2006 F-250 6.0. 4" exhaust straight from turbo, Sinister Delete kit, Banks Intake, Edge Tuner.

First noticed exhaust louder, more throaty (similar to gas dual piped V8) upon start, after 1-3 minutes, turbo kicked in and whistled like previous. Problem continued with minor inconvenience (should have known to look into this). This week, started truck in cold (live in MN) and loud hard idle never stopped. No power under 2G RPM and no turbo boost until +2G RPM, Then turbo boosts and drives, runs like normal. Low idle truck is loud and sounds like gas piped V8. Thinking I might have a turbo that is only working in once or two stages. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

Wow, that sucks man. I was thinking I had problems, I was having the opposite. I was getting up to 10lbs of boost at 1500 RPMs while eggshell driving. Dealer said the vanes were sticking and told me to add some cetane booster and 'get on it' everyday until it stops smoking. Worked like a charm.

But you say yours works fine over 2000rpms? Could be a software problem, if the programming that controls the geometry of the vanes in the turbo is screwed up for <2k rpms....and I notice you have some mods that tinker with factory settings. Could be a problem there. Try flashing back to stock and see what happens.

 

I was talking to a guy yesterday at the Ford house and discussed a turbo problem he had with his. Whichever model it was, the turbo had variable vanes; lost power and turbo was whining. The dealership found corrosion in the area of the variable vanes; split the turbo, cleaned it out and sent him on his way. He mentioned it was the "dirty side"; perhaps the exhaust side inlet to the turbo.

Hope this helps and that you are still in warranty,
Curt

 

When it does it under 2k rpm, does it roll out the black smoke and then get t driving normal?

 

My dealership told me cleaning the turbo was not covered by warranty?

 

He bought the truck in Central Texas and was enroute to CO; truck was acting up in Albequerque, NM. The dealership there hooked him up; he paid warranty $100 deductible (but received a check back from Ford afterwards). I'd call that good customer treatment, warranty or not. I want to say he mentioned "emissions", perhaps that was the difference.

I'd say they deserved their 72-bay service department with service like that!

 

This just happend on my 05, except i didnt see boost till 3k rpms, and at 3k i would only get 5psi. Try getting the turbo cleaned, and the unison ring checked. if cleaning returns the truck to normal you should be fine. But if after being cleaned it loses boost again, its time for a new turbo. This is what happened to my truck, had turbo cleaned, it gummed up again and a new turbo was needed. Good luck

 

ProForm... I am not sure if the '06's have an Exhaust Back Pressure sensor in the loop, but if they do, check it. I have had three trucks with the EBP's go bad, and the symptoms are EXACTLY what you are saying.

Upon startup, no turbo whistle (sometimes not until you drive down the street), no boost below 2000 RPM, then runs hard like it should.

My personal truck did this and I couldn't figure it out (all VGT tests performed) until I hooked a Vehicle Data Recorder to it and took it on a couple hundred mile drive.

In addition, even after my personal truck was warm during long drives, if I was off the throttle descending a hill, and then stood in the throttle to accelerate, my truck would lay down for 4-5 seconds, suddenly build boost and run normal. This would not occur each time, but the cold start/no boost problem definitely did.

The other two trucks came to me after they were told both needed turbocharger cleaning or replacement. Neither did. Obviously some trucks need turbos, but spending $1500-2000 when that actually wasn't the problem would suck!