7.3 tear down/rebuild (hydrolocked)

Well i'm a little late to get this thread started, but i'll give a little background here. As I mentioned in the other thread I started. My engine hydro-locked because of a leaking air cleaner lid/hood seal. That all happened right as harvest was starting (i don't farm i just help out) so unfortunately I had to let the truck sit for 2 months before i could start on it. So i just pulled glow plugs and poured Marvel Mystery oil down the cylinders to hopefully prevent rust from getting too out of hand.

With that all being said I've got the engine down to the bare block and i'm getting ready to get in touch with a machine shop i found nearby to take the block and heads too. So below is a bit of a timeline of the tear down. This isn't going to be anything exciting. Its really just probably going to be a mostly stock rebuild, outside of the torque cam i plan on adding. But who doesn't enjoy a picture heavy rebuild thread?

To break the posts up i'll post a response with my findings so far.


Step 1: Stare at your truck for a couple hours and cringe at all the wiring you did when you were a teenager.


Step 2: Remove everything in front of the engine and tell yourself you'll remember where it goes.


Step 3: Wrestle engine hoist for 30min before realizing there are 6 bell housing bolts and not 4.


Step 4: Discover that you aren't as good as you thought you were at draining the cooling system...


Step 5: Start second removal off all unnecessary things and once again promise yourself you'll remember where it goes.


Step 6: Well this explains why my truck would very slowly start to get heat soaked when i towed the C600.


Step 7: Remove injectors via brute force and ignorance


Step 8: Hey here is a bright spot. Internals look pretty clean!


Step 9: Nevermind...


Step 10: This other cylinder looks better at least.


Step 11: puuuuuuushhhh


Step 12: Rejoice as we celebrate a win from the fruits of our labor...Scrap metal


Step 13: Has anyone else seen this weird yellowish goo jump out from behind their water pump? I think it might have actually been alive...


Step 14: I've seen worse...much worse (top is rear, bottom is front)


Step 15: And here in 15 easy steps we have a bare block.

 

Ok this post will mainly be pictures and measurements. Its been awhile since i've broke out the telescoping gages and mic's so i'm not sure i trust all of my measurements.

Engine layout. The connecting rods already had these stamped on them so i just kept using it.



Cylinder bore measurements. I didn't bother to measure taper since it looks like the block already needs to be bored out.


Crank bearing journals


Crank journals for connecting rods.


Wrist pin measurements. I probably went overboard here. I measured the two ends in the piston and the center for the connecting rod.



So based off these measurements it looks like my crank and wrist pins are fine. However the block will have to at least be bored out. Looking online it looks like its next to impossible to find 10 over pistons and rings. So it looks like i'm going to have to go with 20 over. Also reading on here it looks like 20 over is recommended as the conservative limit for boring out a 7.3 block. So part of me is wondering if i should just sleeve it back down to stock size? Or am i over thinking this considering this engine is never going to get a turbo and is just going to be a stock rebuild? Any other recommendations for machine work? This is the first idi I've torn down this far and am mostly going off the hours of info I've read on here.

 

Nice work!! Your captions are hilariously spot on!! Watching this thread for how it all goes back together.

 

When I rebuilt my engine I went 20 over. It should be fine so long as there isn't cavitation already boring into the cylinder too far and as long as you keep up with coolant service.

 

I agree with this. Although I have more faith in the sleeves, the cost is almost the same as having a reman long block delivered to your door already sleeved and rebuilt. I'd just have it cleaned up and punched 20 as mentioned above for the cost. Just my opinion, of course.

 

Thanks for the input. I'll probably go with 20 over then.

Any idea why 10 over parts seem nonexistent?

 

I agree, that was a good laugh! And pretty much would have been my thoughts exactly, haha.

 

Because the machining process typically requires more metal then what's available with a .010 over. You're .005 worn oversized as is, So another .005 to get to a +010 overbore would have a .0025 cut which would be impractical/impossible. Let alone leaving material for a hone job. Even a .020 overbore would only have a .0075 cut, which is still a small amount if you think about it.

You could hone .010", and have a chance at fixing the out of round and taper. But unless the machinist has a rigid micrometer type hone with good stones and knows how to operate the machine, they'll be wasting their time. Most machinist won't even try doing this though, because it will take so much time and isn't guaranteed to go right.

 

My problem with this is that I doubt that I'd trust a reman long block from anyone other than Wes or Justin. Those guys already have little enough time as it is. It may take a long time to get a reman from them.

 

When I rebuilt my 6.9 for same reason as yours, I dingle-ball honed the cylinders, since the wear was minimal, and used new pistons/rings, bearings and refurbished rods. No problems after that.

 

Not much to update. Got in touch with the machine shop for the work and am taking the parts in tomorrow. Also won the battle with the two broken off injectors. Slide hammers sure come in handy. But because i take pictures of everything. Here are a few more.

It was a hard fought battle but vice grips and slide hammers ended up winning.


I kind of regret returning that borrowed engine hoist. Wrestling this block into the exploder was not fun.


I made sure to load the block first. That way it made loading the heads a complete back breaking nightmare.

 

i got some idi parts floating around if you need anything

 

Wes actually dropped the idea on me. Of course I'd rather have him do it honestly, I know the man is up to his ears in product production and builds himself. But not everyone lives so close as I do. I have my opinions on justin that I will reserve, but I have never heard anything bad on his products. But I'm THAT guy if the service is rude or inconsiderate that will take my business elsewhere.

 

Jake,
Sorry to hear about the Hydrolock. I too suffered the same fate. Ended up finding a crate engine cheap.
I saved the heads, oil pump, injector pump, injector, and a few other things. The engine had only 143k miles on it when it hydrolocked. If you need something, let me know.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I haven't tried to contact Justin so I have no personal experience. I also can perfectly understand since I'm the same way. I was using those two as examples of people who I would trust their work enough to pay them to build an engine for me. There may be a few more, but not very many.