Fixing my truck part 1

   Saturday was a productive day for me: I spent eight hours working on the truck then rode my new bicycle for 16Km (10 miles). You probably don't care too much about the details of the bike ride, so let me tell you about my experience of working on the truck. I'd like to start out with some advise for others whom dabble in work on cars: If you can spend a few minutes getting stuff out of your way it will probably benefit you greatly the first time you do a job on a vehicle.

   The first thing I did with my truck is set up a quick shade style canopy. This was my wife's idea, and a pretty good one at that. It made working out in the 100 degree Texas sun bearable.

The canopy was my wonderful wife's idea and made working on the truck as pleasant as it could be for working outside in a Texas Summer.

   The second bit of advise I have for someone, anyone doing really serious work on a vehicle for the first time, is document everything! It doesn't matter how you do it. In the past I've used a notebook, but recently I've learned of a cool new invention called the digital camera, granted it helps to have a friend to snap the pictures so you don't get slowed down too much.

A picture of the engine shortly after starting work on it notice the batteries are disconnected and a degas (aka coolant tank) is unbolted from it's normal location.

   Pictures that document specific connections can really help you out later, since they show all of the detail of color and size and most cameras number them in order, so reassembly is simply a matter of looking at the pics in reverse order.

An example of documenting with pictures, now I know the where that plug with the white/red wire goes :)

   The things I removed included: the batteries (most diesel trucks have at least two), the air filter assembly, both of the charge air cooler (some people call it intercooler but that's a different story) tubes, the alternator, and as much of the fan shroud as possible. I personally really get into my work, literally. I'm flexible, and can get into tighter spaces than most mechanics. After removing the batteries from the truck I found the passenger side battery tray a suitable perch to work from.

This picture is courtesy of my 8 yr old daughter "Monster". I didn't know she was taking it, but it shows off how in, literally and figuratively, to my work I get.

   What can I say about all the work...  I guess I owe a big shout out to srmastertech on youtube. He has some fantastic videos and a wealth of experience working on late model Fords. After watching his videos the only thing that I had trouble with was the fact that there was a third bolt holding down my turbo from the back. Many references mention removing the back bolt then the front bolt which implies just two bolts. I found two bolts oriented horizontally going through the turbo pedestal onto the exhaust side volute. Then I started prying up on the turbo to un-seat it from the pedestal and oil drain tube. I spent 45 minutes and a great deal of energy on this until I happened to notice a third bolt oriented vertically almost directly under the exhaust side outlet of the turbo. Obviously, once this bolt was removed the turbo came out with almost no fuss at all.

After much prying and a few choice words, there it is, my turbo. I wish I was pulling it to upgrade it. But if that time comes, I'll know what to do.

   Once the turbo was out of the truck, I was able to do a little bit of investigation. If you aren't spun up on why I was doing all of this, let me bring you up to speed. I used my truck to tow my friends Camaro. Plenty of starts and stops, even hopped a curb to help someone jump-start their dead battery, you know a typical day in the life of a truck. The whole day the truck ran like a charm--no trouble at all. I parked it in my driveway late that night after a decent days work. The next morning, when I tried to drive to the store, the engine cranked, but it wouldn't start. No fire at all. The best way to explain it is trying to start a gasoline engine with a brand new battery and no fuel in it at all.

   I spent a day ruling out things like fuses, relays, and wire damage--to no avail. Next I went to the internet to learn about the wealth of faults that the 6.0 Power Stroke engine has (hence my previous blog entry). Let me give you a rundown of how these trucks work. Older style diesels (the first generation of 5.9 Cummins found in Dodge trucks and the 6.2/6.5 Detroit Diesel made V8 engines found in the '80s Chevrolet and GMC trucks used mechanical fuel injection pumps. Diesel engines require the fuel to be injected into the engine at a rather high pressure, typically the minimum is about 2,000 PSI (the higher the better for increased power, quieter operation and less smoke out the exhaust). The mechanical pumps in these engines did several jobs. First they were almost like a distributor used for spark plugs in that they routed the fuel to each cylinder at the right time, and in the right amount. Second they throttled the engine. Gas engines are throttled (varied in speed, you know with a gas pedal, etc) by how much air you let into the intake of the engine, fuel volume is controlled to match the volume of air flow. Diesel engines run with wide open air flow, instead they are throttled by how much fuel is injected into the engine. The third job those mechanical pumps had was to shut off the fuel when you turned the key off, thus shutting the engine off.

   Those 5.9 Cummins, 6.2/6.5 Detroits and the International Harvester made 6.9 and (pre-Power Stroke) 7.3 were very reliable engines, and simpler to keep running than any gas engine in any vehicle. The only shortcoming(s) were power output and (to some) their dirty exhaust. The new diesels today easily make more power than a supercar and can do it while hauling almost anything including the kitchen sink. The original 7.3 Power Stroke was the first to hit the market with a computer controlled injection system which made increasing power as easy as "chipping" or re-tuning any modern fuel injected gas powered car. GM soldiered on with it's 6.5 until it got the respectable Duramax in 2001, The Duramax (designed in colaboration with Isuzu) was ahead of the game with using a common rail injection system. Dodge stayed the course with it's mechanically injected 5.9 Cummins until the 5.9 joined the 6.6 Durmax in the world of common rails, this was driven by the aforementioned increased emissions regulations. Ford, and it's partner International, went a whole new route, they started with a clean sheet design, this resulted in the 6.0 Power Stroke.

   Now the general mechanics of the engine is fine. It's very rare that any one ever has a problem with the bottom end. Most of the common problems on these engines involve components and methods that that differ from the Duramax and Cummins engines. Namely the method that the fuel injection functions. The Duramax and Cummins engines use an expensive pump to pressurize fuel up to the thousands of PSI that is needed for proper injections, the injectors are relatively simply yet expensive to build valves that open and close at the right time to induce fuel to the engine. The method used on 7.3 and 6.0 Power Strokes involve a High Pressure Oil Pump (HPOP) and very complicated, yet easier to manufacture Hydraulic Electronic Unit Injectors (HEUI). Like all engines the Power Strokes use a typical "low pressure" oil pump which lubricates the engine and operates between 10-60 PSI. This regular oil pump also feeds the HPOP which can squeeze oil to pressures in excess of 500 PSI.
Fuel is pumped to the engine and eventually the injectors at about 50-60 PSI, which is similar to where gas engines need there fuel pressure at. The fuel is routed to a chamber near the tip of the injector. The electronically operated valve at the top of the injector opens to let high pressure oil in to a chamber and is allowed to press down on a piston within the injector. This oil-chamber piston is larger in diameter than the fuel-chamber piston and allows a multiplication of force. 500 PSI on the oil side turns to more than 2,000 PSI on the fuel side.

   With all of that out of the way, what I've learned is that my truck is not getting enough pressure from the HPOP. The high pressure oil system has two critical components besides the pump. These are the Injection Pressure Regulator (IPR) and the Injection Pressure Sensor (IPS). The IPR is an electronic valve which the computer uses to regulate the oil pressure going to the injectors. The IPS is how the computer tracks the oil pressure and it's signal, in turn, affects what the computer will do with the IPR. Throughout the high pressure oil system there are several seals, gaskets and plugs that are known to have problems on the 6.0. Over time they were upgraded and re-engineered. In short the materials originally used were not up to par with the technology they were supporting.

  My truck was only building about 300 PSI of pressure from the HPOP. There are several components that, when failing, will result in almost no oil pressure. Since I'm getting a few hundred PSI, I believe the major components are operating properly, and that I have a leak some where. The good news is that a seal or o-ring is cheaper than any of the major components, the bad news is there are lots of o-rings and seals in this system. And finding the failing seal(s) is a hunt in every essence of the word.

   My truck is partially torn apart and I haven't gotten to the problem(s) yet. But I made a lot of head-way in the effort to fix it. This story will continue in future posts but for now I will leave you with a few pictures of my little adventure. Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment!

A picture of your Author, just in case you wondered.

Yes that's a lug wrench, I didn't have a proper pry bar at the time. A problem I just resolved.

A 6.0 Power Stroke sans Turbocharger (as well as the alternator and a few other things).

In addition to the no start problem, I've also had very minor oil leak. I think the orange hose in the bottom of this picture is the culprit. Notice the oil stain on that white bar-code sticker is starting at the bottom and going up.

This is the housing for my oil filter. I'm a little concerned that it was so empty. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about this engine to know if this is normal. On the left side of the picture, you can again see a mess of oil. The cylindrical object on the right with the black connector is my EGR valve.

Here is a close up of the EGR valve. Yes, this soot is going back into the engine. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this yet...

The intake side of my IPR showing the filter screen, I would have preferred to not see the few little specs on the filter-screen, but compared to some of the IPRs I've seen on these trucks, I'm considering my self lucky. More debris on this screen could imply a failing HPOP, which is a very expensive part.

Things get interesting...

   It seems my truck doesn't like having a Chevy in the garage. Now it won't start! My truck is an '05 Super Duty with the 6.0 Powerstroke. I've done some troubleshooting and some research. Here's what I have learned: the 6.0 Powerstroke is the diesel equivalent of mid 70's gasoline "emissions" engine.

   Any one remember the awesome American muscle cars prior to the mid seventies? And then how the performance all of the sudden started sucking? Similar thing with this engine. Around 2000 the EPA and other agencies decided to really ratchet down on diesel engines in consumer vehicles. For a while diesels didn't need catalytic converters like their gasoline counterparts, and all was well. Between 2000 and 2010 everything has changed for these diesels though. Now manufacturers spend as much money on developing exhaust and emissions treating systems as the do for the diesel engine its self. If you were to buy a new diesel truck it's like your paying for two engines.

   I love my truck. It's almost exactly what I was looking for when bought it seven years ago. I have had to fix some things but when you treat it like I do that is expected. The rest of the Powerstroke family all seem like good engines that is the 7.3, 6.4, and the 6.7. However the 6.0 like the one in my truck has more than its share of problems. And they are all a result of knee-jerk emissions requirements.

   As stated earlier, I have done some troubleshooting on it and believe I have narrowed the problem down to a high pressure oil leak. I will start tearing into the engine this weekend in hopes that I can find the leak and fix it my self.

   In other news, here are a few teaser pics for other things I've been working on:

   Here's the first project I'm going to blog about, it is a friend's '67 Camaro. He was driving home one evening and a deer jumped out in front of him. He dodged the deer and slid into a curb. No one was hurt except for the car. It has two damaged wheels and bent A arms on the left front corner. We only had to tow it a mile so decided a tow dolly was the easiest way to move it to a place we could work on it.

Car had a flat front tire when we loaded it up, the left rear tire blew out a quarter mile from the garage. Moral: don't trust a bent wheel at all.

   The car had three good tires when we drove it on to the dolly, the flat tire on the front left was driven over wood blocks to help ease it up the dolly's ramp and into the saddle. Halfway through our one mile trip, the left rear tire blew out. By the time we got to the garage it was shredded. I later discovered the cause was the bent axle shaft on the left rear corner combined with the wider-than-stock tires rubbing on the air shock's inlet nozzle which eventually gouged a hole in the inner sidewall.

 

Picture showing damage to wheels and left front suspension. The rear axle shaft was bent as well and will be replaced. Notice the big brake rotors on the left. The car has a healthy 454 engine and drum brakes all around. The friend who owns the car doesn't want to lose control again, so he contacted CPP for their big brake kit.

   The car is an RS model and was originally equipped with with a 327 cubic inch engine and a four-speed transmission. The previous owner swapped in a 454 engine from an '81 truck, a Tremec TKO-500 transmission, and a few basic bolt-ons to subtly improve performance. Stock suspension and drum brakes were still all around. My friend contacted Classic Performance parts to order their Complete front/rear Big Brake Kit. To repair the damage to the suspension, he also ordered CPP's Pro Touring Stage II kit, which includes tubular control arms, QA-1 adjustable shocks, (adjustable coil-over fronts,) and beefy multi-leaf rear springs.

   Lets start tearing into this car and getting things cleaned up for the new parts.

Close up of the front wheel, it took the majority of the impact.

   The front end came apart with the standard amount of fuss you'd expect from a 45-year-old car. Since there are plenty of sites demonstrating how to do this, Iwon't bore you with all of that. I will mention it took us three hours to get the first side apart and about one hour to get the second side apart--pretty typical when starting a DIY project in your garage.

   Although it took a long time, the front didn't reveal any surprises. The rear was a different story though. A lot of times when you look at tech sections in car magazines, the cars are clean and un-messed-around-with. However, this particular car is a case of reality: we found numerous examples of poor repair and techniques on this car, the first of which is missing or damaged bolts being replaced with welds. If a factory went through the trouble to bolt things together, there is probably a good reason for it. Typically it's cheaper and faster to weld parts on the assembly line than it is to bolt them. Factories will often bolt things together when there is reason to disassemble them. These reasons include such things as maintenance, periodic inspections, and repairs. In this particular case, it appeared that some one tried to remove the rear springs and in doing so lost one bolt and couldn't get two others removed. In the picture below, you can see how the case of the missing bolt was "fixed" with a weld--a poor weld at that.

Here's a prime example of a bad repair. Someone either found that the bolt for this spring hanger was missing or broke the bolt and decided to weld the spring hanger to the frame of the car. Not cool.

Ever heard the phrase "If you want something done right do it yourself?" This is exactly why I believe in DIY. I have a hard time believing any owner of a classic muscle car would intentionally do this. What I think happened is an owner dropped the car off at a mechanic expecting the rear bushings to get replaced. When the mechanic started taking things apart, he reached a point where the job was taking too long to be profitable so put the car back together with the old bushing still in place and ruined it for the next guy. That next guy apparently was us, and, yes, we decided to do it right. The suspension kit from CPP included new hardware to replace the old bolts used on the spring hangers. Unfortunately, the process of disassembling the rear suspension destroyed the original hangers (we had to minimize damage to the frame of the car while cutting the welds. This resulted in cutting into the hangers).

This is a tab on the right side spring hanger. We had to cut them off the car with a cut-off wheel.

   Once the spring hangers were removed from the car, the rest of the rear suspension came apart as one would expect. To improve access to the rear shackles, we decided to drop the gas tank, which will benefit us later since the fuel gauge isn't working, and we have new gauges to install later.

Two examples of shoddy workmanship in one photo! look closely at the fuel tank supports, and at the top left of the photo, and you can see edges of the original trunk floor. Sometime in the life of the car, someone tried to replace the trunk floor, but did not fit it well and left gaps. Also notice the rusty patch in the middle--sometime after the new trunk floor was installed, someone cut the center out. I imagine the intent was to service the fuel gauge sender with out lowering the tank.

   Currently, the car sits on jack stands with no suspension or wheels under it. Our next step is to kill rust and remove grime. Unless there is anything remarkable in that process, my next blog entry will show the car with some shiny new parts on it. -JW