Vantastic CNG power

[JPutnam]

I have been busting my butt on this. lets see, I pulled the old engine. Used the hoist and made this cool little cart thing to move the engine around.

worked great. then I spent some time cleaning and swapping parts.

old vs. new

painted the flexplate because it looked dirty even when it was clean.

pressure washed the engine bay. didn't get before pics but there was about 1/2in grime and grease all over everything. couldn't even see the white of the firewall.

 

[JPutnam]

realized I pressure washed the paint off the subframe. so I did a quick spray paint job.

ive ran in to issue after issue with this swap.
Couldn't get one of the exhaust manifold bolts to move. ended up cutting it off. then I couldn't get the head of the bolt to move at all. stripped it. then grinded it then tried to drill it. then welded a nut onto the stripped head. then broke it off. then gave up. This all happened after I had cleaned the crap out of the manifold.

the clean manifold looked a lot like the dirty one about 30 minutes before this last pic.
so I gave up and decided to use the dirty manifold from the truck engine. they looked the same shape. different casting numbers. but everything else seemed right. the drivers side manifold however was completely different. glad it wasn't on that one.

quick coat of exhaust paint and we are happy.

did some more cleaning.

 

[JPutnam]

Also cleaned up the valve covers and the wiring harness as much as I could.

strapped it to my cart and wheeled it over to be put in.

this is where it got real sketchy. I couldn't get the chain tight enough on the hoist to be able to get the engine in or out. So I used a ratched strap. thing popped and creaked the whole time. these engines dry are 920lbs. furthermore I was doing the swap on some real crappy blacktop asphalt. so the hoist didn't roll smoothly at all. a lot of thrusting and swearing went on.

if you notice at the bottom of that last pic you will see the wheel had dropped into a nice big crack. the engine wasn't all the way in yet and the hoist wasn't moving at all.

I had to drop the engine where it was, teetering. get enough slack in the line to be able to move the hoist to the left and out of the hole.

 

[JPutnam]

didn't fall out or anything and finally got it in all the way. fought with the engine mount bolts for about 3 hours trying to get it all aligned.

I got everything back on the engine. ready to put the frontend back on. I tried to put the intake tube on and realized the hook was a different shape on the trucks than on the vans and the intake pipe had to go right where the hook was.

had to take it apart again to try and get the hook out. the truck hook was also held on by allen head bolts. the smaller of which was stripped. I was able to get the larger bolt out and used a crescent wrench to spin the whole hook to loosen the smaller bolt. was a pretty big pain.

cleaned up the van one and put it back on then put everything back together.

didn't really take any pictures of me putting the rest of the front end back together. It was pretty straight forward. bolt up the crossbraces and the ps reservoir. run the wiring back across and bolt it all together.

Also picked up some new headlights. the passenger one I had was missing a couple mounting tabs and kinda flopped around as I drove.

 

[JPutnam]

I then started putting the torque converter bolts on. I put a wrench on the main pulley and used a 2ft breaker bar. spun the engine about 1/4 turn and couldn't get it to move any further. I got 5 of the 6 torque converter bolts on and tried to see if the starter would turn it. just a nice loud click when tried. Figured it was either seized or hydrolocked. I did swap the injectors and the glowplugs. there was quite a bit of oil that dripped down into the chambers so I was hoping it was just hydrolocked. I gave up for the night.

the next day I removed the valve covers and took out the glowplugs. Still couldn't spin the engine by hand but was able to get it to spin with the starter. All sorts of oil sputtered out of the glowplug holes. put them back in and was able to turn the engine with the starter still. couldn't do it by hand with a 2ft breaker bar. I was still worried. I didn't take any pictures of this process at all.

tightened everything up and filled all the fluids. I still didn't have my uppipes so I waited. the next day I got my uppipes. I was planning on modifying my stock pipes with some bellows I ordered.

but when I took the stock collector off I noticed it had a couple cracks where the bolts go it. I didn't want to have it break apart on me so I looked for a new collector. found a collector with billowed pipes for $79. on ebay and figured, why not?

Well it turns out you get what you pay for. the new uppipes didn't fit at all. I figured the passenger side one was about 1/4in too long and the drivers side was about an inch too long. So I spent the next 2 days measuring and cutting and welding. Im not a fabricator, by any means. I do know how to use a welder. that's about it. Anyway I was able to penetrate through without creating any slag on the inside. outside looks real nice(crappy) but should work. I didn't have any gas for my gas mig. so I used my flux mig.

the passenger side ended up being real bad. it was cocked all weird so the collector wouldnt even seat on the turbo. so I had to do a bunch of cutting and bending and it still hits the exhaust.

the bend near the bellow was just way too far down. didn't match the factory at all.
art in progress.(I know it looks bad. lol.)

coat of exhaust paint and we are good.

all bolted up and everything is ready to go.

This weekend I spent all day Saturday cranking this thing. Crank for 20 seconds. then let it sit for another 10 minutes. ALL DAY. Sunday I cranked it for the better part of the morning. it tried to cough to life for a second but then the oil pressure gauge dropped and wouldn't build pressure. I spent a good amount of time googling how to start a 7.3. Went to a late late breakfast(like 2pm) and when I got back jumped in and tried to start. kicked to life for a solid minute then died. After about an hour of it doing that I was able to hold the throttle down half way to keep it running for about 15 minutes. then it idled for another 30 minutes. I revved it a bunch and it was running real nice. not smoking or anything. turned it off and started it up a few times. ran and started great.

Decided to go around the block and put some real load on it. ran fine at low throttle with little load on it. I then pushed the brake and gave it throttle to try and build boost and put some real load on it. the second it hit any boost it shut off. then wouldn't start again. cranked and cranked and cranked. nothing. let it sit for a few hours up the road. had a little bbq and grilled. came back to it and it started right up. drove it around for a few without giving a lot of throttle and it ran great. then I gave it a good amount of throttle and it shut off again. parked it and it would start again. This is the same issue that caused me to get it diagnosed before replacing the engine. got towed home and now it will start but immediately die. then not start for awhile. Im thinking maybe its my Hpop. works great at lower pressures but is going bad and cant produce higher pressures. its either that or more injectors. Everything else on this thing is new. I even replaced the hard fuel lines and the egr line. all sensors are new. alt and starter are new. ac compressor is rebuilt. ps pump is new. airpump is rebuilt. everything is new. I guess it could be the pcm or ecu or something on the van itself. I don't know at this point. Im going to try and ******** with it a bit more tonight. I did try to unplug the ICP sensor. it dies the same thing with it unplugged. IDK.

 

[JPutnam]

Ive done all this singlehanded. I had a few guys say they would help but nobody ever showed up. Pulling the engine. swapping everything and putting the new one in. all by myself. Help would have been real nice. and there were some instances that would've been a lot less sketchy. but it is very possible to do all this by yourself. I am by no means a mechanic either. I work for a carbon fiber company as a researcher. I tinker with hotrods and stuff but really don't know much beside take something apart and put it back together. but I still have all my fingers and the van is running-ish.

 

[JPutnam]

I finally got a temp tag for the van. Drove it around a bit. there are all sorts of new noises and sounds that weren't there before. I assume its from changing all the stuff and cleaning the grime and grease off stuff. I had planned to run up to my parents house about 70 miles away then take the long loop home(much longer than 70 miles) for a good shakedown run. I was sitting at 1/4 fuel. Stopped to fill it up and the diesel just dumped out from under the van. straight on the ground.

got under the van and saw this

either it rotted away from sitting for 9 months. and somehow rotted super clean lines or someone cut it. I have it in my alleyway and there are occasionally sketchy people that use it to get off the busy main road. My guess is someone crawled under it to syphon the gas out of it. cut the hole and slid a tube up through the hole. then when they got a mouth full of diesel instead of gasoline they stopped syphoning. I did notice a piece of rubber hose a few feet away from my van a few weeks ago. but figured it fell off a metal scrappers truck or was in the street cleanup we had last month and was just left behind. IDK. Now I have to order the whole metal filler neck because I cannot find anyone who sell just the rubber hose parts. and the only place that has it locally is the dealer and they want big money for it.

 

[Johny5]

Crazy amount of work you have preformed to get this van running . Good on you . Hopfully its something easy. keep plugging away.

You should be able to find a good deal of differnt size rubber tube from industreal suppliers like Greenline

 

[Corneilius]

We use a Gates part number that we just have to cut an inch or so off of. 24710 seems to work well

 

[Vandit]

Super impressive amount of work here. Great job on taking the extra time to clean everything up and give it a fresh coat of paint. The end result really looks good.

It sucks about the cut hose, however it looks like Johny and Cornelius have come through with a couple of good suggestions for a cost effective fix. It looks like the Gates hose is only $19 on Amazon.

Thanks for taking us along for the ride, keep up the good work. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[JPutnam]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the kind words and help.

after getting the hose off It is a lot clearer that it was cut.(not like it wasn't clear already lol)

I ran to a local hose and fitting store and got some of this stuff. It had a metal wire through it and is really heavy duty. Someone would be hardpressed to cut this one.

Threw it on, filled it up and went for a cruise. Van run amazing. feels like a brand new engine. Feels like it has more power than the old one. cruised around my city for a few minutes then hopped on the freeway to try and put 50 miles or so of freeway use into it. running great. accelerate up the ramp. running just fine not using too much throttle. About 3 miles up the freeway I jump on it a bit to really go through the paces. Watching the boost gauge I put in. Hit 10 psi the fell off to 9psi. then check engine light came on. Cruise another mile and check engine light goes off then comes back on within a few seconds. At this point im going up hill but not a huge hill. CEL on I am watching the gauges and hit 2psi of boost. engine lugs and shuts off. I coast to the side of the freeway and proceed to hang out there for the next three hours. The van is doing the EXACT same thing it was before I put the new engine in. I keep cranking it and the oil pressure gauge wasn't reading while cranking. wouldn't start at all. about 5 minutes before I was finally towed off the freeway I started seeing oil pressure(with the stock gauge). but it still wouldn't start. left it sitting in a parking lot for the night. First thing the next morning I went back and it started right up. As if there never were a problem and it were a brand new van. Drove it home with no issues at all. Once I got back into my alley I pushed the brake and floored it. Again once I hit boost it shut off. I coasted into my parking spot and it wouldn't start again tried for about 45 minutes. about 7 hours later it started right back up. no issue.

This thing is killing me. I have no idea what is the problem. I ordered a new Exhaust Back Pressure Valve that should be here Thursday. After that there are 2 sensors I have not replaced. Coolant temp and air temp. the rest are NEW. I don't have the money right now for a new HPOP or I would replace that just to make sure its not the problem. Im really thinking about just buying a new car and giving up on this. UGH.

 

[semihippie]

I'm not a diesel mechanic or much of a mechanic at all but it might be an intake issue?

 

[gtbensley]

Tough luck man, sounds like nothing is going easy on this job.

When you say new sensors, do you mean new factory from Ford or new from a aftermarket supplier? I ask because often times the aftermarket sensors are total crap. Did they get swapped from the old motor to this new one or did you purchase completely new ones for this job only? I would say some of the best money you could spend would be on some type of scanner that will let you check pressures and sensors to see what the readings are. It sort of sounds like an ICP valve issue or possibly the ICP sensor (although if you have unplugged that with no change I doubt that). What are the codes in the PCM....if the CEL has come on its trying to say something.

 

[Corneilius]

bummer

 

[JPutnam]

I threw new filters on during this engine swap. Its stock intake besides that. I did clean it up a bunch but that shouldn't have made it worse. All the sensors I have replaced with Motorcraft, which is what factory ford OE stuff is. I replaced them all in 2016 chasing some problems I was having which lead me up to the van not running in Sept. so every sensor has less than 2K miles. even put a new fuel pump on 2 days before taking it in to be told the engine was dead. the only thing that isn't new on this thing is the hpop, 5 of the 8 injectors and the EBP sensor. I ordered the EBP sensor and it should be here tomorrow. The PCM or ECU or whatever are also the originals. Ive unplugged the ICP and ran it. ran the same. still wouldn't start (after it shut off when hitting boost) with the ICP unplugged. I am very doubtful that the EBP sensor will fix it. I plan to take it to a shop and hopefully they can tell me what it really the issue. just frustrating because the diagnosis before was a bad engine. but now its doing the same thing. It seems VERY unlikely that 2 blocks would have the exact same issue especially since this one isn't smoking at all.

I don't know. Im just frustrated and need it to run.

sick of hanging out on the side of the road trying to figure out how to get the van home.