I've got a 2011 F250 with the 6.2 in it. Last night while I was driving it all of a sudden had no power and sounded weird. I rolled the window down and it kind've sounded like the old 5.4's when they would blow a plug. Right now it's basically running on 7 cylinders.

Thankfully I was only a couple miles from home, so I limped it home. The check engine light would flicker, but wouldn't stay on. I checked the 8 plug wires and they're all on tight. I couldn't check the ones under the coils cause I didn't feel like pulling the coils off.

Has anyone heard of the coils going bad on these? Anything else that might cause this? Maybe the dreaded "tick" noise (though I've never really noticed it that much)?

The truck as 41K on it and I basically drive it too and from work. Occasionally I'll haul stuff with it, but I'm not a landscaper or work for a plowing company. I've always changed the oil around 5K and use Fomoco synthetic oil and filters. This last oil change (about 1K ago) I used Mobil 1.

I also noticed that the tranny would lag or stall trying to shift into reverse on cold starts. This just started this week. I have had the transmission reflashed for that problem as a well as a new body control module for a bad taillight. Hopefully they find something today so I don't have to be without my truck over the long weekend.

Thankfully the powertrain warranty should cover it, but sucks they don't cover loaners.

 

When you say you checked the plug wires, did you check the plugs too? They might be tight on the plug, but the plug might have backed/popped out of the head, causing the condition you described. Though we have 16 plugs (compared to the 5.4) so I wonder if 8 cyls would still fire with only 15 plugs.

 

If it's throwing a CEL, it should be stored. See if you can pull the codes (auto parts stores usually do it for free).

Regarding the reverse engagement, did your truck qualify for the replacement of the 3 solenoids? Depending on your build date, it may or may not have received them (assuming the dealer performed the TSB and didn't just reflash to get you out the door).

 

I'll have to check on the solenoids, I know they reflashed it. Mine is a very early build.

I have a code scanner, but that dang thing wouldn't work either. It was not my day, the truck died, the code scanner wouldn't work, and when I was going to empty some sand bags out of the back of the truck my lawn tractor died. To top it all off I blew the clutch out on my Mustang the next day driving that to work. I have 3 vehicles and so far only my wife's Explorer is in drivable condition. I had to resort to borrowing my dads truck to get around, rather embarrassing.

My truck is at the dealer now, hopefully they'll get a chance to look at it today finally. I'm crossing my fingers that it's a bad coil or something as it didn't really sound mechanical nor sound like it got worse after it started happening.

As far as whether or not the truck would run on 15 spark plugs, it would. I pulled each individual plug wire and restarted the truck each time to determine which cylinder it was. There was never a change in how it sounded, then I realized that there was two plugs per cylinder.

 

I hope you can get it all sorted out quickly, I've had weeks like that too, it's certainly character building stuff, good luck

 

Just got an update from the dealer.

Turns out it was a bad rocker arm. They have to order parts and it won't be ready for another day or two.

 

So how did it turn out? Was it just a rocker arm? If so, why/how did it fail?

 

Rocker arm failed on #5 cylinder I believe. They replaced both rocker arm shafts on that side of the engine. Also replaced the camshaft on that side of the engine as I'm assuming the rocker arm wiped a lobe on the cam.

They also found needle bearings on the top of the head and the crankcase, so they pulled one of the main bearings and one of the connecting rod bearings. All "appeared good at this time" so the work order states. It does make me wonder how the needle bearings for the rocker arm got into the oil pan. How big are the oil drain holes in this engine anyways?

They didn't tell me how it happened, nor will they for that matter. I really like that when you get a "Service Adviser" they physically don't go over any of the work performed on your vehicle with you. They just call you to tell you that it's ready to be picked up. If you go in and talk to them about it they just say the cashier has the paperwork and they have no clue what happened. To some extent I can't blame them cause no one is going to admit if there's a problem, what it is, and what damage it'll cause. Most places are just crossing their fingers that it won't happen again. Nothing wrong with the dealer I went to and I'm not complaining about them as they're probably the best I've been to, just a general statement about any product that's purchased lately.

 

I heard a story about a local "service manager" who drug I one morning with whiskers on his face, bad breadth, and of all things he had his old McDonalds hat on instead of his new baseball hat that he normally wears bass ackwards.

 

Ok. I had a rocker break on my old 6.4. Don't know why it happened. Anyway let's hope it doesn't give you any more trouble. BTW, what kind of oil and filter do you use? Do you think it was oil related or bad luck?

 

I'm guessing bad luck. I've always used the Synthetic Motorcraft oil and filters. This last oil change I had to use Mobil 1 and a Motorcraft filter.

I hope it doesn't happen again either, but I'm a little nervous that the metal parts moved around enough to get into the oil pan. Makes me wonder if there's still more in there. The work order did state that they replaced the oil cooler and the oil filter adapter, but didn't say why.

I found on the internet the company that actually makes the rocker arms for this engine, I was tempted to contact them, but realized I'm not going to get any answers out of them.

 

The metal parts can get into the pan by running down the oil return passages that aren't pressurized just gravity. I'm sure the pan was cleaned along with the oil pump pickup and the oil pump itself. I don't know if the oil cooler feed is after the filter or before but I suspect it's before and that's why it was replaced it instead of taking the chance of something was in there. It sounds like they did everything they could to make sure all the metal was out of the engine and I wouldn't worry to much about it at this point.

Denny