7.3 high pressure oil pump maintenance

I recently purchased a 2002 F-250 with 7.3 engine. I
was searching the internet trying to get familiar
with the maintenance of the engine. Some people say
you need to change the 3 quarts of oil in the high
pressue oil pump for the longevity of the injectors.
Is this done when you change the engine oil? Some
said the oil had to be pumped out.

That uses the engine oil to make hi pressure.
Just change the oil and you will be ok.
Fill the filter before you put it on. It helps.

I have the same trk, and a line was leaking to that pump, but ford fixed it with no charge. there are also two pipes up on top of the engine, but down it a dip, That leaked not a big job but had to work on them. One is a snap in fitting.
bought the trk new got 84K. LOVE THE TRK.

Only maintenance is to change the engine oil.

Allan

In addition to oil changes, make sure you maintain the supplemental coolant additive (SCA)in the coolant. You should be able to use the Extended Life Coolant (Red) that already has the SCA's in it. Check the SCA level at every oil change with the test strips. If SCA's are not at the correct level, you can add DCA 4 to correct it. The test strips and additive can be purchased at Ford or International (usually cheaper). The 7.3 (I found out too late) can be prone to block cavitation if the coolant is not maintained properly.

I have a 1999 7.3L and I currently have the engine laying on the floor of my shop because the left rear cylinder cavitated and was allowing coolant into the cylinder. This could have been caused because I did not know enough to maintain the SCA level.

Good luck. Great trucks and motors.

Tim

Some guys are picky about their engine oil changes. The high pressure pump (HPOP) uses engine oil. A few guys I know will pull the check plug on top and suck out the quart or so that it holds for a "complete" engine oil change. Not sure what 1 dirty quart in 15 clean ones will do for longevity, but there are a lot of them on the road with over 300k on the clock that have only ever had the pan plug pulled. I say don't bother.
AaronSEIA

Hi As far as the hpop oil goes, the truck I brought had 525000 Kms on it, it would flatten 2 new batteries on a warm day trying to start ( with glow plugs working right)/New filter/ clean tank outlet filter, I figured it needed injector work and maybe starter was getting tired.

Followed the video from powerstrokehelp.Com on you tube, but did not add oil additive in the 3rd oil swap just straight oil, as I was not 100% convinced this was gonna work for me!.

My truck now fires right up from cold in 6 turns maximum and runs like a watch even after sitting a few days. It sounds way smoother than before, It sounded like a 20lb bag of washers going round in a dryer.

The oil I got out was so thick you could nearly stand a 6" nail up straight in a quart of it.
Ford will tell you this oil changes it"s self. but looks to me like it doesn"t all as the oil from filter and pan wasn"t as thick as hpop and head stuff.

I used near 18 liters of oil in mine doing this 14.5 came out the plug and filter. the rest was in heads and hpop.
From my experience it was well worth it as it saved me thousands on unneeded parts and my time.

As for the rest of the motor change filters/ check coolant as with anything else, keep the batteries/ glow plugs good. I would also check the strainer inside the fuel tank on the outlet to. It"s a pig to get at but checked mine while the tank was off, doing a brake line. I found rubbish stuck in the filter restricting flow.
so I hope this helps you. and you can make your own decision from a hpop oil change believer .
Regards Robert

Laidlaw bought out by First Student run thousands of school buses nationwide and we never drained the Hi-pressure oil pumps. We changed the engine oil every 5,000 miles though.

You have to watch the plug on the rear of the hi pressure pump. Takes a 3/4" wrench to tighten it. It likes to work loose then the o-ring likes to blow shutting down the engine no matter where you are. When this plug begins to leak you will have oil in the valley of the
V-8 engines. When it gets worse you will think the front seal is leaking on the transmission or the rear seal on the engine.

You DO realize the oil up there gets continuously replenished from the main engine oil pump, don't you????

The high pressure oil it supplies to the HEUI's gets dumped on top of the cylinder heads after each injector cycle, and returns to the oil pan.

Without it being continuously replenished, then system would run out of oil in WHAT, probably a lot less than a minute!

Yes thanks I do know it tops up from main oil. But I think from what guys have seen from many years of only working on power stroke motors as their only business/ experiences, and independant to Ford.
They have figured out some oil gets stale up there and not flushed through.

My sump oil was definatly thinner than the stuff I sucked up from the first in the reservior.
There was 3 liters that was not changed still in the motor before I did this. is this a waist of new oil, the first time you start it and contaminate it with black worn out c#@p oil or what?

I'm sorry I'm really not bothered about what every body else thinks with what I did anymore, to be honest. My truck don't sound like a big rig rattling 5.9 cummins anymore,And I know what I did worked for me thats also experience in my book.

I'm also happy not spending a few grand on parts I didn't need, and another few thousand on time in a ford shop if they did It for me. I'm also thinking they would of convinced me I needed to spend this money to with out doing this as ford shops don't do it!.
Regards Robert