'04 550 Long, long, long turbo spool

[Mark Oomkes]

OK, here's the story:

Shortly after delivery and in service, the engine would die when lifting the plow via central hydraulics. Dealer stated RPM's too low, reflashed it, problem went away until this year. Problem is back again. Can't tell for sure but it sounds and looks like the RPM's are a couple hundred less on this truck than my other 2. RPM's drop to around 400 when raising plow under no load, so it's not a surprise that it will stall under lifting the plow while there's a load out front. So, bring it in to the dealer, they can't find a problem other than EGR, no kidding it's unplugged. They replace the EGR and I go plow with it. Truck has virtually no power, can't even spin the tires in snow. And takes about 10 seconds for the turbo to spool. I get slightly pissed and unplug the EGR again. Truck is now 100% better. I can actually get the tires to spin now and turbo lag is slightly decreased.

Problem is, the truck is still a complete dog compared to my other 2. And a severe dead spot to the point I'm going to grenade the tranny as my '05 engages immediately and that is what I normally plow with so once I shift I'm stepping on the go pedal and this one don't go.

Any ideas? I'm going to try to find an aftermarket shop as the dealers in my area are idiots and have no technicians that have a clue. Case in point, in the above story, the dealer called Ford and was told to install a 140 amp alternator (which I'm 99% sure it has) until I informed this rocket scientist of a service manager (the second time) that my plows don't run off electric, but the clutch pump and that is what is killing the engine. Not low voltage. Complete and total morons. I'm about at the point of throwing the warranty out the window and just having someone with at least half a frickin' clue work on my trucks.

So any other ideas as to why I can get out walk around the truck, take a coffee break and get back in then the turbo spools and away I go? Turbo has been replaced once, and 4 injectors replaced. I think it might be 1 or 4 of the other injectors, but the dealer says they're all within normal operating range.

PS To get the original dealer to replace the 4 injectors, I almost had to hold a gun to their head, seriously. After almost a full year of living with the problem, I told them it wasn't right, fix the problem and I'm not taking it back until you do. Then magically they found the problem. Maybe it's just my charming personality. But I'm a little sick of dealers who can't start a work order on my trucks without contacting Ford first to see if that's OK to use up the paper.

[1 Ton Tommy]

I have an '06 F-350 FX4 with a 6.0 and 6 speed stick. I most recently took it to the dealership and had them start it up cold two different mornings to "witness" the lack of power and missing that I am concerned about. "It runs like a striped-ass ape" was their professional opinion. I did chores yesterday morning, and my truck misses and is powerless at an rpm of about 1800. I wasn't trying to push it, as the fog was pretty bad, it was maintaining that rpm and it was chugging. I mean it misses like a gasser with a cracked distributor cap. If you mash it, it does run pretty well, and the missing disappears. It is obvious to me that the service department didn't listen to me, or can't handle the temptation to stand on everyone else's pedals when they get to drive it. I am to the point you are. I either have to park the truck at the dealership overnight, and observe them and their technical approach to obtaining a solution, or find someone who knows what the hell they are doing. I feel like the warranty cost all of us extra money when we purchase the vehicle. At 13K, I hate to let them off the hook. It is really frustrating, I feel your pain!

[3000 FPS]

Mark do you have a boost gauge and do you have a code reader to maybe show what is going on with the engine. If I had to guess and the engine is not missing but just no power maybe something with the turbo again. Without a boost gauge it is hard to say what it is doing.

[Mark Oomkes]

No boost gauge. I don't think it's throwing any codes, either.

Once the turbo spools, it goes fairly good. Just takes a day or two to spool. And it runs fine, no missing, sputtering, jerking\bucking at idle or WOT or in between. This is the same thing that happened when the injectors were bad, that's what leads me to believe that's the problem, again. It's just pointless to try to get the Service Manager to see my point of view when they don't have any mechanics on hand and can only do what the stupid computer and the idiots on the hotline tell them to do.

PS Is the cab supposed to fill with smoke when it starts right up? To the point you can't see out the windshield?

[3000 FPS]

It sounds like the vains in the turbo are sticking open and you said that the dealer put in a new egr. If the vains on the turbo stick open you will get no boost at low rpms. I would try another dealer. If you find what is going on let us know.

[mnmwhit]

I don't know about the other problems that you listed. BUT the first issue (the plow comeing up slow). The fix to that is usually just to change out the pulley on the hydralic pump. By putting a smaller pulley on it ll turn the pump faster and move more fluid. The other stuff I would guess is something your dealer screwed up.

Originally Posted by Mark Oomkes

OK, here's the story:

Shortly after delivery and in service, the engine would die when lifting the plow via central hydraulics. Dealer stated RPM's too low, reflashed it, problem went away until this year. Problem is back again. Can't tell for sure but it sounds and looks like the RPM's are a couple hundred less on this truck than my other 2. RPM's drop to around 400 when raising plow under no load, so it's not a surprise that it will stall under lifting the plow while there's a load out front. So, bring it in to the dealer, they can't find a problem other than EGR, no kidding it's unplugged. They replace the EGR and I go plow with it. Truck has virtually no power, can't even spin the tires in snow. And takes about 10 seconds for the turbo to spool. I get slightly pissed and unplug the EGR again. Truck is now 100% better. I can actually get the tires to spin now and turbo lag is slightly decreased.

Problem is, the truck is still a complete dog compared to my other 2. And a severe dead spot to the point I'm going to grenade the tranny as my '05 engages immediately and that is what I normally plow with so once I shift I'm stepping on the go pedal and this one don't go.

Any ideas? I'm going to try to find an aftermarket shop as the dealers in my area are idiots and have no technicians that have a clue. Case in point, in the above story, the dealer called Ford and was told to install a 140 amp alternator (which I'm 99% sure it has) until I informed this rocket scientist of a service manager (the second time) that my plows don't run off electric, but the clutch pump and that is what is killing the engine. Not low voltage. Complete and total morons. I'm about at the point of throwing the warranty out the window and just having someone with at least half a frickin' clue work on my trucks.

So any other ideas as to why I can get out walk around the truck, take a coffee break and get back in then the turbo spools and away I go? Turbo has been replaced once, and 4 injectors replaced. I think it might be 1 or 4 of the other injectors, but the dealer says they're all within normal operating range.

PS To get the original dealer to replace the 4 injectors, I almost had to hold a gun to their head, seriously. After almost a full year of living with the problem, I told them it wasn't right, fix the problem and I'm not taking it back until you do. Then magically they found the problem. Maybe it's just my charming personality. But I'm a little sick of dealers who can't start a work order on my trucks without contacting Ford first to see if that's OK to use up the paper.

[Mark Oomkes]

Originally Posted by mnmwhit

I don't know about the other problems that you listed. BUT the first issue (the plow comeing up slow). The fix to that is usually just to change out the pulley on the hydralic pump. By putting a smaller pulley on it ll turn the pump faster and move more fluid. The other stuff I would guess is something your dealer screwed up.

Pulley isn't the issue, the back plow raises just fine. Front plow is heavy, but as I said, the other 6.0 with the same plow lifts just fine without the engine dying. Trust me, the idle is too low on this truck. I have 3 6.0's, so I can tell when one isn't working correctly. That's about the only way I can get my moron dealers to fix anything on them.