SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
That's exactly what happened to my 1991 7.3 IDI i just picked up about 2 months ago. Overheated, blew a headgasket, and seized the motor. No clue what I'm gunna do now...
UP IN SMOKE!
- Thread starter SewperDrewper
- Start date
LCAM-01XA
Full Access Member
Oh man, that's rough!!! Any idea what cause the overheat?
DragRag
Registered User
I have a 7.3l from a RV I could sell you for $500, already pulled. It is about an 11 hour drive though one way.
100k miles on it, will need oil coolers to be put in a truck. Sorry about your bad news on the head gaskets. You may have cracked or warped heads to.
100k miles on it, will need oil coolers to be put in a truck. Sorry about your bad news on the head gaskets. You may have cracked or warped heads to.
icanfixall
Official GMM hand model
Really sorry to learn about this. Its just too bad we don't have a low coolant senser in the top radiator tank.... When I had my aluminum radiator built I had a 1/2 pipe hitting installed in the top tank for a low coolant senser. Some of the small ford cars had them and I know the 2004 duramax motor has one. My friend had that sender go bad and the motor shut down. She was in Kingman AZ on her way toTulsa for a horse show... Eight horses on board. Jumpered the switch and had it fixed in Tulsa.... I think we need to look into this idea more.... Maybe a low oil level or low oil pressure... Horn and flashing lite on that gauge... Horn and lite... Who would continue to drive a rig with all that going on..... My wifey thats who....
You should be able to find a motor in some yards. Not many owners really are awhare of these valuable motors. You can install 6.9 or 7.3 motor in your rig. The only differances in these motors is what they come out of. An S1600 big truck will have the differant exhaust manifolds and the oil pan needs to be switched around. Then most of the acessories need to be changed out. But they bolt right in.....
You should be able to find a motor in some yards. Not many owners really are awhare of these valuable motors. You can install 6.9 or 7.3 motor in your rig. The only differances in these motors is what they come out of. An S1600 big truck will have the differant exhaust manifolds and the oil pan needs to be switched around. Then most of the acessories need to be changed out. But they bolt right in.....SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
Thanks for all the help guys...and the horns and flashing lights still wouldn't have helped. See, I've had a pin hole in the radiator since I bought the truck, and knew it needed fixed ASAP. I unfortunately also work off commission and bought the truck while making money, and then quit making money! So i would just check it everyday and it would need some coolant every couple of days. Since I was short on cash I started having my wife drive the truck so I didn't have to commute the 45 miles a day with it. That was mistake #1! Come to find out she never checked the coolant and had been letting it overheat almost everyday for a week. Mistake #2. I refilled it, and drove it for a few days without any problems. Let her drive it stressing to her how important water was to her body and that the truck was no different...Last and final mistake. I jumped in it to drive a couple of miles and it started to overheat. I figured I was close enough and if I jumped on the freeway it would help cool off. I was right. As soon as I got onto the onramp, it started to cool off. All of a sudden it sounded like a gun went off and the motor temp dropped significantly! I thought for sure that something bad had occurred (duh!) but no smoke outta the tail pipe, no water fro under the truck and no goofy smells. All of a sudden I started losing power and as that happened I looked in the mirror and saw what I was afraid of, billowing white smoke. I pulled off as soon as I could and things weren't getting any better. The temp was spiked out and as soon as the motor idled down it died. That was all she wrote. Three simple mistakes and I gave up the truck I was waiting to have my whole life.
SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
I have a 7.3l from a RV I could sell you for $500, already pulled. It is about an 11 hour drive though one way.
I'd definitely be interested in your offer. That is quite the drive though. If you still have it when I have scrounged up the cash for the motor and the drive out there, I'll message you to see if you still have it. Thanks.
SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
Has anyone on here recently done a cummins swap?
DragRag
Registered User
If you have to scrounge the cash for the 7.3l swap you will really not want to do the cummins swap. If you had a free engine to use it would still likely cost you $5000 by the time you were one. Straight international swap is the inexpensive way to go, and all your accessories will still work to.
SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
Haha. Yeah...that's kinda what I figured. My buddy has a re-powered cummins in his late 80's Ford, and man does that thing scream. Anyways...I have no experience when it comes to diesel mechanics other than loving them...haha. What kind of a job is oil coolers, and why would they be on a truck, but not an RV?
The oil cooler bolts to the left side of the block. They are differences between a truck and van oil cooler. I'm sure the rv was a van type. They are easy to switch and kragen has the gaskets but if you decide to replace the orings then you might was to take it to a professional like an old guy at international. I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere on the board if you wanna tackle orings by yourself.
SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
Thanks for the tips and explanation.
SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
So, I finally got a chance to take a quick peek at the truck since Sunday, and the good news is that it will still turn over. So, that's at least a little piece of positive for now. I'm gunna try and pick up a engine hoist and engine stand this weekend and just start dismantling it to see where we stand as far as damaged parts. I know for sure it has a bad Head Gasket, possible warped heads, possibly cracked pistons...I just hope the block is still intact. I'll keep you guys posted and maybe even snag some pics for the adventure. Thanks again for all the help!
SewperDrewper
Full Access Member
So...I didn't have time to pull the oil pan off the truck, but I did have time to pull the dipstick. Guess what...NO WATER IN THE OIL! There was also no liquid around the heads or any other part of the motor. So, I filled the radiator up. It instantly started leaking from two of the plugs at the bottom of the radiator. So, hooked it up Red Neck style with a hose running into the radiator, and turned it over. Took a couple of seconds and some pumping of the throttle, but it started up and ran no problem. No smoke, no awkward sounds, no hesitation. Revved it up to about 2500 rpm and had no issues. Killed it after that to keep from pushing my bad luck. So, I'm gunna grab a new radiator, drop the oil pan just to hopefully reassure my good luck and refill both oil and radiator fluid, new fuel filter, but does anyone else have any suggestions that would be beneficial to motor longevity and health since it had been so severely overheated? Any help would be great!
BigRigTech
Diesel junky
Take the oil filter off and cut it open, if it's clean of metal you might just get away with some head gaskets.
