Yesterday I fired up my early '99 F350 Powerstroke and noticed it seemed to be missing on one cylinder. The missing is accompanied by a knocking noise inside the engine that has been there since I bought it but now it's very loud. The noise sticks around for a while and then quiets down, then comes back in a few minutes. Like something on the crank is knocking the block each time around. I can feel it when I touch the engine.
I drove it a while and noticed it really shook between 1300 and 1800 RPM, but seemed to be missing at all RPMs. The missing was not sporadic...very rhythmic.

Today I started it again and it still missed at idle but sounded pretty decent. Ever since I bought it (in November '02) it has idled a little rough but nothing this consistent. I took it down the road today and it really shook. It was missing on more than one cylinder and very often, at all speeds and RPMs. After about a mile it would run but wouldn't go over 35 MPH. The transmission figured out something about the problem and shut off the overdrive by itself. It threw a "Low Turbo Boost" code too (without a MIL). I was pretty upset.

It still starts and idles, but has no power and chokes/sputters like heck when revved up at all, in gear or in park.

I have read a lot about cam position sensors and was preparing to buy one, but I see folks are having mostly complete shut-downs with CPS problems.

Can anyone share experience with my symptoms? It still runs, but I doubt I could get it to a dealer. I can hardly get it from the driveway to the garage. The engine has only 21000 miles on it and it's under the International warranty till September.

Someone on another forum suggested changing the oil due to possible foaming. Last oil change was 1500 miles ago at the Ford dealer who replaced the rear main seal for me under warranty because it was seeping oil. I don't suppose they used the anti-foam additive, as I've heard that Ford doesn't acknowledge need for the additive. I can change the oil but have a hunch it's not going to be a miracle cure.

Thanks for your help,

Medfry

 

The first time the CPS went in my '02 the problem manifested itself by making the truck shake like a dog, run terribly rough and stagger a lot. It lost an amazing amount of power, and made rough noises. The banging going on could be heard away from the truck, over the noise of my other truck, so you could possibly be suffering from the CPS behaving badly.

The second time it went it did it at once - and just died
The third time it went it took time in going, like the first.
The fourth time it went was a repeat of the second time.

Theo

 

If you've got a check engine light, it should be easy enough to find the cause of your problem. Retrieve the codes from your computer and service the first one on the list then see if the others go away by themselves. If not, service each code one at a time starting from the top of the list and repeat the process.
I doubt that the anti-foam agent is your problem.

 

Thanks Joe & Theo: I'm interested to hear that CPS failures sometimes cause symptoms like mine. I think I'll try it.

Joe, I do not get a Service Engine light but I did get codes for the transmission lock-out of overdrive and low Turbo Boost. I believe however, that both of these codes are a result of the root cause. The engine runs terribly even in park so I doubt there's anything wrong with the tranny. And, it's not firing enough to make enough exhaust to spin up the turbo; thus I doubt the turbo problem is a root cause. I'm afraid I could spend a lot of $$ on the turbo and tranny without fixing anything.

Thanks again for the replies.

Medfry

 

I agree with your analysis. It might be worth trying the cam position sensor just to eliminate that from the equation.

 

I had the same problem with loss of power and no check engine light, and the loss of power was a clogged cat. and the shaking was from bad injectors. Hope this helps !

 

could be the clips that hold the tops of the injectors on? or the wiring harness on the valve cover thats what happened to me around 85k and yes it was covered under warranty, dont let them tell you different

 

I tried to diagnose the problem for a couple weeks but finally gave up and had it towed in for service. The engine is still under the 5-year International warranty for a few months. Only 22000 miles on it.

They found three injectors to be bad and replaced them all under warranty. THREE. One, they said, had over-heated and failed due to melted O-rings; the others I don't know the failure mode. There was also a leaking oil hose above the engine near the Turbo. I had found oil leaking too, but didn't know exactly where it was coming from. This helped me decide to let them do the work.

So my question is: do many folks have injector problems? I never hear about it. And what do you guys think about three failing? Can one failure cause others to fail? Could this oil leak have anything to do with it?

One injector was definitely bad, but the two others had also thrown codes of some sort indicating injector failure. Could it be that only one was bad but they replaced three because they had codes for them?

I'm only concerned that there might be something else going on that damages the injectors. If it's something I can help prevent, I'd sure like to do whatever I can to make this thing more reliable.

 

22,000 seems fairly too new for me to even consider the injectors already melting, which can happen, but at that low mileage? OUCH!

My dad's 96 F-350 PSD did just about the same thing as you described here, and yes, it turns out it was his injectors. FOUR of them, from overheating, but the diffrence was that he had 160,000 while you have only 22,000. BIG DIFFRENCE!

 

If you have an early '99, you have the troublesome 187 (last 3 digits of the part number on the OEM injector) or AA code injectors. If yours is a 99.5 engine you have the 551 injectors which have a tungsten carbide coating on the barrel and plunger (inside the injector). To your question of whether this is a common problem, if you have the 187's the answer is yes and if you have the 551's the answer is no. My guess is you have the 187's.

 

Thanks for the replies so far. I'll be doggoned.

I do have the early '99 (September '98 build date) so I assume I have the 187 injectors. Should I expect the others to follow suit anytime soon? Are the replacement injectors probably the 551s?

This failure was a "left on the road" type of problem. That's not good. Any advice on how to prevent it happening again would be greatly appreciated.

Medfry

 

21000 miles....is that a typo ? i'm amazed that a 5 year old truck has such little mileage.

 

yavapai: It's true. The original owners leased it for use pulling a horse trailer to shows in the summer. That's all they used it for, parked it in the winter and really took care of it nicely. I ended up with a like new truck for nearly $25000 less than original price.

Now all I gotta do is get all the problems worked out of it and I should have a nice truck for RVing and such. Unfortunately I thought all the problems would be worked out already. I'm hoping the expense won't be too much. With only three months left on the engine warranty I'm afraid I won't see all the issues before time runs out.

Medfry

 

maybe a truck that has sat for months at a time with fuel getting stale like a gasser would could cause fouling. wonder if "stabil" works in diesel fuel ? i started a gas generator that had sat since '98 last week with 5 year old fuel treated with stabil and it fired right up.anyway, hope you get to the bottom of it.