My first diesel / motor just went south!

[7.3 Havoc]

Well just as the header stated, just purchased my first diesel a month ago on 4-11-12. I had put much thought and time researching my options, and decided on the iconic 7.3 powerstroke in a 2000 F-350 XLT CrewCab DRW w/185k. I parted with my beloved "2005 Excursion Limited 4x4 with a thirsty but reliable 6.8L V-10 w/170k, for the more fuel efficiant 7.3L PSD. The truck sounded and ran great (compared to many, many others I had looked at) from the day I purchased it until this morning when I went out to start it to let it warm up. I started it and went back inside to grab something and came back out (5 min tops) to a truck with a knocking sound on the drivers side at rear of motor. At first it freaked me out so I shut her down and started looking it up online. I did find many threads and video's on injector knock and flywheel problems, it sounded similar to an injector knock since I have a 6spd. Unfortunatly after restarting truck to listen once again something popped and I now have a hole in the drivers side valve cover at the top rear corner. I also now have excessive possitive crank case pressure, I'm thinking cracked or severly damaged piston.

So I am now faced with the task of a motor rebuild, and what direction I should take? And yes after only one month of being a diesel owner I am thinking about rebuilding my own 7.3L! So since I have more time and mechanical experiance than $$$, these are my options. Would like to hear what you all think? Thanks for reading

1 - rebuild my motor
2 - purchase a rebuilt motor
3 - purchase a used motor with low miles ( LOL, needle in haystack )

[dentexpowerstroke]

Have you looked to see what caused the hole yet? Don't jump to conclusions it will get you in trouble

[blueovalman14]

Sent from somewhere in Texas.....

[7.3 Havoc]

Cleaning out garage for morning tear-down. Will have it all done by late afternoon if it will stop raining outside!

[Turbostang500]

Woah chief!!!!

Dont tear the thing down till you diagnose it!!!!

I mean, the symptoms point to easy conclusions until you pull the head while on the engine stand and there isnt a hole in the piston!!!

I would say, try to do a little diag first so hopefully it doesnt end up costing you more down the road.

[7.3 Havoc]

Verry true Turbostang500, I will be doing the tear-down in stages. Valve cover first to see what made the nice dime sized dome and crack in the valve cover. This is not something I am wanting to do or spend money that I don't need to.

[Turbostang500]

Ok fair enough.

Might not be a bad idea to rent or pay a guy to do a compression/leak down test before you get too far either. Of course, depending on what made the hole in the valve cover, ya may not need one! Lol

Good luck to ya and hope everything doesnt get too expensive!

Wouldn't mind a pic of what hit the vc though!!!!! Lol

[7.3 Havoc]

I think I might have good, maybe great news! Just got done taking the left/drivers side valve cover off and found almost everything was where it should have been. I say almost because there was a white wire on top of last injector, it was supposed to be attached to the glow plug on that cylinder. Also glow plug was not screwed into head and its core was blown out of glowplug housing and bent into a U shape. As far as I know for now I might get away with a new harness, valve cover and 1 glow plug, as long as threads are in good shape. Has anyone heard of this happening before or to someone else?

[Turbostang500]

Thats good news!!! Even though i havent heard of this happening, it seems quite possible.

As far as the vc, i would just weld the hole shut and run it!!!

In case your curious, summit racing has a sale on the valve cover gasket and inner harness for like 55 bucks.

[7.3 Havoc]

Thanks for the tip on the harneses and gaskets, will try and post a couple pics of the failed glow plug and dammaged valve cover. I am going to do some preventitive maint while I have the truck down. Since I really don't know much about the trucks history I'm going to put a set of MotorCraft glow plugs, both inner harneses, stage 1 injectors, TS chip and a full rebuild on my drive shaft.