My late 03 crew chassis cab 4x4 would not start one morning, towed it to an independent shop that I trust and they said the fuel line broke at the rear valley of the engine and either the tranny had to come out or the cab had to come off- costing $2000. In addition he thinks I should replace the injectors because last winter the truck would run rough until it warmed up and then it would run fine (he tried cleaning the injectors but no help). The truck has 220k on it and has been pretty trouble free for a 6.0, egr cooler has been the biggest repair outside of ball joints, wheel bearings and brakes - lots of brake jobs. Is there a work around on the fuel line? I can't seem to word a search that gives me the answer on this so I hope somebody can help me out. Also, I'm having a tough time justifying putting $4500+ into a 12 yr old 6.0 and then having some other major failure. I'm thinking I might be better off parting out the truck or trying to sell it non-running. Before this happened it had become an occasionally used backup truck in our fleet of 4 trucks. Thanks

 

There is no fuel line in the rear valley of the motor. Oil line?

 

I thought he said fuel line- he said this was an 03 problem and later trucks had a joint in the line in this area that prevented the break but then the o-ring would leak in that area, I assume because of vibration or flexing where the line goes from the chassis to the engine?

 

Your mechanic has diagnosed it to have a cracked or broken branch tube by what you have described. It's the line that is fed from the hpop and splits off behind the block and in under each head. The rear cover has to be removed so yes it does have to be separated from the transmission.

 

Im thinking a misdiagnosis in going on. Broken branch tubes are not comon.

 

I thought the same but there's always that chance. As you know it's a hard call without knowing the entire prior history and who's monkey paws were molesting it.
Like any big bill job maybe a second opinion is in order.

 

As the others have said boothguy, money would likely be the HPOP. 03-early 04 HPOP will just decide to quit working, no warning at all. Mine did when I was towing one day, truck was running fine, I slowed down for a car and when I went to accelerate acted like a pooch then half mile later gave up the ghost.
I also feared the worst at some point after having her torn town myself that it might be a branch tube, then after some research and reading that it's very rare for this to happen in this model year realized it was in fact the HPOP.

Sounds to me like he is referring to the STC fitting on the later models, which will go bad, versus the HPOP itself on our trucks, when he refers to the "o-ring". With that said I have read of the o-rings on the top or bottom of the HPOP going bad on early models, but I think most guys just replace the HPOP even if it's just the o-ring since they are so deep into the topside already at that point(unless of course it's a bad install on a newer pump)

As for the rough running when cold, I wonder if you have some injector stiction going on. I had some stiction on my truck and added Archoil 9100 to the oil. Worked like a charm after only 100 miles. There are numerous threads on the merits and the BS factor of stiction additives, and whether or not it's just a band aid or long term fix. We don't need to go there with your thread but if this is a back up truck that does not see daily or much use it might be worth looking into on the other threads.

 

I agree that branch tube failures are rare and that HPOP failures are a pattern failure on 2003 engines. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to accurately diagnose a cracked branch tube without doing a little disassembly first... Such as accessing the HPOP.

 

$2k to pull the cab? Really? I'm in the wrong business.

 

I would think he would have checked out the hpop, is it a straightforward thing to diagnose?

 

The hard starts last winter could be a FICM problem

 

$2k was for the whole repair but still a lot of money

 

not much of a choice.... pull the cab or pull the tranny, either way, tranny's coming off just to get to the branch tubes.

 

Excellent point, in my case when I was thinking it might have been the branch tube, I had the discharge tube off of the HPOP and used a c-clamp set up to block off the top and bottom of the tube, then charged it with shop air on the drivers side injector oil rail. This eliminated the branch tube leak, at least to some extent under pressure.
Just a word of caution as most know, I felt like I was doing surgery when installing the c-clamp with a small plate/rubber gasket on either side of the discharge tube. I was very careful not to drop anything, and still almost lost something down the valley at one point. You can't be too careful when working around the HPOP with the cover off. I had clean, lint free towels covering every opening at all times, and this caught the bolt I almost lost down that hole.

 

This might seem like overkill to some but with the intake, oil cooler, drivers valve cover and HPOP off I was not going to risk anything making it's way where it did not belong.
If you notice the c-clamp is blocking off the HPOP discharge tube, the pump was out at that point. I had cardboard cut outs covering the hole. I simply had two small plates and sandwhiched a small rubber gasket on either side then drew the clamp tight, worked well.