7.3 powerstroke, How do I fix it?

I have a 1995 F250 Power stroke, 190,000 mile, just broke in right? I bought the truck in 2004 with 162,000 miles - good clean truck really taken care of. As you can see I do not drive it much, just pull a horse trailer or hay trailer a few times a year. I had to put valve cover gasket on it shortly after I bought it! Oh well just one of those things that happen to the power stroke? I went to Ford and bought all new parts, gaskets, inner harness, glow plugs, had to make repairs to the out harness plug that seems to burn up, $500.00 worth of parts and a days labor on my part but problem fixed and should last another 190,000 miles? Wrong, 28,000 miles later the truck left me stranded 30 miles from the house with the same problem and a wreaker bill now! What is the fix for this??? Any tricks someone might have used with good success so far? I have got all the parts again to fix I just don't want to do it again.

Thanks
Mark

You can try this question on guzzle.rbmicro dot com and/or type in 7.3 powerstroke on google. There are several places who will have a person answer your questions quickly and personal.

Mark,

I'm no expert, but my 1997 7.3 powerstroke has 287,000 miles on it and I have never had to replace the valve cover gasket. Is it possible that your problem really is the cam position sensor? That is a common problem with these motors that usually goes bad in about your mileage range. I have only had to replace mine once.

Keep the connections free of oil and other moisture. As soon as the pins start arching it doesn't take very long for the gaskets to start burning. If you do not replace the pins the gaskets will burn more quickly. Btw, a 95 powerstroke is a long life engine, we have 1 with 298,000 and another with well over 500,000 and neither one of them have ever had the heads off. Keep good oil and antifreeze in them and they will last forever.

My son is a ford Senior Master Technician works on the Ford Diesels all the time and this was his response;

Well the short answer is- that's just a common problem on that engine. The longer answer- there are a lot of variables in the story. His story says he bought new glow plugs but did he mean glow plug harnesses? Did all 8 plugs really get replaced? Also, did the original owner keep it in a garage where the glow plug system saw light duty, now the current owner keeps it outside where the glow plug system gets worked harder? Also, 28k miles in 6 years is low, tells me there are many short trips, which also works the GP system harder. He also doesn't say how it runs, is there a faulty injector burning up the harness? Another question I have is about the "repairs to the out harness plug". I don't mean any insult to the owner for doing his own work, but from my experience I see a lot of "home repairs" that are very poor quality, which in this case is even more critical since it is a high voltage harness. I try to stay away from message boards just for the simple fact you can't see things and you are taking a lot for granted.
Suggestions- that harness needs to have a quality repair, new wires, soldered connections etc. Next- have the engine diagnosed for injector and/or glow plug issues. This is something he can't do at home. People are willing to dump tens of thousands of dollars out for a powerstroke but don't want to pay for the maintenance and repairs. It just doesn't work that way. Hopefully this helps, good luck.

With the 7.3's the newer ones 99+ have better valve cover gaskets than the older ones, due to the glow plug pins are thicker. They will burn due to glow plugs going bad, which cause a higher amperage draw. So it sounds like you did the correct thing and replaced the under valve cover harness and glow plugs. What people dont look at is the engine harness that plugs into the valve cover. I'm thinking thats what shorted this time around once again melting the valve cover gasket. They are a pain to fix. They supposedly sell a pig tail kit that crimps on, but what i do is buy the repair kit from IH and crimp the pins on. (i remove the injector pins and move them over to the new harness plug, but i crimp new pins on the glow plug wires. The crimp tool is not very cheap. But my money is on the engine harness melting the valve cover this time around. You may be lucky and the inside harness is fine.

Had the exact same problem with my 2001 7.3L F250. It was still under warranty at the time so it only cost me $100 bucks (parts and labor were over $500). I was told burning the wiring harness on the passenger side was not an uncommon problem and that Ford had come out with a retro-kit that somehow insulated the harness. That is what the dealer installed. He also said it was a good thing it wasn't the drivers-side harness or it would have been $1000 bucks. Lordy!!!! Haven't had any problems since...I hope that continues!!

Thanks for the response: Yes I replaced all 8 glow plug, all 4 glow plug harnesses, valve cover gaskets and replaced the main outer harness connectors that burns up with this problem. I cut back the outer harness to good wire and soldered all connections then had heat shrink put on each, taped and put back in the harness like it was new. That’s why I can't believe it's this way again?? I am a mechanic by trade in the heavy truck field (25+ years) but with little experience with this engine. The truck runs great, I would drive it anywhere! I do not park it indoor; the wife has the market on the garage! And yes the truck only sees trips on the weekends; I just do not put a lot of miles on a truck. I did pull back the valve cover plugs on the curb side and they are burnt @ the glow plug pin and into the pin next to that.

Mark

Thanks for the info. I will reply with what i find this coming weekend when I dig into it. The first time I replaced everything including the outer replacement pigtails? This time I may do just as you did and move the wires over and replace the one glow plug pin in the connector.

Thanks

Great truck, I hope to keep it around a while!

No, wish it was! The truck will start but sounds like it's running on 4 cylinders. I pulled the harness plugs @ the valve cover on the curb side back and both are burnt and melted.

Thanks

Thanks, I will give that a go also!

Mark

Dan, I forgot to ask: I thought glow plug were either good or bad? I check them with a ohm meter for continuity? The glow plug system should pull 100-140 amps?? I don't know if this is correct or not just asking?

Thanks
Mark

When you check them with an ohm meter you should get between .1 and 6 ohms according to the ford manual. One trick i have learned over the years is to wait for the glow plugs to shut off before driving (watch the voltage guage to swing to the middle of normal). When you drive with the glow plugs still cycling you increase the voltage which increases the heat. Also when you replaced the glow plugs did you use motorcraft. Any other glow plug will burn up. Also you can drive the truck while it is in "limp" mode. You will not hurt anything. The IDM will shut off that bank of injectors when it senses a short to the injectors or a short to ground, or voltage to the injectors.

Thanks for the info. I used 8 new motorcraft glow plugs, used all OEM parts thinking it would be a long time before I would need to do it again?? Good idea on waiting for the plugs to cycle, I will stsrt doing that!

Mark, here's the last response from the kid. Hope it helps.

Back to the truck, sounds like he has a good repair. My next question is this: there are 4 injector/glow plug connectors, 2 at each head. Exactly which ones are melted/burned the second time around? Also can he tell exactly which pins seem to have the most damage? There are 5 pins in each connector, the 3 center pins are for the injectors, the 2 outer pins are for the glow plugs. The steps in the shop manual for testing this are way to long to cut and paste on here, but if we can get the damage narrowed down a bit it will help a lot.

Both plugs on the curb side have the first (toward the front of the truck) pin burnt and the damage goes into the second pin. The driver side appears to be alright, not burnt. Now this is the outer harness I have not been under the valve cover yet? As I recall the last time I made this repair all four outer harness plugs were burnt at the front most forward pin, a little strange the glow plug connection on the back wasn't burnt on any of the plugs? I will double check this also as I have kept the damaged plugs (I don’t know why but I did) I kept all the old glow plugs from the last repair I will check them .6 - 1 ohm? Would it be possible for the glow plug relay to stick on without burning up the plugs and causing this damage? The truck has always started good in cold weather so I have just taken for granted the glow plug system is in good shape.

Thanks
Mark

Here are a couple pictures of the plugs I removed from the first repair.

Mark, I'm the guy Dan from WI was referring to. Based on your last post, it sounds to me like it would be worth your time and $ to have a Ford shop check it out. There's only so much you can do by talking about it and without seeing and testing it's hard to say. I just fixed one a few weeks ago similar to yours, ended up being a faulty fuel injector. I agree with other posts on here, once you get this problem licked that stroker will last forever. Good luck, hope it works out.