HPOP Reservoir EMPTY

[chief1401]

Hello I’m new to the forum and I just brought home my NEW to ME 2002 F-450. She has 167,000 miles so I expected a few minor repairs, but she did not even last 24 hours. I drove around 150 miles to get her home with no problem. When I got home a buddy came over to check her out. She started right up, ran approx. 10 seconds then died. I changed the CAM sensor and still nothing, lucky for me I found the new Ford part # so that only cost me $27. Tonight I found where people were talking about the HPOP reservoir. Checked it and it was empty, put oil in it and she started right up. So now my question, if the reservoir is not supposed to be empty then why was it? Please don’t tell me that I have bought someone else’ headache.
Thanks for any help.

[dieselmt]

You have a low oil pressure problem. Check the oil pressure gauge while cranking to see if it builds up pressure. If not then a manual gauge test needs to be performed at the rear adaptor plug on the oil cooler. The low oil pump g-rotor gears may be scored & possibly the timing cover scored also. Hope its just the g-rotor gears & not the cover. If the cover is damaged then the eng. will have to be pulled.

[bigcountrysg]

After you filled it up did you have any major leaks. As in oil shooting out from it. There are O-rings and if they go bad you will have oil leaks like crazy. Just another thing to look at and for.

[Ditty]

HPOP Res could have been low b/c your crankcase oil level was low. Change the oil and check the o-rings on the hpop...should fix the problem. (Don't forget the oil filter.)

[chief1401]

The oil pressure gauge on the dash does not really move until the engine is running and then shoots up to normal range. I changed the oil yesterday and I’m going to clean the engine today so that I can start looking for leaks with a clean slate.
Thanks for the help so far.

[chief1401]

I do not know if this has anything to do with the low oil in the reservoir or not but today when I was driving the check engine light came on and then went off 3 times.

When I got home I had a friend check the codes. His code reader said injector control pressure below or above desired amount. That is not an exact quote but close.

The first time it came on I was passing, went from 55 to 85 quick. My friend asked if it was running bad, I told him that if it was then I going to have a lot of fun when it runs good. The next two times I was just driving about 70 -75.

[dieselmt]

I'll lay you odds the g-rotor gears are scored enough to cause the resevoir to to stay dry till the pump can fill it slowly. Have had some w/ high mileage w/ the gears scored just enough that you have to crank it longer to build up enough pressure to fill the resevoir. When your driving it down the h/w it still has a problem keeping the resevoir full & will cause drivability problems. Keep us informed.

[chief1401]

Thanks for the info. I'm new to Powerstrokes so please excuses my ignorance but what are g-rotor gears, where are they, how do I check them.

[gbear]

A note about oil pressure gages many are nothing more than an idoit light. They are controlled by an on and off switch, not a pressure transducer. So unless you have something different from the stock unit you will get only one of two readings no oil pressure or normal oil pressure.

Jim

[fordnut85]

Originally Posted by chief1401

Thanks for the info. I'm new to Powerstrokes so please excuses my ignorance but what are g-rotor gears, where are they, how do I check them.

He is talking about the rotors inside the low pressure oil pump which when worn will not deliver enough oil pressure to the resivoir in turn starving the high pressure oil pump (also refered to as an HPOP), usually when this happens you do not get full power out of the motor as in 3/4 pedal feels the same as wide open throttle because there is not enough oil in the HPOP resivoir. like was said before you need to get a manual guage on the low pressure side and get readings at idle, high idle and under load and post them up and we can help you get her figured out.

hope this helps