I stopped by a buddies place to help him with a couple of things at his ranch and as usuall, we eventually got to talking about our trucks. His is the same as mine other than the color and miles.
Early 99 with 130K miles.
He was saying that it has loss of power as in it doesn't climb the usuall hills like it used to. Seems he has to keep pressing the throttle down further to maintain speed. No additional smoke, smooth idle and accelleration etc.
But he said he did notice a kind of "air" rushing sound when driving it.
So I had him start it up and wait for it to high idle, (40 degrees outside). He did and I pointed out the air sound of the EBPV closing to warm up quicker. He mentioned that yes it only did it when the engine was still cold. However, I did notice what sounded to me like a bearing going out...the kind of tinny, metal scraping sound. Changed with the RPM speeds. Until he hit the brake to idle it back down then it quit instantly. He popped the hood and thats when I saw the black coolant. Through the side of the reservior, it looked black. I dipped my fingers in to get a small pool in my hand and it smelled very heavy of diesel fuel. For that matter, almost NO antifreeze smell to it at all. THe drips from my fingers looked almost clear.
So.... I am thinking injector cup(s). Could be one or more that are cracked.

Your thoughts? Also, could this attribute to what I heard? Like a bearing scraping sound? Maybe the fuel has damaged the water pump? Why did it quit when it idled down and didn't make the sound again when idling back up?

Thanks guys!!

 

Could be cups and bad turbo. Did you look inside the turbo to see if its dubbing on the intake side. Check for play. I would pull the injectors and pressureize the system to see if cups are leaking. Or better yet just change them. Flush the block out completely! A turbo rebuild kit is cheap if you caught it on time. Listen again with hood open, you mit be able to pin point the spot.

Chet

 

The only other way(s) fuel can get in the coolant are baaaad - cups are the prime suspect. E99's have an issue with ELC and injector cup sealant, perhaps its a sealant issue from incompatible coolant? The fix is the same...

Figure about $450 for parts and tool rental including ELC and an oil change (cups, sealant, injector o-rings). Plan to flush the cooling system with degreaser in addition to normal flush procedures.

Check for turbo shaft play, that's an easy way to rule out a problem there. Its possible the water pump doesn't like a fuel/coolant emulsion.

As far as power loss goes, boost and drive pressure leaks are the most common culprits for 'its not as good as it used to be' complaints.