As I was traveling from Yakima, Wa to Vantage,Wa on Sunday, I tell you it was a bad day for some Ford's.

1st Ford was an '08 to '10 model F250 6.4L that had an engine fire on I-82 towards Ellensburg in the passing lane.


2nd Ford was a 2005 F-250 6.0L at Vantage, he had black smoke coming out of the exhaust and a terrible engine knock, and was pulling a 32 ft TT. When I went to go talk to him, he had no idea what a ScanGauge was or anything about the truck.

When I looked at the engine bay with him I saw the EGR valve had been deleted with a block off plate and not plugged into the fan hanging on the side anywhere, he had the high rise aftermarket oil cap installed, ALL the metal/aluminum parts had bad oxidization. He had no gauges whatsoever.

Then to top it off, he said he was going to try and make it to Ellensburg while pulling his trailer. I told him he had a 4% grade for 10 miles in front of him to climb, and the another 35 miles after that on flat ground. All I could feel was, "is there any hope for this guy"?

Anyways, my question is, without any gauges, what would be some good educated guesses with the black smoke and knock? I am mostly just curious what this guys issue might of been with his truck since seeing the symptoms first hand.

My thoughts are the oil cooler leaking, and making the injector(s) stick open.

Of course now that I think of it, there's probably too many scenarios to mention.

 

Black smoke and knock = failing/overfueling injector=melted piston and/or catastrophic engine failure for that dude.

 

I honestly feel sorry for the one's that have no clue about monitoring or proper maintenance on these trucks. It's really sad. Causes alot of heart ache that could be avoided. True most people buy a vehicle and drive it and not think about it but the way I see it these things are more heavy equipment then just a passenger vehicle. Now the one's that have a clue but don't monitor I have no sympathy. True I didn't know a thing about any diesel until I wanted one and was lucky to find FTE to learn from but I even knew before hand this was a different animal all together from my gassers.

 

I did feel bad for the guy, he just had no clue about anything with the truck, other than it took diesel. So, I pointed out a few things to him and told him to sign up on FTE. The best I could do for him in the moment.

 

I was fortunate enough to have at least some idea, being a ex OTR truck driver and doing plenty of research before making the decision to buy my 6.0. No I'm OCD about it. And I'm still very paranoid almost as if I'm waiting for my turn. It's a very uneasy feeling

 

I was like that at first but since I've monitored everything and fixed what was needed (not much--egr delete, batteries, and alt, ebp sensor) and do the maint. I am relaxed as can be about it now. Now if I see something start to get goofy then I get at it. But yes it can get to you. Heck my wife won't even start the truck much less drive it lol.

 

Been monitoring everything. Truck seems fit as a fiddle especially for a truck with 200.000+ Miles. Although still trying to get a grip on ECT vs EOT. I usually run a 9-11 degree spread on interstate. (Not so flat...western Carolina ) but once off the interstate it cools quickly and goes to a 3-6 degree spread. Drives me nuts.

 

I have 118K miles on mine, and I have the exact same spread on the test run, 9-11 degree difference. I dont have any worries. But I will when it hits a 15 degree or higher spread. But I dont really think I will get that spread any higher since I am keeping up on the coolant change, and I have had no gel showing up in my coolant filters. Just sediment.

 

if it's staying that way no worries. I've read on here where some's temp spread is 11 or 12 and has been that way from day one and never changed. So if your's isn't changing rest easy

 

Well that makes me feel a little better.

 

I had the same problem with black smoke and knock when my exhaust back pressure sensor went bad.

 

I hope it's something that simple for that guy.

 

Anyone else heard of this? I dont understand how the EBP sensor would create an engine knock.

 

When mine was bad it created a grinding type noise of sorts when you would get off the accelerator. I guess it could maybe be considered a knock--but it was an ugly sound for sure.