Driving home yesterday and lost drivers side bank for about 10 seconds. Checked for codes and there were none. Did buzz test then IDM reported P0276. I've been dreading this but guess with almost 200K it was bound to happen.

Question: To those who switched to 99-03 style valve cover gaskets is the wiring size a bit bigger. Can't really tell by just looking at pictures on Riffraff Diesel site.

Might as well do glow plugs while I'm in there ...

 

The UVCH harness wires are the same gauge on the OBS as the SD.

 

The UVCH (Dorman) that I put on mine were a little bit bigger.

 

The glow plug wires on the outside are bigger. The rest are the same size.

 

I did some searching and found this link, maybe it will be helpful IDK
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...0276-code.html

 

Did you see the thread I started about the newer Dorman gaskets that eliminate the connection inside the valve cover? Maybe you should be our guinea pig!

 

Yep, I've been eye-balling it. This evening I'm going to tear into the problem and see what is needed.

 

Well, its been a fun evening. I can't believe how hard it is to remove that back bolt on the drivers side on the valve cover. I spent probably over 1.5 hour just getting the air intake off the turbo. Anyway the outside connectors looked pretty good however the inside valve connectors were, well .. trashed.

On the outside connector on injector plug 2-4 only pin 1 (glow plug) looked bad. On the inside is a different story ...



On the outside connector on injector plug 6-8 the pins and connector looked like new, however there was lots of oil in them. On the inside connectors it was obviously a meltdown on injector 6 connection ...

 

The bees ate them, LOL Sorry, couldn't resist.

Jim, those sure are burnt up! I did the SD mod last winter, its suppose to be better and am surprised to read that the gauge wire is the same except GP's. Then why are the SD's having less problems in this area?

 

You got your money's worth out of those Jim.

 

Holy Crap, Jim! Those are toasted for sure. I don't know if I've ever seen one get that charred on both sides. Guess you used those ones up!

I wonder what it was that caused them to burn up like that only on the inside of the VC? Any idea how old that set was?

 

Glenn, suspect the GP wires carry the heavy current during cycle time. Injectors are pulsed so the current is minimal.

Nate, probably old age, like me, or bad glow plugs. As far as I know everything is original so guess getting 200K isn't to bad.

 

I believe that the wire gauge is fine but the current capacity of the terminals is insufficient. because of that the connector heats up and melts.

in all of the failures i have seen pictures of i think the wires have never been damaged... its always the connector.

richard

 

I agree, anytime current goes through a connector the connector is always the weak point. In this case we have two connection points, outside and inside the valve cover. This afternoon I'm going to check out the new Dorman valve cover gasket assembly from Napa and see what quality it is before deciding on a replacement.

 

This will be more learning for me as well! Mine isn't doing anything funny, but I am guessing it's a matter of time...