I can't put it on the mechanic. I haven't talked to him in almost two years.
It was me giving bad information. It is the IDM we worked on in the past not the PCM. I had to look in my old records at my last repair bill and the personal repair log I keep on the truck.
It was the auto parts guys telling me that I need to get the VIN and mileage flashed onto a new PCM. Even though that's probably not what I need now.
I don't have the diagnostics codes but I just remembered my friend and neighbor who has a 2003 F250 gas engine telling me about a place locally called "Superchips" that will do a diagnostics on your truck.
I'm going to call them Monday and see what they say.

 

Just talked to my neighbor who is very familiar with ohming out.
His question is if it doesn't give close to a 3 ohm reading what then?

 

Is there anyway to edit the title of this thread to:
"Why is truck trying to stall/quit out on me?"
Kind of sounds misleading and stupid now that we're pretty sure it's not the PCM.

 

How would a valve cover gasket or harness affect the way the engine runs?
I'm from the old school working on Mopar muscle cars back in my youth but gave it up years ago. I would never associate a valve cover gasket or wiring harness with an engine ignition problem.
The diesel is a whole new world for me.
I started buying them for their pulling power. That and I get better mileage than a gas engine.

 

What is BEST?

 

The valve cover gasket has a connector on each side that connects the wires to each injector and glow plug to the main wiring harness. The injectors are actuated by an electric solenoid that triggers the injection event. If the connection is bad, it affects the ability of the injector(s) to send fuel into the combustion chamber. If the center pin in a valve cover gasket is the one that has a problem, it can take the whole cylinder bank off line, since that's the common pin for all 4 injectors on the bank. It's a fairly common issue to find a pin or two burnt on the gasket connectors and/or harness plugs.

 

Just watched a video where he is doing the 50 cent mod fix.
At the end of the video is says the quarter is going to hold the connector out so it doesn't slide "out" anymore. Isn't this contrary to what he needs?
At the beginning of the video he says the problem is that the connector keeps coming loose. Does this connector slide down to another connector or against the one next to it in the video?
I just starting to learn with these diesels so have a little patience with me please.

 

The quarter puts pressure on the little plastic "spring" that locks the connector into place so it can't slip out.

 

The Injector Drive Module is what makes injectors fire. Kind of like how a distributor sends the power to the spark plug on a gas engine. There's a lot of re manufactured IDM's out there for around the $250 range if i remember right. I replaced mine with a Swamps High Performance IDM about a year and a half ago. No troubles so far. When the old one went out i had a consistent misfire as if i had an injector go out. As far as replacing it, you just unbolt it, unplug it, put the new one in in the reverse order. Working inside the fenderwell is the only thing that makes it difficult.

Pull it off and check for corrosion as that was the problem before. clean it up with some electrical QD cleaner and put some dielectric grease on the plug when you put it back in. That will prevent it from corroding again.

 

To change the title, go to your first post and select "Edit". When the new screen comes up, click "Advanced" on the lower right. This allows you to change the text in the "Title" window up top.

"B.E.S.T. map" is a link in my signature below - go ahead and click it. The flags on the map are the locations of volunteers with scan tools that can help out, if they have the time. The scan tool is what we use to "listen" to the systems on our trucks, the same way the stealership puts the truck "on the computer". The stealership charges over $100 per event, where we do it for ourselves (or others) as often as we want for free, once we have paid for the hardware/software one time.

Under Valve Cover Harness can come loose... and when it does, the ohms on that 42-pin connector go way up from the 3 ohms. When the ohms are high, that means the valve covers have to come off and the UVCH needs some attention. I know you saw the 50-cent mod on a video... but that is not always a guaranteed fix. Here is the 50-cent fail from my truck (right before I bought new UVCHs):





And this is what it looks like inside the valve covers (my injectors are new, so yours will look more aged). You can see the UVCH along the top side of the injector solenoids (yellow boxes):

 

When you say misfire do mean it would act like it was going to stall and then kick back up when you were sitting idling or it would what I call "buck" you when driving down the road?

 

Either , or. But I would ohm them out, also check the connection your mechanic cleaned and re-clean and use the dielectric grease. I'd do all that before buying a new IDM or PCM. Getting the codes read also should send you in the right direction. You can also post the codes, there is some smart guys on here.

 

What exactly are these parts called...UVCH?

 

Under Valve Cover Harness.

 

It's 1700 and six miles to Oviedo, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.