Smokey black truck UPDATE. Screwed up my Rally plans, but still had FUN.

[GOOSE]

Dave, I showed up the day after you left, sorry we missed each other. That IDI is a whole lot tougher than the E4OD in the '91 F150 I brought. At least yours made the trip. You are sooo right though, it would have been worth it to rent a car to get to meet a few of the Oilburner folk, absolutely great people

 

[towtruckdave]

I finally have some time and motivation. I am heading out to start pulling the old wounded 6.9 out. Then it is "in with the strong running 7.3".

It has been just over a week since I limped it home. I miss driving this truck. Low fuel cost, great stereo with Lanzar alloy sub, air conditioning, 4x4 and winch make this my favorite truck.

Speaking of fuel, I think I will stop running 85% wmo and go with something more conservative, like 65% wmo, 35% diesel. I am also going to enhance my filtering setup. I have been getting fairly lazy about filtering lately and I am sure that factored into my injector issues. I am really concerned about the black crud Dieselcrawler found in my injectors. I am also trying to make sense out of the enlarged hole I noticed in a few of my injectors.

 

[towtruckdave]

engine removal pics

I chipped away at the engine change this evening.

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First I drained the radiator from the petcock.

Next I removed the rad hoses.

Then I removed the cooling shroud bolts, rad bolts and pulled the rad, then the shroud.

Then I removed the ground on both batteries, unplugged the engine wire harness, ground wire, throttle cable, etc.

Then I removed from the engine: vacuum pump, p/s pump, a/c comp, alt, along with the brackets to be installed on the replacement engine. I left all the wires and hoses connected to all these accessories and tucked them aside in the engine compartment. Disconnecting the stuff wastes time, p/s fluid and r134a.

I left the a/c condenser in place as well as the fan. I will be real careful not to crunch the two together when the engine gets lifted out.

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Then I removed the four engine mount nuts with an 18mm and 18" worth of extension.

Almost there. It is dinner time, that is enough for today.

edit to add:

I shot some PB blaster on the nuts holding the y-pipe to the manifolds and let that sit overnight.

Next day I removed the heater hoses, fuel and fuel return lines.

Then I removed the starter using a 3/8 drive ratshit with a 9/16 shortwell socket on a 10" extension. It is the mini gear reduction, so it was easy. I left it hanging from the front leaf spring by a short bungee. I left all the wires on.

This was a perfect time to remove the inspection cover. Mine had two 5/16 headed bolts and two 7/16 headed bolts. They came right off with a 1/4" drive and 6" extension.

Next, I removed the exhaust nuts with a 5/8" deepwell 6 point and a 14" extension. They came off. Cool!

Next, I pulled the bottom two bellhousing bolts on each side using a 3/4" inch socket and 6" extension on a flex headed, long handled 1/2" drive ratchet. I pulled the top two bell housing bolts using a 3/4" box wrench, with one knee on the core support and one foot on a ladder.

This 6.9 should come right out now.

I did a quick check and found a ground wire on the back of the block. I removed it from the block and dangled it over my a/c hose.

That's it, she is ready to come out.

Went inside, enough for today.

 

[david85]

I wish you luck, but man I don't envy you right now. I get to work on my truck too over the last few days, but I get to stay clean.

I hope at the very least the engine is rebuildable.

 

[seawalkersee]

Im just pissed you stopped there. I wanted to see what was wrong with it...

SWS

 

[Agnem]

WMO most definitely burns hotter than diesel. I've experienced that myself. The Moosestang is also down on power running on that junk, but with the price it's hard to complain.

 

[sassyrel]

I do not think it is related to burning wmo but we will see. I will post a cause of failure with pics.....[/QUOTE]

mmmm,,as the original wmo burner,,the boys at the idi rally i went to in mi,,,,didnt say much,,but the look on their faces were priceless!!! esp since we slept in the back,,next to the tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ask mel...thought,,hillbilly plus,,right ,mel???? but high fuel prices,,will make you think otherwise.............................

 

[sassyrel]

WMO most definitely burns hotter than diesel. I've experienced that myself. The Moosestang is also down on power running on that junk, but with the price it's hard to complain.

one of the problems,,with wmo,,is a lot of people read about wmo burning,,go to burn it,,,and DONT get it filtered properly........tho theres not much contamination,,,it still needs to be filtered properly.....and remember,,i was running 100%..with a hairdryer, and pyro,,and it NEVER would climb in temp......but you just got to love those K&N's!!!!!

 

[subway]

I gained 10HP running WMO on the dyno, that was through a heated system though and not the stock fuel assembly. pyro seems about the same maybe a little higher.

 

[towtruckdave]

Goose: It is too bad we did not get to meet at the rally.

SWS: I will get it ripped apart here real soon.

EMD: Thanks, it was a pleasure to meet you as well.

 

[towtruckdave]

WMO most definitely burns hotter than diesel. I've experienced that myself. The Moosestang is also down on power running on that junk, but with the price it's hard to complain.

I heard that!

 

[towtruckdave]

one of the problems,,with wmo,,is a lot of people read about wmo burning,,go to burn it,,,and DONT get it filtered properly........tho theres not much contamination,,,it still needs to be filtered properly.....and remember,,i was running 100%..with a hairdryer, and pyro,,and it NEVER would climb in temp......but you just got to love those K&N's!!!!!

Yea, I was getting lazy lately as far as filtering.

I gained 10HP running WMO on the dyno, that was through a heated system though and not the stock fuel assembly. pyro seems about the same maybe a little higher.

Tell me more....

 

[badaceds650]

I run 80% in the winter.

I run 85% in the warmer months.

In that pic with all the smoke, I was running all diesel. I was running the front tank since I got off I81 on Friday, which is straight #2 road diesel with a lot of Howes.

I ran 85% wmo the 350 miles from Cleveland to exit 100 on I81.

mines seems to like 60-70% after that it just smokes, and stinks to much for me

how many miles did you put on this motor running wmo?

 

[towtruckdave]

I am really not too upset about this engine failing. The sad truth is: ever since I bought this motor, it was a slug. It was low on compression since I got it. The first time I drove it, I could tell right away it had less power than the "bad head gasket 7.3" I pulled out.

One thing I always hated: if you let out the clutch while loaded, from a dead stop, the engine would stuff out, bog and belch black smoke.

The bores measured just about perfect, with no ring ridge or taper, so I never even removed any pistons. I probably should have. I was talking to a member at the rally who suggested that some of the rings could have been overheated and lost tension. Who said that? I would not be surprised if that was the case. The top rings may also be pitted or flaking material off. It also always seemed to have a bit of a miss, some times worse than other times, but always there at some level. It was most pronounced from 900-1500 rpm.

One thing is for sure, no matter what you do, if your engine is not getting a good seal on every ring and every valve seat, it will not be a strong runner. But get it all right, and a motor is usually pretty strong and/or fast.

And sorry, I keep forgetting to answer: truck has no turbo or pyro. (oops)

 

[towtruckdave]

mines seems to like 60-70% after that it just smokes, and stinks to much for me

how many miles did you put on this motor running wmo?

Thanks for the data.

I put around 25,000 miles on, running wmo, since I set this motor in there, about a year ago.