Heath, where did you get that valley pan? That's the old style. I haven't seen a non-turbo valley pan in quite a while. The new style all have somewhat open ends on the baffle, so no hole punching is required.
Mel, it's a brand new Victor Rienz valley pan. There are small openings on the sides near the junction of the baffle and the base of the valley pan, and there were two small holes at the bottom of the baffel as well. But, that baffle can easily fill with oil with those small provisions for drainage. That thing can hold a good volume of oil before it can start to spill out near the top of the baffle where those open ends are. I just want to make sure the valley pan isn't going to be a source of problems down the road. The rear of that thing has an inadequate surface area to seal on the rear of the block (at least in my opinion). Heck, I even contemplated tapping the rear of the block to put bolts on there to hold the pan down. Not really enough space/room though.Heath, where did you get that valley pan? That's the old style. I haven't seen a non-turbo valley pan in quite a while. The new style all have somewhat open ends on the baffle, so no hole punching is required.
Thanks Jim. I certainly hope so. With the complete rebuild, balancing, "typ4" cam, and machine work, this thing had better run well or it's getting replaced by a inline IH diesel. I'm definately going to put it on the rollers at the Rally and see what the difference is.I concur, Heath. You did a nice job, both with the engine and the images. I guess you won't know about the engine 'till you make smoke but it looked good ( : < )..........
Heath, I hope yours runs as good as mine does. Once I break in a little, I'll get it back on the dyno. Last time, at about 130K, it did 194 hp right before a '99 7.3L PSD did 203. Will be interesting to see if it changes now with better heads but everything else the same It will be on the same dyno too.
I used Mahle's reduced compression height pistons. After the deck was machined 7 thousands, used those as insurance to prevent the head/valves/pistons from kissing each other. The wrist pins are 10 thousands higher on the piston and thus, 10 thousands lower compression height. With a stock cylinder deck, the compression is lowered to 19.7:1.Gary and I talked about my heads when I was in the process but my main concern at the time was valve to piston interference. Wondered what you did..
With nothing left to purchase on my 7.3 I still have an issue with too high compression.
I am now looking at opening the combustion chamber intake and exhaust to add a few CCs to the final compression, I did this on a set of 6.9 heads I had but I never measured the difference.
I dont see any other solution to lower the compression on my build, I did see a thread on a .030 shim but nothing came from that...
Nice build on the 6.9 hope it makes more more than you expected
Javier
I used Mahle's reduced compression height pistons. After the deck was machined 7 thousands, used those as insurance to prevent the head/valves/pistons from kissing each other. The wrist pins are 10 thousands higher on the piston and thus, 10 thousands lower compression height. With a stock cylinder deck, the compression is lowered to 19.7:1.
Heath
Heath -
Thanks for the info on your heads. Mine are at the machine shop now. I've been looking for the updated IDI(T) exhaust valves, but Sealed Power and others get kinda murky about 7.3 turbos. When I cross-checked, I found that the numbers given were actually Power Stroke part numbers. It's great to have part numbers that work!!
Pistons are the next hurdle. Mahle made a .010" reduced height piston for the 6.9 that was hard anodized crown - 224-3507THA. This sucker was beautiful! The crown looked almost polished and the skirts were black anodized. But that piston has been out of production since 4/2010. I've been searching, but no luck finding any sitting on a shelf gathering dust. What I've been able to find are destroked/reduced height pistons from Clevite (224-2190), but no special skirt coating or crown treatment. Looks like I'll have to send the pistons out to get the crowns ceramic coated and the skirts treated.
Jim and Dave. The stellite faced exhaust valves are supposed to be the "bee's knees". They are touted as being equal/better performers to inconel exhaust valves and are much cheaper. They certainly should be better than the standard exhaust valves. The majority of my old exhaust valves had pitting on the face of the valve. Scarey stuff. Especially when I had only 2000 miles with the turbo on there.
There is a place in Wisconsin called Classic Coatings that will ceramic coat the piston crowns and moly the skirts for $30 a piston. That's much cheaper than other places I've seen. I didn't find that shop until after I balance/installed the pistons in my 6.9. Otherwise, I would have had them coat my pistons.
Heath
So they do a chromoly coat on the skirts as well? Anything in WI is good for me, as I have lots of friends up there. An excuse could be made to go see the place in person if need be. $240 for all 8 pistons wouldn't be too bad. Heath, the IC sounds like a really good upgrade even for a mildly built IDI, ask Towcat or Typ4. Kinda wish I had done it.