I shut her down to take a closer look, but I knew this problem was going to be more than I wanted to tackle alone. Powerlabs Diesel in Idaho Falls, Idaho had just relocated to its new location so I figured they could use an oily truck to help mark up their floors and break the new place in properly. I gave general manager Nick Snarr a call and he got me right in. Snarr runs a tight shop for Brent Willsey, who is the VP of Operations for Powerlabs, and he knew he had to squeeze me in the schedule right away so I wouldn't do any permanent damage to the engine.
Tech help Jeff Campbell poured more oil into it and then we watched it exit just as quickly. A common problem with these 7.3L as well as the 6.0L Fords are these leaks.
"With the 7.3L it's an oil driven injector system so over time when it starts to leak oil, the engine won't even turn over," explained Campbell. "We fixed the leak on the side of the oil pan where the dipstick tubes goes into the pan and then resealed it with silicone after the factory silicone had failed."