Chinook RV

I purchased a 2000 chinook concourse diesel (7.3) about 6 months ago and drove it home to San Diego from Las Vegas. Cosmetically it is a bit of a fixer upper which is ok with me because I bought it for $10,000 which I felt was a good price; I have been driving it periodically with no problems but I thought I would freshen it up so I do not have any trouble on long trips. The engine has 160,000 miles on it. So here is a list of work I just completed; Removed and rebuilt turbocharger(used an upgraded aluminum blade) rebuilt high pressure fuel injection pump and replaced both high pressure oil lines; rebuilt fuel filter canister; Installed Riffraff diesel fuel return line kit; Installed riffraff diesel oil crossover line; Replaced fuel injector cups, fuel injectors, and new glow plugs; Replaced water pump and fan clutch; Installed new up pipes to turbo; Replaced fuel injector wiring harnesses and new valve cover gaskets; Flushed cooling system and replaced and changed oil; Cleaning the entire top of the engine of half an inch of leaking oil was time consuming; Everything torqued to specifications. Interestingly most of the torque specifications are small, requiring an inch pound torque wrench; Replacing the injector cups required purchasing two specialty tools from Riff Raff diesel (cup remover and cup installer) ; Total labor time was about 50 hours. I wouldn't say the job was particularly difficult but, because it is a van, it goes very slow and requires a lot of tools which fortunately I have; If you remain patient, the job is actually fun and rewarding; There are lots of videos on the internet outlining this procedure. I probably will replace the oil cooler and oil endcaps at some point because they tend to start leaking at about 200,000 miles; The next big job will be converting it to 4x4 using a donor Ford Quigley van which I have already sourced. I should have taken pictures throughout but I didn't. At this point I think the engine is probably good for another 200,000 miles which is more than I will ever put on it. Mark in San Diego.

Did you remove the engine from the van or take the heads off to get the injector cups job done? I purchased the whittaker tool set from back in the day to do this job, I have had to do it three times here at my work but I just pulled the engine to do it. I did not see any way of doing it effectively while the engine was still in the van or pulling the heads, lol i didn't feel like lugging those heads in and out of the doghouse. I have been planning on doing a freshen up to my 7.3l. hpop feels like it looses prime after sitting for several weeks. I dont know if I would venture into doing cups on a PM basis unless I really had to, but that is sure some peace of mind right there.

edit, did you pick up the bellow international up pipes from international or is that an ebay set? how do you like them so far? been pondering that upgrade myself.

With the riffraff specialty tools the job is easily done with heads in place. The installer tool uses the injector hold down bolt holes and effectively screws the cup into the hole perfectly square.

Almost everyone carries the up pipe set. You can get them at oreilly or just buy on ebay. I think I paid under $100

I Will have to lookup that tool and see how it looks. I cant believe there is a tool out there that can pull/install a cup in no.3 cylinder up against the a/c evap box while still installed. It must have been a tight fit at least??? The bellowed up-pipes were a topic of conversation awhile back. There seemed to be an opinion of aftermarket bellowed pipes vs international ones in the quality dept. I had been tempted by the low prices of the ebay ones but had heard some unfavorable reviews about them, Am curious to see how they treat you in the coming bit.

PS, looking forward to seeing this projects updates....

You have to remove the coil top from the injector to get it in and out on number 3; The cups are no problem at all;

Good Morning Mark, Is this the tooling you used on your van?

yes

Hey Mark, after doing all that freshening up and working over the exhaust system have you noticed a noticeable difference in power? or do you feel like you have enough power for the application? I have always felt since taking ownership of mine that is was a bit lacking. I do want to comb over my engine like you have done just to get its maintenance up to date. But I think I may have a some exh leaks between the turbo and manifolds and my hpop feels like it may be tired, ( need to hook up the solus and see what the regulator is demanding of the hpop) but my gut feeling is new hpop and injectors would put a little get up in its step even though it only has 86k on the clock. Just curious as to what you have noticed after all that work you did.

I have more power, smoother and quieter...