a dude over on TDS that is selling some BDP stage 1's and maybe a chip for $725.
http://forums.thedieselstop.com/ubb...t=0&Number=3228626&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD
I don't know jack about these things or what kinda deal that is, but thought I'd pass it along to ya.

 

[apextrans]

Ohhhhhhhhhh Looky what I found today Bean's 120 HP Stage II Injectors

Waiting for a reply to a couple of questions I had for him and gonna call Bean's to see what the real story is here. If I'm right they should be single shots for the '99 - '03

Oh man, that hurts considering what I just laid out!!!! My core refund is more than that!!!

Just ordered a tymar & 4" exhaust from them today. My new chip is worse than the first one & still having problems. Bean said he knows what the problem is & the next chip should cure my troubles with idling & stalling. Apparently there is some difference in the '03 7.3 as opposed to pre '03's & that's what's screwing me up. Gotta get this thing running right & pulling hard. Just ordered a new 5'er & it's big!! I sure would love to bring the PSD down there & have you run the same tests on it. I have know idea how to do what you just did!!!

This is my 1000th post!!

 

[Russ]

Ohhhhhhhhhh Looky what I found today Bean's 120 HP Stage II Injectors

Waiting for a reply to a couple of questions I had for him and gonna call Bean's to see what the real story is here. If I'm right they should be single shots for the '99 - '03

Sounds too good to be true type of add. I'd be leary. The add doesn't really say how MANY you get.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Thanks Shane.

Sounds too good to be true type of add. I'd be leary. The add doesn't really say how MANY you get.

Yep I saw that. Love the basic injector photo everybody else uses too.

I asked them

1. how many injectors
2. if they were ever run and if so how long
3. why were they selling them
4. if they were the single shots for the '99 - '03

I'll call Bean's to get the real scoop on them seeing he says they have them and the fact the seller has never sold anything before either according to his feedback rating of "5" which is all from sellers.

The bonus from sellers who use copied pics, have little feedback, no reserve and a poorly written ad is most will shy away and the item will sell cheap. Just gotta take the time to do some homework first.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Oh man, that hurts considering what I just laid out!!!! My core refund is more than that!!!

Just ordered a tymar & 4" exhaust from them today. My new chip is worse than the first one & still having problems. Bean said he knows what the problem is & the next chip should cure my troubles with idling & stalling. Apparently there is some difference in the '03 7.3 as opposed to pre '03's & that's what's screwing me up. Gotta get this thing running right & pulling hard. Just ordered a new 5'er & it's big!! I sure would love to bring the PSD down there & have you run the same tests on it. I have know idea how to do what you just did!!!

This is my 1000th post!!

Ohhhhhh New 5'r PICS, MAKE, MODEL so we can all

You can do it...Especially the part of blasting past a cop at 90 in a 55

HaHa...you don't want my slow @$$ and some of my redneck ways hacking on your truck with a sawsall and a big freaking hammer ...Installing gauges is easy.

My stuff is semi permanently installed now and I need to get some 2-5/8" gauge cups to mount them on the cowl permanently, keeping all fluids outside the cab. Prolly looked funny with me riding around with 3 gauges and 10 ft of hose coming through the drivers window. Kind of a PITA to read them like that too.

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Other than installing gauges the rest is simply knowing what the readings mean.

Playing with the injector innards and other stuff to understand and see what's happening is something I have time to do and nothing to loose by doing it to learn what's really happening inside while I scrape together some play money. Having a couple backup vehicles around helps too.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Update

Finally got to checking deeper today after being sidelined last weekend.

Pulled the injector solenoids off the drivers side to check for impact marks from the armature and armature to adapter plate clearance.

BINGO we have contact on 1 out of 4 and this one wont even fit a .001" feeler gauge between the armature and adapter so the machine work required to correct this is beyond me rebuilding and adjusting it.

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2 others have only .001" of clearance which is almost shot and the one injector that has been replaced is .004" which is good but close to the too much side.

Just got off the phone with Dave at Swamp's a couple hours ago and will have 8 mild stock split shot injectors on my doorstep Friday Sorry guys, don't have time to play with single shots and mods right now. Truck has to be 100% by friday Because Mama's gotta go out of town to be with her Dad so the thrash is on.

Well, so much for break time, gotta go yank the rest out.

UPDATE 2

Got the other 4 out and 3 of them have scuff marks from the armatures topping out and hitting the solenoids too. these 3 also had less than .001" clearance from the armature to the adapter plates so it was just a matter of time before the cold start problem became a hot start problem too. The 4th injector had proper tolerances.

Score

• Good 2 injectors
• Questionable 2 injectors
• Bad 4 injectors

Now I can get the rear main done (again) tomorrow while I wait for FEDEX to get here with my injectors. Hope this does it because Mama's gonna beat me and cut off funding

Hell all I need now is a long block and I'll have a new engine

 

[tonkadoctor]

Swamp's are here

WooooHooooooo My Swamp's made it in time.

Special thanks to David at Swamp's Diesel for teaching me what I CAN do to check the injectors to verify injector problems with hot and cold starting that pertain to the poppet valve, armatures and solenoids and getting the new injectors to me on time for the trip to Virginia Beach this weekend.

Just finished getting the tranny back in after replacing the rear main seal and getting ready to intall the injectors in a couple minutes

 

[Russ]

 

[tonkadoctor]

It's ALIVE !!!!

I'm beat...36 hr thrash to pull the tranny, R&R the rear main seal, install a new trans pan gasket and install injectors with a 2 hr nap with my crippled up joints but it's done. Even had to do some work by feel in the dark last night when the power went out during the storm for about an hour.

Got the 2nd rear main seal in and a new reusable gasket on the transmission pan (PO had a over tightened cork gasket that was slining oil), and it looks good. Not seeing a single drip right now after a 50 mile blast down the big road.

Truck fired right up on the 1st try with the new Swamp's stock AD split shot injectors and boy what a HUGE difference in power and my truck is bone stock....no chip, intake or exhaust.......YET

After my 50 mile drive I decided to check a couple 0 - 60 times and it has dropped to 5 seconds from the 8 seconds it used to run. Sets you back firmly in the seat too.

Good night........er morning.....gotta get cleaned up and a little shut eye before the trip to Virginia Beach later today.

 

[Mike]

Good stuff, I love success stories.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Freaking running GREAT

To everybody here that lent a hand, advice and/or moral support in getting this truck starting and running right over the last month or so.

THANKS Yer alright in my book.

Put 450 miles on her this weekend with out a problem. She no longer marks her territory, didn't use any oil and fired right up perfectly this morning after sitting at 30F temps all night. Fuel milage was 17 mpg for the trip of which 50 miles was just running around the city in Virginia Beack and Chesapeake. Thoroughly pleased to say the least.

My $8500 truck took a bit of work but it was worth it.

• LP pump
• Front cover
• IPR rebuild
• 1 glow plug
• Rebuilt the turbo
• Gutted the EBPV
• RDT Installed
• Rear main seal.....twice
• New trans pan gasket
• 8 injectors
• lots of odds and ends and new seals to seal this engine up good before switching to synthetic oil so I ain't bleeding that $$$$$ stuff all over

All in all I have about $2k invested in repairs and countless hours of my time for something the Stealership said needed a complete new $8k engine (that's NOT installed either) because it was starting hard because of a little blowby So I have about $10,500 total into it now.

Now for those of you who have followed my threads over the last month or so while I sorted this truck out. Don't run out and buy something that has issues like this unless you know full well what you are getting into and have very good mechanical skills and tools. I knew full well when I bought it I may have had to replace the engine but my gut feeling told me different based on my skills as a gearhead.

I may be a cherry with the Powerstroke engines but I have been wrenching on stuff both professionally and as a hobby for almost 30 years and I have very strong troubleshooting skills with mechanical, electrical and hydraulic systems and don't beleive in throwing parts at something to try to get lucky. On top of this I have backup vehicles and TIME to do this stuff as I am retired.

 

[SKimballC]

Once again, great job Mike. You are a trooper.
I suppose this means your conversion to the darkside is complete.

 

[Mike]

Good stuff, I love success stories.