'04-6.0_Low/No Power Cold w/blue exhaust
 

hey dudes - my 6.0 has increasingly low/no power when cold;
WOT doesn't really help;
after warm-up / say, 3 miles or 15 minutes it operates almost normally;
emits clouds of blue exhaust sometimes when WOT, accompanied by low/no power, even after warm-up;
EGR is/has been disconnected for 6 mos. but is still in place.

recent work - most due to tracing oil leak(s) that started small and went postal:
new EOP Switch (leaking through top)
new ICP valve (throwing money and blood at it)
new oil filter base (this was the real culprit)
new starter and the whole damned ac

EGR was originally disconnected due to dramatic surging w low/no power, and stopped that entirely.

my mechanic says that real long warm-ups are the first indication of injector failure. he is the purveyor of my doom!

anyone think different? could this be just an EGR opening under backpressure? sticking turbo? satan?

let me know and thanks

Welcome to FTE ...stick around someone will be buy to help out .

I had similar and solved it two days ago by yanking my EGR and giving it a good cleaning. I suspected an injector, but decided that cleaning the EGR was due, plus FREE, in comparison to a new injector plus labor for install. It worked! no more loss of power/stumbling when cold. I didn't, though, have the blue smoke you describe. This is on an '03 with about 125k miles on her.

hope this helps
 

had the same exact problem on My 6.0 Ex. Trans would not shift properly,no/low power, blue smoke from exhaust. Took it to my trusted Trans shop and he reported no trouble codes from Trans. It was a engine performance issue. I was stumped as to what may be causing it until another friend suggested that a obstructed exhaust/Catalytic converter can and will jack up your performance and transmission shifting. To rule it out all I had to do was loosen the Down pipe flange at before the Cat. about an inch and low and behold She ran with better performance than ever. I have increased my fuel economy from 12.3 to 17.8 City/Highway combined. I have a new 4" high Flow Exhaust and Magnaflow High flow Cat on order for install. Give it a shot, You got nothing to lose but 10 min. of time...

thanks seth and olbattle - these are great replies.

olbattle: i'm trying to do my own homework here and locate the cat on my 04; as i have had some shifting trouble recently BUT need to acknowledge that i've got a 6-spd manual [so, showing my arse a bit but] would an exhaust issue affect manual shifting? i didn't think so and that's actually why i didn't mention it at first. anyways trying to locate "the Down pipe flange at before the Cat" and give that a whirl

seth: i've thought about cleaning my EGR too - but mine is/has been disconnected and admittedly, i don't have a clear enough understanding of how the disconnection (alone) resolves issues - is yours connected?

thanks guys wanted to reply even if i didn't have an informed response yet. be good, bests, thanks, [from tulsa]

Remove, clean, reinstall and plug your EGR back in to eliminate that possible problem. To me, with the blue smoke and low/no power cold it indicates injectors. Get it on a code scanner (IDS or AE) that can do a power balance test and you'll know for sure.

hope this helps
 

it prob. has a hydraulic clutch, and engine performance just might effect the hydraulic operation due to engine vacuum. give it a shot, you got nothing to lose.:-jammin

Diesel's don't have engine vacuum. They have a vacuum pump to operate hubs, HVAC, etc. I'm not familiar with the clutch operation though but engine performance could definitely have an affect on it. I know many times with the automatics that engine performance is mistaken for a transmission problem but not sure a manual would be affected the same way.

Since you mention you have a mechanic/purveyor of doom (<--grin) Im guessing your trying to fix it yourself with some help? I'm still a 6.0 rookie with some mechanicing (if not spelling) skills. Blue smoke is usuially oil. First thing come to mind there is CCV (crankcase vent) system and turbo seals. you could look in the cold air tubes for excessive oil and check the ccv lines for leakage and obsturctions. Is the fuel ok? Maybe }> put somthing oily in your tank. I'm thinking maybe two different issues. I agree the no/low power sounds like a fuel issue but you could take a good look at your injector and FICM harnesses. There are links in the tech folder that point out specific places to look. FICM test is also in the tech folder. fuel pressure. And like npccpartsman wrote there are diagnostics you can run to verify injectors (and alot of the other stuff) are bad before spending the bucks on em. I haven't been around a 6.0 with a stopped up cat, but what olbattlebuggy said makes some sense to me also. A gasser will idle ok but get lower on power gradually until it won't pull up a hill. most of the time there is an odd hissing sound to the exhaust. not hard to check and costs nothing unless you break off one of those rusty flange bolts. And as a last resort you can try waving a chicken bone over the turbo. :-X22

If you have a laptop around the house here is a very inexpensive daig tool that is better than many handheld scanners.

Amazon.com: ElmScan 5 Compact USB OBD-II Scan Tool & OBDWiz Engine Diagnostic Software (423001): Automotive

Just curious but have you used this tool on a 6.0L before or do you know any one that has? If so does it work well???

I have one. It works well for code scanning and monitoring. It will graph sensor data, stores flash data and all that stuff. The software is a little clunky and it doesn't include any forced tests that I have found. They offer software upgrades for that. Kinda wish the name didn't have the word "wiz" in it though. :)

Oh yea, I should mention I've used it on several different vehicles and it syncs up every time. Even on my wife's Volvo.

My EGR is connected. I disconnected it several years ago for a while, then not too long after that I reconnected it.....why?? Don't know.....

my 07 is doing the same thing.... just this morning i started it let it warm up for 10 min. "cold morn 4degrees celcius 20 f maybe" drove off truck starts to struggle @1600 RPM through to 2200RPM and sometimes it won't shift into 2nd or 3rd almost feel like it's cutting out "like an old carb.gas job with a sticky choke".

If i drive it like it's stolen it spotters/clears up & revs up normal power ok just a hint of a miss.

coolant temp @ 135
boost up to 11 psi "when acting up only on cold starts"
coolant temp @ at 190/194 clears up about 10 mins into hwy driving 30/40 idole

lots blue smoke was present until yesterday when the dealer changed the EGR valve & found 2 air to air boot cracked

before the EGR swap the symptoms were 10 flod


Mods Bully Dog Performance tunner
pyros
K&N cold air intake

update
 

ok some time today to work on this so, in order:

loosened the downpipe at connection before cat;

first just slightly loosened bolts - no effect.
then fully loosened them - some effect on engine perf but was quite erratic, had picked up a good whine, and no change on blue exhaust
retightened the conn at cat

moved on to egr cleaning;

removed the "throttle body" to get at the egr; - i knew that my 7/03 build had no plate, but was shocked to discover that the 2 electrical connectors are faux

pried EGR up and out; the top chamber, along with everything else interior, is wet, sooty and oily. the bottom chamber of the valve is carbon-coated but dry. pretty sure that the valve is in the closed position.

lots of pictures at:
EGR pictures by clayton6_ebay-et-al - Photobucket

so i am cleaning the valve now, but it seems pretty silly since the entire intake manifold, including the chamber for the EGR valve, is really mucked up.

does this abundance of wet, sooty, oily residue indicate something specific? it seems beyond basic carbon build-up. oil cooler? egr cooler? ??

i haven't had any recent dumping of coolant / degas bottle drop

let me know guys.

after clean and reinstall of the valve, i'll post again.

bests,