Rebuilding a T444

[ISAF2009]

I scored a $259.00 2002 7.3 from Pick and pull. I never pass these up because I always seem to run into someone that needs one and I profit by reman’ ing it for them and or installing it for them. I always get the idea that I will build myself a spare engine but it has never worked out that way. I got a call lat night from a buddy of mine who works at pick n pull that there was a 2002 Ford F350 7.3 4x4 that had made it into the yard. He said they were going to sell it as a builder but they couldn't get it to run because of fire damage to the wiring harness. I was at pick and pull 30 minutes before they opened and fount the truck which was given 12 volts so I could read the cluster which indicated 133,991.6 miles, the engine turned manually so I set about yanking it. A bunch of rusty water coolant came out of it though the oil looked clean (or at least the massive pile of it pooled in the turbo did). Its amazing how fast you can yank a motor When the vehicle doesn't have to go back together! We will see when I tear it down how rough it is. I will use this thread to document the process.

[Johnny Mullet]

If the odometer is correct it should not need a rebuild.

[ISAF2009]

Never saw it run, cavitation could have destroyed the block, head gasket failure may have put coolant into a cylinder and bent a rod Or rusted the bore severely, it couldve been run out of oil, i wont know until it comes apart (and Very likely gets checked out by the machine shop) at that point why not at a minimum throw rings and bearings at it and send the heads out?

[cadillackid]

rings and bearings? at 139k theres zstill likely a decent ridge on the cylinders.. id want to bore it clean and go .020 over to do it right.. rings will never seat correctly on a diesel .. at least ive never found them to without at least making sure the cylinders are still round and clean with a good hone..

[Booyah45828]

If you could have gotten it running in the truck I would have sold it used-runner. But with it removed and without knowing if it runs, I'd tear it apart and go the rebuild/reman route.

Those engines used to be had cheap, but with the cost of new diesel pickups and the lack of emissions, these old pickups are pretty valuable now.

Did you get the trans and transfer case too? Those can be worth some coin as well.

[Booyah45828]

When I had spare time, I'd pull popular engines/transmissions from the junkyard, rebuild, sell and make a little money. Typically I'd do the gm 3400/3800 v6 engines, 5.4 3v fords, and 4l60e transmissions. Diesels you could make just as much profit/hr by selling used runner as you would rebuilt.

I've got too much going on now that I haven't done it in a while.

[BeNimble]

Looking forward to seeing the refresh/rebuild and the costs involved. The 87 f250 4x4 I bought has a 6.9 idi that seller said needs a head gasket.

[ISAF2009]

Basically the procedure is that I disassemble it, and send the crank, block, pistons, rods, and heads, to the machine shop and see what needs to be done. My machinist will generally just do whatever he sees fit and send me the bill, I don’t argue. Sometimes he says bore and turn down the crank sometimes its just a hone, rings and bearings its hard to say. The only thing I always specify is bronze marine freeze plugs if available and new cam bearings.

[ISAF2009]

I got the 4r100, the t-case, and the dana 50 off of the front as well. The truck had fire damage.

[Diverdude0075]

I need to start going to junk yards!

[ISAF2009]

I basically live at the junk yard these days, Its kinda sad. This will be the 5th t444 from a junk yard. The first got bearings and rings, the second needed a sleeve, the third had a perfectly round hole in the piston on cylinder 6, the last one I did, 2 of the MIM rods had micro cracks I guess so it got forged rods from one that iI pulled that had a bunch of little cracks in the block from cavitation.

[cadillackid]

is there actually a serial number cutoff for which engines had forged and which engines got PMR rods? or is it just "aroiund the late 99' updates.. I havent checked to see what mine has but i know its near the cutoff.



-Christopher

[Diverdude0075]

There are some good 7.3 builders out there. If the time comes to replace I may opt to get a built 7.3. Mostly they focus on 7.3 for the Superduty trucks but I would think their skills would translate.

[Diverdude0075]

Christopher, I know on superdutys you can tell by the turbo housing whether it has four or five bolts. I can’t remember which is which though and may be different for international.

[Booyah45828]

There was a specific serial number when they changed it. I'd have to look for the bulletin back though. It wasn't necessarily a year thing because they went from a batch of forged, to a batch of pm, then back to forged, and finally back to PM until the engine was discontinued. I think ford and IH both used the same engine serial number sequence, but the IH document I had was for IH engines, so I can't be 100% certain.

The problem is being 20 years old, some have went through rebuilds and remans, so it's tough to say for sure one way or the other, even with a serial number. Best bet is tear down and inspection.

[ISAF2009]

There is an inspection plug next to the block drain that if you pull out you can get a look at the rod bolts which is the give away. If it is a 12 point nut on a stud you see it is forged, if it is a 12 point bolt you see they are mim.

[ISAF2009]

If you yank engines out of F Series you see a 4 year difference in date codes all over all the parts the first one I ever did was a 2003 on the valve cover and had forged rods. But it makes no difference to me as I stick to stock performance levels.

[Booyah45828]

Wow, didn't know there was that much of a swing. I was under the assumption it was over a year or two.

[ISAF2009]

This is turning into a post mortem, here are pics.
I will write more tomorrow.

[ISAF2009]

More pics of this project