Soooo I'm thinking I might have a issue with my PCM and the fact of how the previous owner got over zealous with cleaning.

Went out to dinner and then ran an errand after. When we were leaving from dinner, when I went to start the truck, the SEL was on and the truck wouldn't start. Turned it back off, sat for a second, and it started back up fine. After coming out from the errand, I went to pull out of the parking spot, depressed the pedal...nothing. No response at all from the throttle. Turned it off, let it sit for a few, started it back up and were fine again.

So yeah, might need to look into the PCM. I'm getting to the point of pulling the hydra and dealing with it later at this point...

 

That sure sounds like a loose connection on the Hydra, not a PCM problem. I had the same symptoms when my connection was bad on the "borrowed" Hydra on the PCM. It turns out the other owner had mountainous globs of solder on his PCM contacts, and it spread the connectors to the point that they didn't make good contact on Stinky's skinny PCM connector.


Stinky suffered from a case of solder envy.


Each of the PID readings will be "if-then" scenarios. A sliver of numbers does little good, but a datalog of all the interacting PIDs under different driving conditions (including WOT) can speak volumes on how the truck is faring.


Example: That 61% max IPR raised my eyebrow (just the right one), until I remembered you'll see that as you start the truck - and it will show up as a max, with no clue if it was at WOT or starting. The log would show under what conditions the IPR spiked.


The low-low IPR with normal ICP at idle and a long FIPW tells me the ICP has an issue, and your observation of oil in the connector is another check mark under the "Fail" column.


Did you drive the truck with the ICP disconnected? Did you clean the oil out and use a little dielectric grease on the connector before re-connecting? The ICP can be bad and the truck will drive, but the power will be lacking - tune or not. Removing the ICP from the equation forces the ICP to use an IPR setting without feedback, and it will raise the power.


If the idle gets "stubly" with the ICP disconnected, that sounds like either you are used to the very soft idle of low real ICP, or you have non-stock injectors in there.

 

Since the oil was very low before and the truck is up and dying now, I'd check the oil level again.

Or maybe the chip is not on the PCM connector snugly. If the connector was cleaned too oblivion it is a problem. A pic of that would help. I usually try the cheap fix first so a few inches of Rolled Gold (duct tape) to hold the chip on firmly may do the trick. If that fails the $$ fix is re-tinning the contacts on the board.

Oil on the ICP connector means time to install a new ICP. I cannot recommend a cheap fix for that. You could clean it and try dielectric grease and whatnot, but it just delays the inevitable. Consensus is the Ford or IH part is the best ICP, not aftermarket.

The IPR duty cycle max of 61% means the HPOP was giving all she had with a hot tune and the pulse width floodgates open. I'd say that's normal operation and roll with it, but I bet you'd benefit from the extra oil a T500 etc can deliver.

Just to clarify, when you say no response to throttle, the truck idled and did not respond to the pedal, right? And on restart all was normal?

On edit after seeing Rich's post: IIRC you had your pins re-tinned, right?

 

That was my first assumption as well... until I remembered the max could have happened while cranking with Torque up and running.

 

Since the SES light came on, have you checked the codes? You can do it with Torque, though it can be a little finicky. Post up what you see.

Mark

 

...and don't do it while the engine is running.

 

My 2000 zf 6 superduty came alive with a PHP six position tuner on the 100 and 80hp tunes

 

I'll try getting more of a mapped look with the torque, instead of just mins and max's.

Disconnecting the ICP had no noticable effect. The only thing I noticed was when coming to a more sudden stop, the idle would stumble a little...then smooth out again after a few.

I'll look into getting another ICP, but it didn't give me any "perk" up so that doesn't seem to be the culprit.

Truck has been fine, its not oil level...thats been fine since the day after I installed it. As far as the no throttle, I mean when I let into the throttle to get going...there was no response, no revving of rpm's...nothing.

I'd be severely disappointed in the 7.3L if the HPOP was SO weak that I couldn't even see ANY pick me up from the hydra. Needing to put in a T500 is a complete failure from Ford in design and application if that is the case. I still think that I should be seeing at least a LITTLE pick up..even if its a weak one.

PCM has not been re-tinned. I keep coming back to the PCM somehow being the problem. I'll try posting pics of the board here soon. I'm torn on either sending it to Bill to get retinned, or just buying another damn PCM.

The SES light was only on that once. As soon as I turned the key to off, then back to on it never came back on...so no codes to read.

This is what I've had confirmed several times now from various people.

So reloaded the tunes to see if that might be it...nope.

Was at a fellow 4x4er's shop in Northern Colorado today. He runs the Hydra and agrees even if things were weak, I should be feeling SOME sort of pick me up.

Question: Those of you that run the PHP Hydra...do you need an activation code for stock tunes? Or, is that ONLY for custom calibrated tunes?

 

Pics of the PCM leads:

 

PCM Contacts


Tinning is very simple: Apply soldering iron to contact, apply solder, apply solder wick to soak up excess, repeat procedure with next contact. You will have local vendors that can take on this task if you're nervous about it.

 

Yup...that's what they *should* look like.

Yeah they went a weeee bit overboard on mine.

I'm sure that it wouldn't be too hard...but in this case I'd rather trust someone familiar with it.

The reason I was thinking of possibly sending it off to Jody or Bill, is that I'm hoping they could re-tin it, and then hook it up to make sure its working. I'd hate to have it re-tin'd, only to not have it work and start chasing other things as well. I'd like to be able to rule out the PCM 110%.

 

Jody re-tinned mine is less than five minutes at a live tuning session a few years ago, and that fixed a random SES light problem I'd been chasing for months. Since you're in N. Colorado, I bet Rocky could do it for you quickly, and cheap.


Unless your truck doesn't run right without the ship, I'd be very surprised if the PCM was bad.


Mark

 

So, who would this Rocky be?

It runs just fine. However, I did have those two instances that made me think the PCM could be an issue.

As I said, I'd like to be able to rule out the PCM 100%. I'd rather not chase other issues, without knowing that the main control at the center of it all...is working properly.

I wish there were an easy way to tell if my PCM was actually receiving the proper signals from the Hydra, and exporting them correctly...but it doesn't sound like it.

I'll replace the ICP, but that doesn't seem like a culprit. My truck has few enough miles that I'm sure the injectors are fine. Even with a weaker HPOP (which i'm doubtful mine is THAT weak) I would feel something.

Scott at Addicted Offroad here in Fort Collins was the one I was talking things over with. He has an AE, and said we could run it to see what we can see some time as well.

 

Oh, yeah, Scotty rocks, pardon the pun. I bet he could re-tin it, as well. Rocky is the owner of Rockin S Performance. (Rockin 'S' Diesel - Home Page) Good guy.

Mark

 

I'm thinking that is the smoking gun. Way too much material removed. Not just the connection points but also the traces are exposed. Would not take much for current to find alternate routes there, rendering the J port useless. Those were originally done by machine process, no idea if it could be re-tinned by hand.

The numbers on the HPOP look fine to me.

If the IPC is leaking oil, replace it.

Also the occasionally dead go pedal (idles ok but no accel) may be just a dirty pedal switch, and a liberal zots of contact cleaner in there will fix it.