7.3L Rebuild

[Descent74]

Hello all,

I am a first time diesel owner and this is my first post. I jst bought a 2002 reg cab, long box, srw F-350. It is an auto and has 260,000 kms on it. I guess I did the worst a guy could do and bought a used diesel with out having a mechanic check it for me. Anyway, about a week after I bought it, it started to take a longer crank before it would start. When it would start it would smoke blue for a while and then it would clear up and run fine. So I brought it to my local ford dealer and got them to diagnose it for me. They did a water test on it (which means nothing to me) and told me that it has 6"-8" of water on the #3 and #8 cylinders. Spec is 3". They said the motor is done and I need a new one. My question is, can a fairly mechanically inclined guy take on a rebuild like this or is it better to go to the pros.

[Southpaw]

If you've never owned a diesel, or never rebuilt a motor, I would not attempt it. Just my

I would also not take their word for it that the motor is junk. I'm no tech, but I've never heard of this water test?
I would have an independent shop that knows 7.3's look at it.

[zpd307]

did they do a compression test???? i also have never heard of a water test...

[symbols]

WTF is a water test??

[Descent74]

From what the dealership told me it is some sort of a blowby test.

[Heartbeatracing]

260,000 KMs is only like 160,000 miles.. unless the guy drove it around with no air filter it should have at least another 100,000 miles (160,000 kms) left in it.

[Descent74]

The first thing that I looked at was the turbo to see if it was chewed up and it all looked nice and straight. Although that is not to say it didn't have a new turbo.

[Descent74]

Anybody else have any suggestions? I am trying to find a diesel shop around here but I am not having much luck yet. I am thinking that it would be a good idea to get a second opinion.

[Heartbeatracing]

if you want to see how much blowby you have, simply start the truck, lift the hood and take off the oil cap... My last truck had 250,000 MILES on it (402,000 Kms) and puffed a tad of smoke out of the filler neck. Maybe take a video of it and post it up for us to see....

And to add it ran fine and got 14 MPG

[Descent74]

That is the issue that I am running into. The truck runs strong, imo it has lots of power and gets great milage. The only issue is that is has a hard start when warm and smokes blue initially for a minute or so.