Cavitation or head gasket

SuperDave

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Today I've learned this engine is some sort of reman, it's got those little "Tattletale" heat tabs all over it which makes me wonder if it was installed pitted like that say from an engine that grenaded but the heads passed magnaflux at the time. I'm getting that engine from the burned 94 but I also plan to put this one back into service eventually so I'm looking for heads for it. Should I remove and keep the valves/springs or just scrap it with the rest of the head? The valves and all seem in good condition. Pistons are 0.20 oversized but it appears the block has been sleeved, why would anyone sleeve and then go 20 over?
 
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IDIBRONCO

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Maybe it was sleeved to standard and then redone again and bored to .020 over? To clear that up, I was thinking about it being sleeved and then run until it needed to be rebuilt again. Then the sleeves were bored to .020 over for the next build. Maybe it developed cavitation and was sleeved on all 8 cylinders to be put back in service. Just some guesses.
 

IDIBRONCO

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Dave. Is there any chance that there are extra numbers next to the original serial number? I'm always curious to see if I can find an engine that was built by the shop that I used to work at. So far, I happened to buy the only one that I've found when I bought my Blue Truck.
 

SuperDave

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Dave. Is there any chance that there are extra numbers next to the original serial number? I'm always curious to see if I can find an engine that was built by the shop that I used to work at. So far, I happened to buy the only one that I've found when I bought my Blue Truck.

You mean the serial number by the injection pump adapter housing? I haven't looked at the 7.3 but both my reman 6.9 engines have numbers added to that number. I'll look at the 7.3 tomorrow. I'm pretty sure all 8 will turn out to be sleeved, I'll know for sure when I clean off the old gasket material.
 

IDIBRONCO

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Cool. Yes that's where I was talking about. Could you post some pictures of the extra numbers?
 

SuperDave

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So I went and checked out my buddies burnt 7.3, once I drained the water out of the pan and removed the glow plugs it turned over nice and smooth by hand and nice and even with the starter (yes the starter survived) I would like to hear you guys opinion on running this engine.

The truck burned due to some electrical fault in the dash as it was parked and the engine was off but warm when the fire started. It's odd what on the engine got damaged and what didn't, I would try and start it but the injector caps are all melted and when I turned the engine with the starter it began leaking fuel from all the ones that still were connected and I don't have a spare cap/o-ring/hose kit for 1/4 inch lines to put on it. There is nothing left of the glow plug controller but the oil pressure switch is still intact, the radiator hoses lived but the belts did not. The throttle position sensor is completely melted but the fuel shutoff solenoid and the fast idle solenoid both still work. Glow plugs heated when connected to my jump box so they all survived. He wants $500 y'all think it's worth a shot? Also the water that came out of the pan and cylinders was completely clear and not at all brown or otherwise rusty looking so that's a plus.
 

IDIBRONCO

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I agree with Dave. Since the engine turns over easily, I doubt that there's any major issues from having the water in the pan. When I bought the 7.3 that's in my Blue Truck from a salvage yard, about the first thing that I did was to pull the drain plug. A little bit of clear water came out of the oil pan. I immediately got on the phone and called the salvage yard. The owner assured me that it wasn't getting water in there and what came out must have been from it being power washed. I was a little bit skeptical, but I went ahead and put it in the truck. It didn't have any issues at all.
 

SuperDave

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The oil was sitting on top of the water for sure, when I drained the pan it went straight from pure water to pure oil. Once it was pure oil I put the plug back so it had something while I was turning it with the starter, oil was pure black not milky or even chunky!
 

Diesilee

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For what it's worth-- friend gave me a '94 IDIT that was burnt, said to use a toothbrush and brake cleaner to see if any paint was left. Lots of un-burnt
paint and 20 years later that engine lives today and has been great runner.
 

SuperDave

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So I've bought the burned 7.3 from my buddy now I just have to go and remove it and bring it home. In the meantime I'd like to find a set of heads for the 7.3 I already have, I've looked at reman heads and the best I've found is $1600. Needless to say that's a lot out of my price range, there are a few on eBay reasonable but it costs a lot to ship them due to weight and none close enough to pick up myself. If anyone has some or knows of some in the southeast let me know, right now I'm checking junk yards for core engines to remove heads from. Also what to look for, the only inherent problem I know of is valve guides so I'd like to know what else I should look at when buying. Thanks
 

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Here's the burned 7.3 fresh pulled with no cleaning up at all.
 

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Here's after about 30 minutes of shop vac, carb cleaner and parts removal!
 

SuperDave

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The injectors cleaned up nicely and had only been installed for about six months, same with the injection pump. The pump doesn't look great but it was slap full of clean fuel as were all the metal injector lines and the pump was built by a local guy that does super good work so I'm going to run it. Same with the metal lines and if they leak I'll buy new ones, like I said they were full of fuel when I took them off. Glow plugs were new at the same time and I've tested them twice and they all work and are motorcraft so screw it they're going back in service as well, no sense in wasting good parts and good money by loading the parts cannon for the sake of "just in case". I've ordered an install kit for the injectors, a set of valve cover gaskets and a feed line from the filter head to the injection pump so that's a start. I'd really like to hear it run before I go through the trouble of installing it in the truck and I think that will get me close enough to hear it run. There's still a load of other parts I'll need to buy and some I can reuse off the original engine but I'm making some progress!
 
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