My Project Thread. 88 350, my first idi.

[bumblebeer]

I joined the club. Here she is. '88 F-350.

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Got it at auction. Paid more than I probably should have. She's a runner, or at least was before I got a hold of her. Needs a lot of work.

No power steering, and it won't hold fluid.
Glow plugs are no good.
Glow plug relay cycles on and off, but I think that may be because the resistance on the plugs are way off spec.
Fuel pump is having a hard time, symptom being she dies when coming back to idle after being revved. Did the ATF in fuel filter trick seemed to help, but wasn't able to test much.
Thermostat was stuck. I've already replaced it.
Coolant system needs to be flushed. Is pretty nasty looking.
Parking brake won't lock.
It's only running 2 rear wheels on a DRW axle. But it did come with the extra wheels.
Heater core has been bypassed.
Paint is in really bad shape.
There's probably more, but that's all I can think of right now.

 

[bumblebeer]

So I was replacing the glow plugs this morning, 7 of them went just fine. The other one not so much. The plug broke off right above the threads. The element came out everything else is stuck in the block. It was already soaked in penetrating oil, but I went to the parts store and got the good stuff. Tapped on it a bit, and tried an easy out square extractor. And of course I broke it off as well.

So tomorrow I guess I'll try welding a nut to what's left of the plug. Planning to leave the broken extractor in there as well. Don't figure it'd make it much worse to do so. If I can get a decent weld, I'll put an impact on it and try to back out what's left of the plug.

When that inevitably doesn't work, I guess I'll be pulling the head, or whole engine?

 

[Nero]

Welcome to the club
You may be able to use an EZ out to get the rest of the glow plug out, just be careful not to damage the head. Otherwise, I'd pull the head.

 

[bumblebeer]

Yeah tried that. Now the EZ out is an EZ in. Snapped off in the top of the glow plug even with the head.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

 

[Booyah45828]

Not to monday morning quarterback on ya, but I would have tried a left handed bit before an easy out. The only time I've had easy outs work is if the bolt was sheared off. If you twist it off trying to install or remove the bolt the easy-outs are typically out to lunch.

Now with the easy out in there, you won't be able to drill it due to the easy-out's hardness. Welding is your next attempt, good luck, use a fair amount of heat, and let it fully cool before attempting to turn it.

 

[bumblebeer]

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That's what's left of the plug and the EZ out.

 

[bumblebeer]

Not to monday morning quarterback on ya, but I would have tried a left handed bit before an easy out. The only time I've had easy outs work is if the bolt was sheared off. If you twist it off trying to install or remove the bolt the easy-outs are typically out to lunch.

Now with the easy out in there, you won't be able to drill it due to the easy-out's hardness. Welding is your next attempt, good luck, use a fair amount of heat, and let it fully cool before attempting to turn it.

No worries! Advice from experienced folks is why I'm here.

I may try welding a nub on the EZ out shank so I can try to pull it out. Not gonna spend too much time on that though. Planning to get a nut and hopefully get a strong enough weld so I can set the impact to work on it.

I do have a diamond hole saw set with a 1/4 but that should core out what's left of the EZ out, but I'd really prefer not to have to go that route.

I'm really adverse to drilling it at all. Maybe if I do have to pull the head drilling would make more sense, but I just don't see how I'd be able to line up the bit and drill without damaging the block or threads.

 

[Jesus Freak]

Hey man, welcome to the club. I'll tell you what I'd do,........ and someone might throw sticks at me, but realize that in the long run that at some point you're going to go through that engine. Your truck will crank up with no problem on 7 glow plugs. I'd leave the ez out where it is and not risk marrying it. When you get to the "time to rebuild point" address the glow plug then with it on your bench instead of hunched over the radiator and hood latch.

Edit: and with 22:1 compression, maybe your truck will help get it out of there a bit sooner.

 

[Rdnck84_03]

I did that to get a broken glow plug tip out of my dozer. Took about an hour of working it pretty hard, long enough that I had about half forgotten about it. Though I blew it up for a few moments until I realized what happened.

 

[Booyah45828]

In my experience, using an impact on a nut welded to a stuck bolt always breaks it off at the weld. I've done a lot of welded nuts to remove broken bolts. Doing it right now on a chrysler minivan's cradle and sway bar bolts. If it twisted off spinning it out, it's likely because of rust or corrosion. Heat, and a lot of it, is your best friend with corrosion. But only do it if you're skilled with an acetylene torch. You can very easily burn the truck and shop to the ground if you're not skilled/careful.

Penetrant can work, but it's just not as quick or effective as heat.

Also, hard bits like diamond and carbide need a lot of pressure and rigidity to cut right, the kind of pressure/rigidity you can't do by hand. I've had better luck hand drilling out ez outs using cobalt bits fwiw, and you can resharpen them several times unlike diamond and carbide. I've actually used rescue bits to drill/grind out busted taps and ez outs too, and they work well, but they just aren't cheap.

https://rescuebit.com/ Follow the directions for it, but they do work well.

 

[MadMac]

Hey man, welcome to the club. I'll tell you what I'd do,........ and someone might throw sticks at me, but realize that in the long run that at some point you're going to go through that engine. Your truck will crank up with no problem on 7 glow plugs. I'd leave the ez out where it is and not risk marrying it. When you get to the "time to rebuild point" address the glow plug then with it on your bench instead of hunched over the radiator and hood latch.

Edit: and with 22:1 compression, maybe your truck will help get it out of there a bit sooner.

@bumblebeer Echoing @Jesus Freak - his was my first thought as well. While I’m not a welder/threader, I spent a LOT of time getting my GP system to work. Works well enough that several GPs can not be working - and you might not even notice. More to the point - with as many issues as you’ve listed, I’d get to a functioning system so you can make a better assessment of the need to get through the motor.

Also - I’d be shocked if there were not air intrusion problems from a bad fuel / water separator, leaking front or return side lines, or even more likely the return lines and connectors are old and cracked. Origionally my “blue rescue” also had a lift pump problem, GP harness faults, marginal battery to starter wiring (voltage) problems, both solenoids, and the GP controller - just to get into the major starting problems. Fortunately the IP has not been an issue. And - I was a “wrench rookie”.

Work from the easy things to the hardest things, test & validate everything you touch along the way… when its running reliably - and it sounds like it will - then I’d assess the need to get into the motor out rebuild.

 

[Jesus Freak]

Yeah, just get it running so you can start diagnosing the fuel system. That's where you're going to have your first real operational problems. And HEY, not trying to be negative, but really everyone AND I MEAN EVERYONE, who gets one of these trucks and joins "Oil Burners", and then starts their first thread invariably soon after starts a thread titled "help! My truck dies under load or going up a hill but cranks right back up and does fine!". We've all done it, we're a support group for our leaky fuel system brethern.

 

[Rdnck84_03]

If you do decide to run it while working on other things, or to dislodge that ez out. Use caution because when it does come out it will be with a lot of pressure behind it. When mine blew the just the tip out it put a dent I can feel in a steel hydraulic line. This is on a '63 cat dozer so it is a pretty heavy line. That ez out would probably be about like a bullet.

 

[DaveBen]

I would fix the broken glow plug/EZout before driving it. Like has been discussed here it WILL go BANG at some point. It might cause some severe damage when it goes BANG!

 

[bumblebeer]

@Jesus Freak @MadMac @Rdnck84_03

I definitely hear what y'all are saying! I went with the thermostat and glow plugs first cause I wanted to get her off of the ether and make sure coolant was circulating since I knew I'd need to go through a number or run/drive cycles while working through the other issues.

I was hoping to do a compression test while I had the plugs out so I could see if it was worth it to spend time right now on the other problems or if I'd need to plan on pulling and rebuilding anyway. Would this even be worth doing now? Would I get accurate results on the other 7 cylinders with one being plugged?

I am very tempted to say the hell with that glow plug like y'all said and work on the other stuff. But I'm worried about possible damage. I've read some horror stories about glow plug tips falling off and finding their way into the combustion chamber. Any thoughts on that?

Is there an easy way to tell if the part of the plug that's stuck in the head is still intact? I guess I could pull the injector and fish around with a magnet? Would I be able to see the glow plug tip with the injector out? I'd prefer not to mess with the injectors. They'll probably need to be replaced anyway, but I was planning to check how far off the timing is. If it isn't far off, I figured I could make up for the injectors by adjusting the IP.

In any case, at least I'm now the proud owner of a flux core wire welder. Thanks old truck and Harbor Freight!