As the title says the beast died on me yesterday morning going into work.

Situation :

5 F @ 7 Am

1/4 tank of fuel that has been treated

cruising at 70 MPH on the highway using the cruise


Going into work the other day the truck died on me as i cruised along at 70 MPH on cruise, I go to get out of the way of a car. As, I step on the accelerator X falls on its face. I look at the dash and there are no idiot lights on, gauges all look good. I navigate to the shoulder 3 lanes over and park it. As soon as it is in park it dies and will not restart.

I call AAA and sit there waiting for the truck to show up. After about 10 mins I try to start it again it stumbles and dies. 2nd try it fires up and is running rough.

I make it to the nearest gas station and fill up. Then I go to the parts store and pick up the 911 fuel treatment and put it in the tank. I also use a scan tool on it and no codes. Truck ran fine after all this.

I go to start it after work, it starts and dies. I start it again and it sounds like it is running on 2 cylinders and there is a large puff of smoke out the exhaust which goes away after it is started.

After it warms up it runs and drives fine, no issues!

So I looked at my extension cord I plug it into and realize that the timer was bad. New timer and verify it works.

Go to start it today and it starts right up and idles and runs fine.

Is it possible that the fuel gelled up due to the timer being bad and the block heater not turning on?

Or am I missing something?

 

Mileage? Original engine? You should post this on 6.0 forum. May be HPOP--same happened to my 2003 at 150K miles

 

Original engine with 150k on the clock.

Will find that part of the forum and post it up there

 

The block heater doesn't do anything to keep your fuel from gelling. The block heater only adds a little heat to the coolant in the block.

You need to figure out what's shutting it down. It's either a HPO problem(HPOP, ICP, IPR, etc), an injector problem(including FICM), or a fuel delivery problem(Fuel, filters, and pump).

First thing to do is change your fuel filters. If there's a chance it gelled, you should toss them for new.

If it occurs again, you need something to monitor what's happening while you're driving. You won't always get a code if there's a problem. Learning what vital components should be doing will help identify which system is having the problem.

 

If your fuel is going to gel it would most likely happen before you made it to the highway, as that's when the fuel is the coldest. The 6.0L uses a return-style fuel system that will heat the fuel in the tank as the warm fuel gets returned.

Secondly I would highly recommend NEVER EVER using Diesel 911 in your truck! It contains alcohol and can emulsify water and cause it to pass through your fuel filters! Certainly not quite the hazard for your 6.0L as it is for the newer common-rail diesels, but not good either. This situation is a good example where it certainly didn't help anything and may have introduced water to your injectors.

And lastly 5° is too warm to have serious concerns of fuel gelling unless you have an old tank of untreated summer fuel. When it gets down below 0° you should treat your fuel, which from your OP it sounds like you already have.

 

This is my first diesel so I am pretty much clueless....


I posted this up in the 6.0 L section and getting a lot of responses...

I have not had the $ to get a programmer or Gauges yet. 3 kids take my extra $...

That being said I do not have any idea on fuel pressure when this happened.

I did have oil pressure on stock gauge while cranking the engine trying to restart it.

A few folks have pointed me towards a failing HPOP.

If this was a gasser I would be able to trouble shoot it and get it fixed.

I will now have to learn diesel terminology and the mechanical differences.