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7.3L IDI Questions

Yeah I would test where it's at now but I lost alot of coolant and added 4 gallons of water to it now so I know it's not anywhere near correct now. My research shows carquest has the strips in stock. Does napa have them by chance if you know?



Whatever you get, make sure it can test for the same type of SCA additive you have. Most likely, you want one that will test SCA-4.
 
Bumping this for IDI tech

Yesterday driving the IDI I hammered on it past a group off fucktarded massholes, which may resulted in the radiator springing a pretty decent leak in the middle of the core. Getting nervous that it pressurized the coolant system from an internal leak.

Been busy so I haven't yet checked the oil for coolant, but that'll be my next thing. Any good way to verify the motor isn't fucked before I spend the money on a radiator?
 
Bumping this for IDI tech

Yesterday driving the IDI I hammered on it past a group off fucktarded massholes, which may resulted in the radiator springing a pretty decent leak in the middle of the core. Getting nervous that it pressurized the coolant system from an internal leak.

Been busy so I haven't yet checked the oil for coolant, but that'll be my next thing. Any good way to verify the motor isn't fucked before I spend the money on a radiator?
oil in coolant is a totally different failure on these, it is pretty much always the oil cooler o-rings
combustion gasses in the coolant, well you can check for it with that fluid that turns yellow from blue, ask a mechanic friend to borrow their "combustion leak tester" as iirc they're like a hundred bucks last I looked
even then they'll go quite a while with holes in the cylinder walls

your radiator failure is prolly 100% unrelated
 
Most of the time, the leaks do happen in the oil cooler. It's exactly the same as a powerstroke one. About 6-8 hours of work to pull fix, and replace.
 
Bumping this for IDI tech

Yesterday driving the IDI I hammered on it past a group off fucktarded massholes, which may resulted in the radiator springing a pretty decent leak in the middle of the core. Getting nervous that it pressurized the coolant system from an internal leak.

Been busy so I haven't yet checked the oil for coolant, but that'll be my next thing. Any good way to verify the motor isn't fucked before I spend the money on a radiator?
I’ve got a vatozone rad with maybe 10k miles of use. Bring me a case of miller high life and it’s yours!
 
I’ve got a vatozone rad with maybe 10k miles of use. Bring me a case of miller high life and it’s yours!
I'll hold off until I talk to the local radiator shop. Been working on getting this truck sorted out so I can lay up my daily for much needed front end and rust work.

More relevant details: It happened pulling into Lowes, I went and bought what I came for and let it cool, popped the cap, tried adding water, it ran out pretty quickly, about 3/4 of the way up the radiator. I figure it didn't completely empty the motor, so I babied it to the parts store a mile away, cap loose, temp gauge never came up past the R in NORMAL. Jug of K Seal into it, and a gallon of antifreeze, its still leaking but slower. Drove it cap loose to a buddys a few miles away, topped off with water, about another gallon, and made the 2 mile run home. With the cap loose I was getting a pretty solid clatter from the cap, assume it was trying to build pressure. Temp gauge never went up through all of this.

I didn't check the oil this morning, I will tonight when I get home. Friend of mine says top off the radiator with water and start it with the cap off, if its bubbling like hell probably HG.
 
The dash gauge is an IDIOT LIGHT and does nothing to show accurate reading of temps, especially if the sender has been relocated!
 
The dash gauge is an IDIOT LIGHT and does nothing to show accurate reading of temps, especially if the sender has been relocated!
Right, but will go up if it gets hot
 
The dash gauge is an IDIOT LIGHT and does nothing to show accurate reading of temps, especially if the sender has been relocated!
The fuck are you talking about?

It's a simple resistor and voltmeter. Temp go up, gauge to up. It's that simple. As long as you know where it's supposed to be when the engine is operating normally you're fine.
 
The temp gauge is a true gauge, but the oil pressure gauge is not. Ford added a resistor into the harness, so the oil pressure gauge acts more like an idiot light.
 
My bad.
Thinking oil..
My pillar gauges laugh at the dash accuracy tho...
take a thermal scope and hit the various ports the sender can be installed into and see.
 
Went out last night and topped off the radiator, still pissing, fired it up and no bubbling gurgling out the fill neck, good sign. Oil looked good, same spot as it was last week when I checked. Maybe I did get lucky this time.
 
Ran one from south western va to nj with a bad fan clutch pulling a trailer. It got hot a few times.
 
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