[Racer71]

My 6.4 block had two holes that the pistons didn’t come up square in. Had to machine the tops down a touch. The depth on your valve recession is kinda all over the place too I notice. Not super consistent, this in turn can affect installed spring height and lifter preload once you get them evened out. I wonder if the decks weren’t square to begin with? Things certainly perpendicular so to speak.

 

[Racer71]

I have a customer who was maintenance at the indy Navistar plant, I’ll have to ask him next time he’s out, I believe he retired in the 6.0 era though. If anyone ever needs any 7.3 idi parts he’s got hundreds of injectors, glow plug modules glow plugs pumps etc all new from back then.

 

[Racer71]

He says he believes there were 4 boring bars that went all at once, decking was a separate station. He retires late 02 as the 6.0 was coming online, he says looking at the new line as it was being put in everything looked cheap, lowest bidder so to speak. He was a machine repair man. Fun fact, ford performance poured their Motorsport blocks and heads at the Indy casting plant due their metal allegedly being better. He says they would come in during shutdown.

 

[Racer71]

He says he never saw it as a issue with the 7.3 but could easily see it happening during 6.0 production. He claims 4 boring heads per bank all at once, no indexing block per bank, so one or two spindle bearings worn could cause a few cylinders to be off. On the 7.3 he said they’d pull while off of machine and replace bearings and do any adjustments needed to them. He never worked the 6.0 line but saw the machinery and is familiar with the processes. He claims most of the machinery on the 7.3 line was older but well proven, that the new line looked disastrous due to his experience with some of the cheaper machinery that had been phased in. The whole 6.0 line was new cheap machinery