2008 November | Techmerc's Fix it Blog

Powerstroke teardown Day 2

Picking up from where I left off the night before I proceeded with the teardown of the vehicle. With the front body pieces disassembled I could proceed to start removing the large number of cooling systems from the vehicle. Now remember, all of these systems except the intercooler have something besides air in them, dispose of whatever it is properly. With the AC system evacuated and the top hold downs removed the night before, two nuts break the connections at the condenser. The condenser on this vehicle is a parallel flow type and I may need to replace it if I see too much contamination in the system later on. Once disconnected it lifts right out revealing the next layer.

Just removed the Condenser

A few more bolts on the support bars and brackets along with clamp removal and unscrewing some flare fittings and my transmission cooler and power steering cooler (lowest) are loose and draining.

Tranny cooler gone, PS cooler next

Next thing’s next, the intercooler. First remove the trim pieces from around the intercooler and upper radiator support area. The intercooler bolts to the upper radiator support on each side, so remove the bolt on each side and the pipes from the turbo and to the intake wye, then six bolts on each side of the support. On top of that you will need to remove your upper radiator mounts and set them aside. Then the support must be removed with some “slight persuasion” but it wasn’t too hard. Intercooler will follow that since nothing is holding it into place

Support and Intercooler removed

Next layer….radiator. As your can see from the above pictures the cooling system was draining for a while to avoid excessive splashing in the drain pans. Remove the hose clamps and reservoir, then the two bolts on top to disconnect the shroud. The shroud slides in at the bottom, so it can be left in the bay. Lift the radiator out once the shroud is off, then take the shroud. I also removed my batteries from the trays at this point along with the drive belt.

Radiator and resevoir removed

Next came my first significant problem. Time to remove the fan. Now normally I would just use an open end wrench to remove the pulley and fan all at once, but not this time. This time I had a bolt stick and round out on the fan pulley. So I just went ahead and removed the water pump with a ratchet and wobble joint. Normally the pump can be left on while you pull the motor as I understand it.

Water Pump Removed

With the water pump removed, time to clean out the small stuff. Remove the AC lines from the compressor, accumulator, and evaporator using standard ratchets and quick disconnect tools for Ford lines. Pull the plug on the main motor harness over the drivers valve cover. We tried to remove the power steering pump but were unable to get the pulley off, so we unplugged the alternator and removed the four screws holding that bracket onto the engine and set it aside. Then a few more screws took the compressor bracket including the idler and tensioner pulleys. then we disconnected the fuel system at the bottom of the motor. Somewhere in here we loosened all the pipe clamps and pulled the intake wye, put rags in the head intake plenums then proceeded to the turbo. Three pipe clamps, two bolts, and an actuating arm clip later, and out came the turbo with minimum prying to loosen it of it’s pedestal. Remove the ground wires at the bottom of the engine, they are secured at the bottom on either side of the harmonic balancer. Remove wires that will obviously hang as you pull the motor, and clear the way of other obstacles.

Removing Brackets and Ancillaries

Below is a picture of the turbo pedestal after the turbo is removed. There is an actuator for an Exhaust Back Pressure Valve behind the pedestal and it’s arm hooks to the turbo. It is held in place with a small clip that pulls free with your fingers, feel for it.

Turbo Removed

This is a close up of the fuel lines and where they connect to the motor. The lines are rigid along the frame then change to a set of flex lines before connecting to the rigid lines on the motor. These use the ford quick Disconnect fittings, but were more stubborn. The springs in these connectors weren’t normal coil springs, but leaf springs that run axially with the hose. They were pretty difficult in my case.

Fuel line disconnected

After getting all this done, we went ahead and removed the oil filter and drained the oil. We will leave the starter, motor mounts, and removal from transmission until later when we do finally pull the motor. The oil filter and starter must be removed to clear the frame cross member.

Blitz USA 11838 15 Qt. Plastic Drain Pan

Stanley 92-716 SAE and MM Combination Wrench Set, 22-Piece

Designers Edge L-14SLED Home Light Two-Light 1000-Watt Halogen Work Light with Tripod

Tags: Automotive by Technical Mercenary
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Diesel Teardown has begun

Well all, I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to get to post on my blog much. I lost my regular job and have been busy scrounging for money and employment. After helping my mother remodel her bathroom part-time for the past month or two, I have accepted a job offer and am awaiting the rubber stamp brigade to hit my paperwork. With a new job on the horizon I decided it was time to get serious with the 1999 Powerstroke diesel I have. It’s time to rebuild it. Now keep in mind, this isn’t a small block V8 gas engine. This is an engine used in commercial truck chassis. My particular Powerstroke is the 7.3L model, meaning it’s true identity is……International T444E. That’s right, Ford’s diesels are made by International. This thing is big and heavy, and runs different compared to the gas engines that so many are use to working on.

Now I’ve had this vehicle for a while, but have been tied up in a title battle with it, and learning as well. After getting a laptop based code scanner, and using an infrared thermometer, I figured out that the engine had problems with the passenger side cylinder bank, and specifically number 5 cylinder. So after getting a compression gauge that would fit my engine (the cheap ones won’t do it, they fit the pre-Powerstroke ford diesels), I got even more depressed. Cylinder 5 has no compression at all, and cylinder 7 has pressure that is below spec. Time to tear it down.

In preparation for the tear down, I had to purchase the necessary equipment and prep my site. Buying the equipment was easy. But my site prep was a little more difficult. I’m using my back patio as the work area, but had to make sure my engine crane that I purchased could be pulled back and rotated out of position for engine removal. It would clear the truck body, but the truck had to be parked at the edge of the patio. This means I now had no surface to roll the forward casters of the crane on, just the dirt. This wasn’t going to work, so time to make a pad of some sort. I decided that a good pad made of asphalt would work and would be easy enough to put down, and easier to dig back up when I wanted to repair the yard. I just went down to my nearest home improvement box store and bought 5 bags of what is called “cold patch”. This stuff is asphalt in a bag and is used to patch roads and driveways. Just pour it out, tamp it down, and let it set up, it will harden. So after digging out the square of space I wanted for a pad, I then poured in, smoothed out, and tamped down the asphalt into the newly dug up section of yard next to my patio. I finished this last night, then decided to setup the rest of my work area.

Having done a compression test I had to put the truck back together enough to move it. After that I then pulled the truck up into position and parked it. Now I also planned for a little more comfortable of a work site than previous endeavors. This meant I wanted to help control the West Texas wind this winter. So up with the shelter it was. A tarp stretched from the overhang of the house and tensioned to the headache rack with bungees made a nice shelter. Especially a tarp big enough to be draped down one side of the truck as a wind block. Next it was time to start tear down.

I had some help from a friend this night and I decided to start my tear down with some help. First, off with the hood. Next the bumper, then we took grill. After that came the marker lamp assemblies, headlamp bezels, then the header piece that the headlights were mounted to. Headlights were left on this piece to preserve headlamp aiming. Along with a trim piece here and there we left the tear down at that point to return to on the next visit. Stay tuned for progress.