1990 7.3 IDI lost oil pressure, died.

[furfishgame]

I was driving to work today and after about 15 minutes of driving and what seemed everything was running normal, my oil pressure went to 0 and and i lost all power, the stuck sputtered for a few seconds then died. There is no oil in my water or vise versa which would rule out head gaskets, no? Oil pump failure? There is oil on the left hand side of my engine, kinda by the dip stick, and im pretty posative it wasnt there before. Ill try to get a picture.

Last week i changed my vac pump, and the oil and filter, running delo 15-40 and a power stroke filter. I noticed 2 days ago that my oil pressure went up slightly after the engine was warm. It never did that before.

 

[furfishgame]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[yARIC008]

Does the engine still spin by hand? Losing oil pressure doesn't really have anything to do with the fuel system so losing the oil pump wouldn't stop the injection pump, but if the engine stopped due to bearings seizing up then it's probably toast.

I believe there is a little oil pressure regulator type thing in the rear header of the oil cooler which I suppose could have broken causing the oil pressure to raise then fall.

I suppose also you could have lost power somewhere which took out the oil pressure sender. If power had dropped at the injection pump at the same time though then engine would have shut off immediately.

So basically, too many unknowns right now. Need to do some investigating.

 

[furfishgame]

To crank it by hand i assume i need to pull my glow plugs to relase compression?

Where exacially is the oil cooler? And how would i go about testing said regulator thing? Sorry.. Im not very intelligent..

 

[furfishgame]

I think i found the oil cooler, its what your filter screws onto correct? How would i go about checking that?

 

[OLDBULL8]

From what you say, you lost all power, that would shut the engine down, none of the gauges would work or show oil pressure. On the relay/solenoid on the passenger side fender you'll see several wires on one large bolt, check for 12 VDC there, the large Red wire supplies 12V there for all the gauges and key switch. small Red wire goes to starter. Check all your fuses with a volt meter. This pic is probably not exactly like your's, but depicts the wires I'm saying about above. The black wire with a 90* connector comes from the key switch for starting. The actual key switch is at the bottom of the steering column, the key just actuates it, there is a rod connected to the key which actuates it.
The two yellow/brown wires go to the glow plug controller.
There is a fusible link direct from the battery to the key switch which is hot all the time, kinda tucked along side of battery and pass fender. You'll have to check for voltage at the key switch, no voltage, then the fusible link is burned out.
Refer to a truck as the drivers side or passengers side, less confusing.

Pretty sure you don't have a mechanical problem, loosing power is electrical.

Loved Alaska when there in 08, rainest, coldest summer in history, 4 days above 65*F, was there for 4 months, mostly on the Kenia at Soldotna.

 

[furfishgame]

Sorry? By power i ment engine power, all electrical was working, engine cranks over, just doesnt wanna start

 

[OLDBULL8]

I edited the above post a couple of times. Check for voltage at the IP FSS, with the key on, engine off, pull that wire off, keep touching it to the connection, you should hear clicking , no click, no power, FSS is FUEL SHUTOFF SOLENOID.

 

[OLDBULL8]

OK, so ya got all power. Since it won't start it's a fuel problem, with less than a 1/4 tank the foot screen might have fallen off or disintegrated, common problem. Check your fuel filter to see if it full or half empty. With the key on, jumper the start relay across the two large terminals, press in the schrader valve on the top of the filter, you should get a good flow of fuel, lots of air coming out, then you have a fuel suction problem.

Schrader valve looks like a tire valve.

At leaste now you know some of the electrical problems that can happen

 

[OLDBULL8]

Shower and bed time for me, worked on my tractor for 11 hrs, I'm tired. Check back tomorrow, midnight here, only 8PM there.

 

[furfishgame]

Ok, in reply to both of your posts, i fulled off FSS, it clicked when re conected, i did thst multible times, clicked every time i hooked it back up. No problem there.

As for the shrader valve, it would spray, then stop, spray, then stop.

Now, i looked under the engine. Passanger side under the vac pump there is another diaphram, fuel line comes in, then another line goes out, the out going line is the copper line going into the fuel filer on the front of the filter, basically above the alternator. I assume thats the supply to the fuel filter and injector pump. Anyway, that little diaphram looks like its leaking, most if its coated in oil and road grime except one section is shiny, which i assume is diesel leaking down it preventing said oil and grime to stick to it.. Could that be the problem?

I dont know how to post pictures or i would show you what im talking about.

 

[OLDBULL8]

To post a picture, bottom right corner, click, "Go Advanced" new page, scroll down, click "Manage Attachments" new page, upper right corner, click "ADD Files", it should go to your pictures, double click your picture, then goes back to, "ADD Files", click, "UpLoad". when done uploading, close that window, you'll see down by "Manage Attachments" your pic URL. I use Picassa to store my pic's and Google Chrome for browser. Any pic you upload, will start a gallery, you'll see.

Leaking from that fitting on the filter is natural when you get a slug of air, It's a check valve that lets the air out, soon as fluid hits it, it will close. As said above, your running out of fuel, filling the injector system full of air, check all rubber hoses from lift pump back to tank for wettness, and fill up so you have over a 1/4 tank of fuel, front and rear tanks. Gonna take a lot of cranking to get the air out, keep batteries up so it cranks fast, loosen several line nuts at the injectors, that will help get the air out, then tighten them when fuel appears. Only crank for 20 seconds and let starter cool for a couple of minutes so you don't burn starter up. Pic below is a filter.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Now, i looked under the engine. Passanger side under the vac pump there is another diaphram, fuel line comes in, then another line goes out, the out going line is the copper line going into the fuel filer on the front of the filter, basically above the alternator. I assume thats the supply to the fuel filter and injector pump. Anyway, that little diaphram looks like its leaking, most if its coated in oil and road grime except one section is shiny, which i assume is diesel leaking down it preventing said oil and grime to stick to it.. Could that be the problem?

That's the low-pressure fuel lift pump, essentially what sucks the fuel out of the tanks and shoves it thru the filter into the injection pump. Yes it can very well be your problem, we just replace ours as it was leaking engine oil out instead of fuel but if we had left it it would have started to leak fuel as well, likely inside the crank case too. So yeah, replace yours, it's a cheap part that is somewhat annoying to do but not overly hard or anything, all you have to watch out for really is that the lever slips under the camshaft during install - more or less requires turning the engine over by had with a breaker bar at the balancer to get things to align, if you don't feel confident about it have someone with more mechanical experience do it for you.

Also yes check the rubber hose that comes from the steel line on the frame rail and feeds into the lift pump, replace it if it's hard. Use fuel injection hose (says "SAE 30R9" on it) or transmission oil cooler hose (says "TOC" on it), the regular low-pressure gasoline fuel/emissions hose (says "SAE 30R7" on it) does not hold up very well when used with diesel fuel and in a hot environment.

 

[BDCarrillo]

By power i ment engine power, all electrical was working, engine cranks over, just doesnt wanna start

So oil pressure dropped to zero and THEN the engine sputtered and stopped?

If the oil pressure loss happened first, I'm not thinking that the main issue is fuel system related at all (even though it sounds like your lift pump does need to be replaced)... I think most of us are overlooking the oil pressure loss... and his 1990 would have an actual gauge, not the idiot gauge in the OBS.

If the lift pump crapped out, I would expect that the "Fuel Filter" light would have come on and the truck would have died and THEN lost oil pressure as it wound down to a stop.

The sequence of events is extremely critical here

 

[LCAM-01XA]

If the oil pressure loss happened first, I'm not thinking that the main issue is fuel system related at all (even though it sounds like your lift pump does need to be replaced)... I think most of us are overlooking the oil pressure loss... and his 1990 would have an actual gauge, not the idiot gauge in the OBS.

Nope, iirc '88 was the last year for the real gauges, maybe even '87 - in any case anything '89-'97 has fake gauges. Thing is, even if it was a real gauge, those are still grossly inaccurate - ours sometimes fluctuates without any rhyme or reason, we have a nice US-made mechanical gauge hooked up to the same T-ee and it's solid as a rock so it's definitely not the pressure itself that's causing it, not the sender either as this one is #3 IIRC and it still acts up.

So point is if the thing actually lost oil pressure and ground to a halt because of that it would be making all sorts of horrible noises while cranking it, if it's even possible to crank it. But if it lost pressure due to fuel contamination in the oil while simultaneously shutting down from the lift pump failing completely then it's possible the engine is still fine but will need a new fuel pump and obviously an oil change before it can be put back into service.

Hey Furfishgame, check your oil level please - see if it's higher than it should be, and also smell the dipstick for diesel fuel smell. Let us know what you find out.