I bought a new 5th wheel and I blew my turbo charger leaving the dealership, climbing a 6% grade after about 5 minutes at 35 mph. I got rid of the f350 and bought a new f450 dually with 488 rear end. Tows great, however coming out of fort bragg, Ca on hwy 20 there is a 9 or 10% grade. Takes about 40 minutes or more to get over the top. My turbo started to screech and squeel and then lost power and flattened out. At that time my tranny temp stock gage was approaching yellow. I laid off the gauge and pulled over and let it cool. The rest of the way was fine. I took the truck in to the dealor with about 7k total miles and told them I suspected the turbo may be about ruined. They said it checked out ok on the computer and no problems.

My rv is around 14k lbs and the truck is 8280 lbs, so it should be a couple thousand lbs within towing specs.

My question is, because the turbo was cooked to the point of squeeling and loosing power--is it on its way out or because I pulled over, is it as good as new and dependable?

any advice would be appreciated. Pyrometers on my shopping list. thinking about porta diesel gauges pyro,volt,boost. already have stock tranny. Or should I forget the volt and get the tranny gauge.

Thanks Pat

 

It could have been a combination of other noises that you were hearing, instead of the turbo.

One noise could have been the waste gate opening. It opens to relieve excess manifold pressure and you'll notice a loss of power.
If you would have had a boost gauge, you would have known for sure if this was happening.

Another could have been the clutch fan locking up, engaging the engine fan. These fans make quite a racket when fully engaged, almost like a jet engine under the hood.

If you ruin a turbo by overheating it, it doesn't "heal itself" and I'd think you still be having problems with it.

Gauges are good, the 3 major ones I'd recommend are pyro, boost and tranny.

Welcome to the site!

 

If your turbo was "squeeling" I suspect there was/is a hose leaking somewhere on the pressure side. We used to get that in the test cells when the CAC hoses were left loose from the assembly line.

 

My 2002 comes with a stock tranny gauge. I am looking at guages by Porta diesel products. Should I get the volt gauge instead of their tranny guage? Or should I rely on the stock gauge and get the volt guage.

In reference to the possible "hose leak" is that just something that may occur under extreme loads? Because, all seems to be fine now.

 

It occurs under high boost conditions. Which happens more frequently when loaded, or if you have a bunch of mods to the truck.

 

I just went through a similiar epsiode. I was towing a heavy load up a hill and got a squealing noise from what sounded like my turbo bearings. The truck was running fine, all temps were normal, fluids were ok. I took the truck to my Ford dealer and he said everything was ok. One week later the truck started producing huge amounts of blue smoke out the exhaust pipe, back to the dealer, blown turbo bearings. The truck has been at the dealer for 3 days so far.

My dealer told me they have been having problems with the turbo screws coming loose due to the vibration of the engine, resulting in the turbo housing warping, which destroyes the bearings.

Good luck, BTW I have a 2002 F-350

 

Well, I took it into ford and they said it was probably of hose leak. I was towing on flat ground and was producing the squeel on take offs. I got the manager to ride with me and he said it was a leak. They tightened some hose, and I'm putting in my pyro next thursday. I'll take it up a hill with a load then and we'll see.

I weighed mylelf with me and my wife in the truck. Total weight was 23,450 lbs. The truck weigs around 8500 lbs with 2 riders.

I have 488 rear end, and a service guy said I could pull a 17k load instead of the 16k I was under the impression I could pull, However my sticker says I have a 15k tow package. Why confuse everyone. I have no idea what to tow limits are now.

Pat

 

Sounds good to me. I am opting for the Trans gage. I already ordered the gage and got the entire set up in the box. Problem came up when it came time to attach the entrie set up. It states that you have to drill and weld a bolt on the inside of the trans oil pan. The shop that I usually deal with doesn't want anything to do with that setup. Any ideas? I was looking at the Mag type oil pan but havn't been able to locate it. It was talked about in one of the threads but haven't found it so far. Any help will be appreciated.
Also the oil pan for the trans, where can one be found?
I would also be interested if anybody knows a place in the Al/Ga area that handles this type of thing. I am not a mechanic and do know my limitations.

 

My 2002 came with a tranny guage. I'm getting the pyro and the boost. Chickened out on the install. A local diesel performance shop is installing the pyro on a piller mount for $325. I told them to put the 2 guage mount in and I'd do the boost later myself.

 

The F-450's have a Combined Vehicle Weight Rating of 26,000 lbs. So, after subtracting the 8500 you get a 17,500 trailer weight you can pull. The 15,000 trailer tow limit might be the limit of the hitch installed on the truck, which has nothing to do with the limits of the actually truck itself.

 

You know the service manager said that if I put on a 4" exhaust and K&N etc., problems can be attibuted to the modifications and void the warranty. He said to wait till after 36k m.

The Diesel performance guy quited some act that states that manufacturers can't void warranties due to aftermarket enchancements.

Any comments?

Pat

 

Hey Pat, Go with the trans temp,pyro,boost, and if ya got the change laying around I'd buy a banks trans-command, I put one on because of towing a 5er. it boosts the trans line pressure and keeps the trany cool, also added a maxi cooler.
Good luck
ubon

 

Pat,
remind your dealer about the Maggnuson-Moss act, Might not be spelled right.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll Trans cooler definately on the list.

Yeah that's the court case I was quoted.

Nothing like being stuck in a safeway parking lot for 3 days without a way to move your rig. It's a shame they don't put the pyro in the truck in the first place

Pat