blown99

It is amazing how Ford changes the game to suit their needs. On the International side we now have a tool that piggy backs the IDM and interfaces the lap top. It measures the delay in time of the injector coils to detect stiction. It shows you in a simple to read printout what inj. need to be replaced and gives you an authorization code. International says the injectors fail primarily on the oil side due to soot in the oil. They are also extending the warranty on these as a parts only deal, customer pays labor. Dropped the price per inj. (with the warranty number) to around $85. On a side note, I had a repeat injector job. Injectors lasted about 6K miles. Came back, tested and found a stiction issue. Replaced the inj. and did a little more searching to find out what is going on with this engine. FOund the customer installed an oil filter for a VT275. These filters are several inches shorter than the 6.0l filter. Running unfiltered was the cause of the inj. failure. The ford pick up applications don't run a fuel pressure switch off the secondary filter housing? We had a recall on the CF (fords LCF) vt 275 where we installed a pressure switch and programmed the ecm to monitor low fuel pressure conditions. The CF/LCF use the same HFCM as the pick ups correct?

Here is the deal with the poorly machined blocks. There is not service letter yet. A few months ago there was a service manager meeting in Washington DC. This was a topic that came up there. Apparently they do not check the liner protrusion at the factory. They have a machine that installs 6 liners at once and sends it on its way. Headgasket issues have popped up on the later serial number I6 egr (I313) engines and maxxforce engines. They have found liner protrusion to be out of spec due to counterbores that are out of spec. Navistar has revised the head bolt torque (add another 1/4 turn to the head bolt) They also came out with an inexpensive manual counterbore cutting tool. The powered version was in the neighborhood of $3500 (if I remember correctly). ISIS has the info for the updated head bolt toque and flatness checks. I had 570 a couple month that would have coolant coming back in its oil sample (very small amount). Tech service wanted to hear nothing about it. I dropped the pan, pressure test, could find nothing. Passed the pressure test hot and cold. Took a gamble and pulled the egr cooler, all black fluff. Decided to pressure test it anyways since I had it off. It had an incredibly small leak at around 35 psi. Changed it out and retested the oil a month later and all was good. My lesson was don't believe the pressure test test.

That is a new one. So the coolant was going into the oil?

ISIS or Iknow. I'll do some looking tomorrow.

Whenever I get problems like this, I spend a 1/2 hr looking for obvious problems, then I cut out all the old rat nest of wiring harnesses and start from scratch. We have no idea what the other person has done, what they have used and or why. You can spend more time trying to diagnose the problem that it takes to remake the system.

I have not heard of any counterbore issues with the maxxforce engines. Every engine that I have run across that had headgasket issues put a lot of pressure in the cooling system. I think there was an article somewhere that listed the serial number range of the affected blocks. I have seen lots of hotside egr cooler failures. Some with very small pinhole type leaks. Small enough where you don't see coolant in the crossover piping and or no smoking/steaming out the exhaust.

Who is selling the A/M valves?

If it is on the floor, you could mount it on a stand then rotate it upside down. You won't have to worry about the valves falling into the cylinder! I too worked on millions of these. I don't ever recall needing to do valve seals on any of them.

I was replacing the head bolts, rocker arms/pedestals, and push tubes one at a time as part of a recall on close to 50 vehicles that I see on a regular basis. Never had a head gasket failure. I would let them sit overnight, drain the block plugs on both sides. I was nervous at first, thought for sure I would have failed head gaskets but never had one come back. Don't know why ford doesn't do any of these recalls??

They are not available on the international side either. We replace the crankcase to head tube to the updated unit and replace the dummie plugs. About $175 tube kit that you can't get o-rings for is a bit ridiculous.

Try doing an injector buzz test when the engine is cold. I see this problem a lot in the IH chassis when the hrs exceed 5,000. The links in the injectors get worn, the thicker cold oil prevents the injector solenoid from moving the link to fire the injector. I usually replace all the injectors when I have this issue, but at minimum, the injectors that do not buzz or are very faint must be replaced. You could also remove the solenoids from the injector bodies in chassis and lap the metal intermediate plate that is located under the injector solenoid. This will tighten up the clearance between the solenoid and the injector link and allow the injector to fire and buzz like new. International was offereing an I tool loan program for this problem but stopped it for what ever reason.

So how do you keep the UREA from freezing with the truck parked overnight/for a week? It says it has a heater but I assume that it only works when the engine is running??

I have never seen International mention it or endorse it. If it worked, I'm sure they would have shipped us the magic in a bottle vs. 80,000 injectors for the past two yrs.

These must be getting popular. On the international side we now have to go through a pre approval process. They also revised what they consider a leak and "normal" weapage. I have yet to do one, but I do see a lot of them where the bed plate is damp.

So how are you guys dead heading the 04 and up pumps without pulling the valve covers? On the international side it has us installing plugs in the high pressure oil manifolds which obviously requires removing the valve covers.

The nav com cable is about $700. If they (international) get enough orders they can reduce the price by $20-30. As of right now, the nav com cable will not work with any 6 pin data links, some wabco hyd. abs, and the navistar/lucas varity abs. I have programmed everything with the 9 pin ATA connector with out a problem with the nav com cable, with the exception of the new big bore ecm's. I don't know what will happen for the Ford dealers, if international pulls the IC-4 from the selection of cables on the NETS screen.

I just ran out and checked my own truck, 02 7.3. I have a welsh/freeze plug in the valley of the block where the fuel pump used to go. (not casted over) My quick reference book I have only shows one cam?? Two different part numbers for the heads (depending on the intake bolt configuration). The ecms are different. I have recieved reman 444's with one bank of AB and hte other bank full of AD split shots. Thought the engine was going to jump out of the frame rails when it actually started, so yes the programming is diffrent between the two.

International just released a bulletin last week regarding the com boxs. As of January 1, 2010, International will no longer support the IC-4 cable. Everything will need to be done with the navcom cable. They insist they will have all the bugs worked out of the navcom cable. I wonder if they even considered the lucas varity hyd. brake system?

Somewhere around 2001 the 7.3 went to the pmr. The older engines all had forged rods. You can remove a pipe plug in the lower block and check out the rod and be able to tell if it is forged or pmr. (I don't remember the difference in appearance off the tip of my head) There was a topic on this a few years ago on ford truck enthusiast . com. The cams are the same. (all the international trucks used the mechanical fuel pump) Remove the plug in the valley of the engine and install the mechanical fuel pump. Heads are drilled to allow for more mounting bolts of the intake manifold. Intakes have larger hoses than the earlier engines. I am not aware of any block differences that would prevent you from installing the engine.

The heads are always wavy from the factory. The local machine shop that does ours always jokes that it looks like they were cut with a chainsaw. The torque spec has been increased on the headbolts as of a few weeks ago. I have had a couple problem childs, repeat failures not by our shop. Liners were always pretty close, had the head cut, tap the head bolt holes and install new head bolts and have not had any repeats.

Just got back from the regional service meeting with international. They too confimred that CAT is done for on highway engines Jan 1, 2010. The Cat International truck deal is going to be for export, called NC 2, as of Jan 1, 2010 the only engine you can get in any international will be an international engine - no more cummins, cat etc. The Maxforce 15 will be a cat acert 15 bottom end with Internationals head and fuel system (common rail). The current maxforce 11 and 13 are going to be redesigned with air to air aftercoolers, different fuel system set up (still common rail), clean all the junk off the top of the engine. There was no word about the CF or the vt275 being discontinued. All the new UPS cars are running the vt275. They seem to have less problems than the 365 with the exception of the injectors. There was no mention of the ford and navistar deal parting ways.

300 seems low?? How about a relative compression test?

If you have access to a stick welder you could use some nickel rod to fill the hole then grind it down.

How long of a session have you used your SAINT program for? I have had very limited sucess data logging with it. Sometimes it works fine, but more often than not, the data becomes intermitant - logs for 3 sec then nothing for 4-5 secs, then loggs for 3 secs and so on. At first I tried several different IC4 cables with the same results. Then international put out an Iknow file stating that it was because the laptops were getting hot. I disproved this with a bag of ice and some ice cold A/C. Changed to service max and the nav com cable. Both have their bugs. The biggest problem with service maxx is that it can only be used on a maxx force engine, and I don't like how they have there pids laid out (anyone no how to move the pids around?) Are you able to buy the IC4 for a reasonable amount? I've been looking to buy my own set up and have been looking at the Nex IQ equipment but am not sure what else I need besides the com cable. Do you know if it comes with all the software too??

The upside down fuel filter was a Ryder special. Kind of a PITA. Run a fuel line from the suction of the fuel transfer pump and over into a bucket of fuel - how does it run. I have also applied regulated shop air to either the fuel tank and or at the pick up tube hose and pressurize the system. Then spray the system with soapy water to detect your leaks. Put a vaccumme gauge at he hose that connects to the pick up tube and crank the engine- what does it pull for vaccume? Does this truck have two fuel tanks? Crossover line under the tank or does it have the siphon system?