Hey guys,

So this is my first post as a long time forum creeper and I am in a bit of a pickle.

Story time:

So I was on my way to work on a semi-chilly morning here in Colorado. Every day as usual, a little upset in the morning, a little white smoke and after a good warm up i'm on my way. About 10 minutes up the road while accelerating on the freeway, I hit I guess the perfect RPM range (2000-2500) when all of a sudden my CEL came on. Right as the CEL showed up, the engine introduce to me a new skip and lost a bit of power. About 5 more minutes up the road, the CEL went off and the skip went away, unless in idle. I made it to work a few minutes later and the skip in idle was apparent for sure. I turned her off and just couldn't get her to turn back on. The injectors are just not firing, no smoke at all, they don't even sound like they're trying to fire almost like no signal to the whole engine.

I replaced the CPS, the IPR and unplugged the ICP to test if she'd go. I opened the fuel bowl and watched it fill up. I checked the HPOP level, it was almost full, maybe a quarter (between half) inch from the top. I got some $100 OBDII bluetooth bosch piece of **** which told me there was no codes.

She ran great until this, outside of needing glow plugs. When I was trying to get her started it was 60ish outside so I don't think glow plugs is the issue. It sounds like the Injectors are not firing at all, whatsoever.

I will note that I had a few fuses blow out of no where that I replaced, a trail light, OBD fuse and one other in the under-dash box. I had her dyno'd a few weeks back and the tech said she made great power but sounded like she had a little issue recovering from the high RPMs but I figured my injectors are tired.

IDK! I am going to check my GEM this weekend and crawl the wiring but I wanted to get some opinions..

Thanks

 

Have you looked at the wire harness to the 42 pin connector where it crosses the driver side valve cover? Unplug the fuel bowl heater and check/replace fuse 30

Edit: what year truck, mods, mileage, etc, etc

 

I will try all of those first thing in the AM. It's an 01 F350 with 240k miles or so.

So check the 42 pin connector and check the fuel heater fuse.

Anything else?

Also, Thanks again for the reply.

 

Do all the dash lights come on and go off like normal? Where did you get the CPS from? Does the tach bounce while cranking? Had much rain recently?

 

We've had some weather with rain, I also did a trail trip where we crossed about 7 , 1-2ft deep streams w/ Ice but the truck didn't skip a beat on the trail or on the way home.

The CPS is from O'Reilly's, it's the black plastic one... dang thing was pricey.
The tach does move, it moves and shows 200+ rpms when cranking, maybe even more. The WTS light comes on and shuts off as usual and the truck turns over strong.

It just sounds like the injectors are not getting the signal, all 8 of them.

 

Regardless of whether it is causing your present issue or not, you want to get that aftermarket CPS out of your truck. These rigs are known for having issues with aftermarket sensors, especially if you have your wipers running on intermittent. Riff Raff diesel sells the OEM CPS (blue / purple one is the present one of choice for a lot) for a reasonable price and they ship pretty quick....

 

Do you know anyone with a 7.3 you can borrow parts off of, or have access to a scanner that can run some diagnostics? If you're creek crossings got water up in the IDM, it may not have died immediately, but water and electronics don't mix well.

A buzz test or IDM swap would be useful about now.

 

Since the wait to start light is coming on I don't suspect the Fuel heater fuse is bad. (also powers the PCM)

Check the bottom of the harness where it might be rubbing the valve cover. Has known to rub through.

What these guys said about the sensors in these trucks is so true. Do a search on this forum for ICP and IPR and you'll find many cases were parts store sensors caused problems and once an OEM sensor was installed it cleared up.

If you had blown fuses you had a short someplace. Hopefully it didn't fry the IDM.

Oh yeah and welcome to the forum. Great bunch of folks here and they should be able to get you fixed up.

 

Thanks for the welcome and thanks everyone for the helpful replies. I have ordered a International CPS and I will do a wiring crawl tomorrow and see what I can find. I know a few 7.3 people but none of them have the AE Package and I feel that's what I would need for this. Tomorrow like I said, I will check everywhere and I will put the IDM under the scope to see if I can see any damage.

I will report back tomorrow once I get some more time to crawl through the truck. If there was a lack of HPO, would you still hear the injector buss trying to fire?

 

If you have an Android phone or tablet you can get a Bluetooth dongle that will plug into your OBD2 port and you can read your pressures from there. it's a fairly cheap way to do it without having AE. Do a search for a user name Tugy. He has a Link in his signature for OBD2 testing that will have lots of information there

 

I found Tugly, got FORscan down and now I jsut need to see if I can find an ELM device or might just have to order one.

Either way, I will report back some of my findings tomorrow.

 

Late Update guys... Still empty handed.

So I was unable to find anyone with a scanner near me. Posted in a local 7.3 group but the guy that offered kinda just ignored me later on.

I did a bit of wire crawling and noticed that connector for the IPR valve was frayed at the plastic connector housing itself and its extremely possible those may have touched or shorted out.

I put in the new CPS that I ordered (oem) and I have a ICP sensor on the way to replace anyway. There is a potential my boost solenoid was leaking so I have replaced that now as well.

I just don't understand the no smoke... im not one to shoot ether into her so I haven't tried Air-Intake assisted starting to see if she just needs a few good beets.

As a software engineer, my mind wants to go back to the moment of incident. Why all of a sudden while accelerating would the CEL come on and then a skip... It just seems like the IPR to me which I replaced but idk... Very confused, still looking for a sensor in the Denver Metro area.


Any more kind gestures of ideas would be fantastic.


The broken *** itself:

 

You are quite a distance from me, so sorry I can't be of personal help.

Have you gotten connected yet on the OBD port?

If you unplug your ICP, the computer will use a calculated ICP that will tell the truck to run- if everything else is good. If you have only a bad ICP, it's a good test/work around.

But if your IPR or connection is bad, you won't have the physical oil pressure required to operate the injectors, regardless of what the ICP/computer "thinks" it has.

I had my IPR die on me. We were traveling a mild, flat road at a gentle, smooth speed.

I disconnected the ICP, the fuel bowl heater, connected with Torque Pro to my OBD to check it out, saw tach working (my Excursion has a dash tach), checked oil level in HPOP...

Ordered IPR from a dealer about 1.5hrs away, made the long trip, overpaid, installed along the road, fixed the problem.

I recall having a few stumbles over about 2 months, and one stall a few months earlier that I simply pulled over, look at everything, then restarted without incident.

In addition to electrical, the IPR can wear or get clogged up, seals, etc.

It ain't CHEAP! I think I paid $220 or so from the dealer and waited a day.

Have you called a Ford dealer to get IPR?

You also asked about no smoke. No smoke could mean no fuel. Outside of fuel troubles (have you done the Hutch mod? How full is your tank? Fuel filter? Clogged intank filters?), if the injectors don't fire, it's a no-fuel issue.

The injectors need fuel available at 40+ psi minimum, good positive voltage, ground-fire signal (Injector Pulse Width), and enough volume + pressure of oil (HPOP/IPR/ICP) to actuate the injectors and inject the atomized fuel into the cylinders.

You're checking the right things

Being a new member (Welcome to FTE!), I don't know your knowledge about these trucks, perhaps you already knew all this?

With the age of our trucks, replacing IPR is not a "bad" move anyways.

Have you tested your fuel system yet? How?

Have you put a meter on your battery while cranking to see the minimum voltage? What is it?

 

First off, thanks for the warm Welcome. You guys have been awesome and I definitely still have a few things to try for sure.

So I have completely replaced the IPR, the CPS has been replaced twice now, once with a store part and now one from International. I have unplugged the ICP, the fuel bowl fills fairly quick and does hold pressure, so much so that part of the bowl lid seal got pinched and it shot a steady stream through the pinch mark at the top of the bowl.

When you replaced the IPR, did it take a lot of cranking to get it to fire again? I just don't get any smoke. Tho I am just cranking for a few seconds at a time.

My oil might be a little thin tho about 3 months back I replaced all the HPOP oil itself.

I will try and rent a tool this weekend to see if I can get any OBD results.

again guys, I appreciate all the advice.

 

When I replaced the IPR along the road, I then filled the HPOP reservoir with oil before trying to start.

It took a little longer than usual, but not much. You can try filling the HPOP with fresh oil.

What oil are you using? As our injectors get older and "more seasoned" (LOL), switching to something like Rotella T6 5w-40w Synthetic oil for diesels helps them out.

Do you have OBD bluetooth or wireless adapter? Most standard OBD tools will not pull the OBD codes and even fewer will pull the enhanced Ford-specific codes.

What brand IPR did you use?

IPR, CPS should definitely be Ford only OEM.

ICP is preferred to be Ford OEM, but I am using the International version/numbered part (out of Japan) with good results.

Do you have a tuner or programmed chip or programed PCM?

What is your outside temp? You can try plugging in your truck about 4 hrs or so, in case your glow plugs are not working properly.

Hope this helps.