Techmerc’s Fix it Blog

Ok so I have been busy and unable to post as of late but I have been working on the engine. After getting some good bolts to mount the engine on the stand with I continued teardown. Let’s go through a few things to do. Remove the wire harness from the engine, pull the turbo pedestal, pull the valve covers, remove upper valve train and injectors (keep everything organized as to how it came out), and then begin head removal. Each head has 18 bolts both inside the valve cover and out. The bolts should be removed in a particular order to prevent head warpage. I won’t go into the exact order, but work in pairs from the outside of the head towards the inside. Once the bolts are removed the heads can be removed and are best handled with a crane or two people, they are heavy. My heads were quite hard to remove and were easier to remove once the engine was rotated with the head pointing straight up. After the heads were removed, we tore out the lifters and organized them with their appropriate valve train parts. Then we removed the high pressure oil pump, it’s resevoir, the harmonic balanced, the low pressure oil pump, and the front timing cover. Keep in mind that the front cover and oil pan are held on with a spread on rubberized gasket material that will require prying. Do not get impatient, you don’t want to bend anything. After the timing cover I did rotate the engine and remove the oil pan. This is messy and will spill a lot of oil, use oil absorbent, or cheap kitty litter will work too (same stuff practically). After the oil pan was off we finished removing the oil pickup tube. One end was attached to the front timing cover, the other to a bracket on a main bearing cap. Then we began to remove the pistons using a 17MM 12 point socket to loosen the connecting rod caps, which have 12pt nuts. Somewhere in here we also removed a few valves out of the heads. During this all this we found that the valves on the passenger side have eroded and lost their margins at the mating surfaces which has also damaged the valve seats. We pulled the two dead pistons and realized they had missing rings and significant damage to both. There may be some connecting rod bearing damage as well but I haven’t determined that completely yet. We also found ring bits in the oil pickup tube. We suspect this is the original failure of the engine and consequently it began to take the hydraulic lifters with it. Several of them appear to be clogged and are not moving. This means they were not passing oil to the rockers and valves on top of not moving properly. We believe this has a significant role to play in the valve train damage. Stay tuned, more to come. Enjoy the pictures.

Engine powerwashed with harness and valve covers removed.

Passenger head with injectors, glow plugs, and upper valve train removed

Well there's your problem

That's not just streaking, that's cylinder damage.

Badly focused shot of #5 and #7 positions on the head, notice the valves are recessed too much

Top of #5 piston

Num 5 piston from the side, missing rings and chunks of metal

Engine on stand, working on lower end

Intake seats for #5 and #7

Picture of valve face for #5 intake, that's not good.

Powerbuilt 648433 Piston Ring Compressor

Powerbuilt 648432 OH Valve Spring Compressor

Valve Lapping Stick-Small Dia.

Tags: Automotive by Technical Mercenary
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So after leaving the engine fairly well stripped from our last encounter we follow up with a few things. First thing’s first, remove the starter, which is three bolts, the upper one is easier to reach across the top of the cross member with a long extension. Then we remove the Torque converter inspection cover and unbolt the converter from the engine. I used a large ratchet on the harmonic balancer to turn the engine over to reach all the bolts. Next thing is to unbolt the 6 main bolts from the transmission to the engine. This will require an obscene amount of socket extensions and wobble joints. I then noticed I had left my block heater intact and that it would hang. However I also noticed the cable was in real bad shape, like it had been chewed on by animals, so I just finished cutting the cable and I will repair it later. Next thing is to unbolt the engine from the frame and begin the lifting procedure. Now initially we unbolted the mounts from the frame cross member and tried to lift with a load leveler. I won’t go into to details but this is not the best way. The load leveler won’t clear the cowl and the bolts that go into the cross member are too long to pull all the way out when you lift. So we corrected that by using a steel bar between the lifting points on the engine with the engine hoist latched on between the two and chained to either lifting point for stability. The engine mounts are actually two pieces which will unbolt in half, allowing the need for less clearance. After clearing a few minor obstacles we were able to lift the motor out. Now there is video of this, but not all of it, just the climax. What you don’t see is a set of obstacles we had to overcome that would have made us poster children for “Why women live longer than men”. This engine depending on how it’s dressed has been quoted at weighing anywhere from 900lbs to 1100lbs, and we had way too many issues for our comfort. For one, the bar we used to lift the engine bent and almost broke on us. It was thicker than 1/2 solid steel yet developed a stress fracture at the lifting point.  Also our temporary pad of asphalt didn’t work well and we had problems trying to make the hoist work on boards we laid across the pad.  So lesson learned, give this thing some respect. Once the engine is free from the bay, remove the flywheel bolts and the transmission adapter plate. Now lesson learned here is that your tranny bolts are not usable on the stand, they are too loose, hence the jack on the front of the engine in the picture. It was Sunday and the fastener stores were close, it will hold till Monday when I can make the change.

Wilmar W41023 6 Ton Heavy Duty Jack Stands

Diesel: General Motors and Ford (Haynes Repair Manual)

18in. x 18in. Absorbent Pad Soaks up Oil, Gas, Battery Acids and More!

Tags: Automotive, Ham Radio and Homebrew Electronics by Technical Mercenary
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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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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.

Finishing site prep, getting ready for teardown

After site prep, we started teardown

Joes All Purpose Hand Cleaner 15 oz. squeeze tube Best Stuff in the world, and it smells great.

Advanced Tool Design Model ATD-7485 2 Ton Folding Mobile Engine Crane

Stanley 92-824 Black Chrome and Laser Etched Socket Set, 69-Piece

Tags: Automotive by Technical Mercenary
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This may not be new to some of you blog surfers out there, but it is to me, so I decided to give it a shot. Now I’ve done quite a bit of video and web page perusing to figure out the basics on this one. Two electrodes in electrolyte doped water, add some current and you get a gas that goes boom when ignited. “Why is this so important?” you ask. Simple….because you can use it as a fuel for engines. That’s where I will take this. Tonight was just a “proof of concept” test run. Some left over bits of wire and copper tubing, a little lye in some tap water, with the power supply used for my ham station and viola. The container is a resealable plastic decanter from the local mega mart. Rumors abound on the internet about using Hydroxy gas (also called Brown’s Gas or HHO) made on demand in this manner as a fuel booster. Not only does it help replace some of the gasoline or diesel that your engine burns, but it assists in the burning of what your engine does use. This should have the overall effect of boosting your mileage. We shall see just how well it works. Now, one of the things that everyone talks about is having to fool your O2 sensor if you try to feed your car a significant percentage of this stuff since it makes the emissions cleaner. There’s bound to be something to it as this gas is used in industry for cutting and welding as well, so we know it burns and better yet, the byproduct is water. So follow along with me and we will see what it takes to make hydroxy for your vehicle.

Top view of my Test rig

Full side view of test rig running

The electrodes I used are copper tubing, but that won’t work for a production system, they were just to test. Within seconds of use the positive terminal developed a layer of corrosion and began to flake off. I’m going to use stainless steel for the final production. Suggestions are welcome if you’ve used this before.

Duracell DPP-600HD Powerpack 600 Jump Starter & Emergency Power Source with Radio

Fuel from Water: Energy Independence with Hydrogen, 11th Edition

Alternative Energy Demystified

Tags: Automotive by Technical Mercenary
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