Got a fuel pressure gauge installed. I went with the Max Tow gauge due to the price point and I think it looks pretty good. I haven't gotten a cluster for it yet as I'm not sure what other gauges I might want to install. Pressure is 67 at idle, it will drop two pounds when i step into it so not bad. It looks like the truck already has a blue spring kit installed.


A few notes from the install for anyone who comes across this in the future.

--get the adapter that allows the sensor to be installed into the fuel filter housing. I didn't realize I should have ordered that and had to wait for it to get shipped.
--I used yellow Teflon tape to install the sensor into the adapter. The adapter itself uses an o ring to seal. I've read yellow tape is appropriate for fuel.
--Fuse taps make it so you don't have to cut into any part of your harness. They were pretty easy to use after I watched this video on YouTube ( ) and checked the fuses to see which ones cutoff and where the hot side of the fuse was. I don't remember which ones I used but can look it again if it will help somebody. Only bad thing about using the fuse taps is the fuse box cover won't fit back on - I'll have to cut some of the plastic or something.

Also got my injector replaced. I'll post again on that shortly.

 

I was finally able to change out the fuel injector on cylinder #7. That is the one that had thrown a cylinder contribution code. Truck runs much better and no longer skips or stumbles. The prior owner had told me that two injectors were bad so I'm not sure there isn't another one that needs replacement, but #7 was certainly the worst. Without testing, I don't think I'll be able to know if another one is bad until a cylinder contribution code is thrown. Not worrying about it right now.

I had a few concerns after tearing into the truck with prior work that had been on it. The prior owner had work done at a local shop in Conway SC and I can't believe they let it leave as it was.

--First, some of the 10mm nuts that hold the glow plug relay on the valve cover were missing. One of the two that was on there, was way too tight and already boogered up. I had to drill into it and tap it loose with a hammer and a chisel. I bent the valve cover stud/bolt getting that nut off.
--Second, two of the bolts that hold the oil rail down (the ones in the back down low) were missing. I guess they thought they were too hard to get to?
--Third, I'm not sure if an issue or not but the front dummy plug was a 12mm allen and the rear was a 10mm allen. I thought the updated parts were 12mm so did they only decide to update the front one? I'll be researching this.
--Finally, the prior owner just had the oil changed before I bought the truck at a local chain shop. I found they didn't install the drain plug with a crush washer when I went to change the oil. Luckily I think that may have been the majority of my oil leak.

So I got it all back together as it was but I'll have to order those missing bolts/nuts and open it up again at some point. I could also tell that injectors 1&3 had been replaced but injector #5 was old like #7. I may just replace that one to have them all new on that bank.

A few notes on my install:

--mileage at 233,000
--battery terminal nuts 8mm
--glow plug relay nuts 10mm (use deep socket/ratcheting wrench)
--valve cover bolts 12mm (use deep socket/ratcheting wrench)
--oil rail bolts T30 I believe
--injector bolt T40, you really do need an extended shank torx. About 2 inches. Mine was too long to work on the back injector, I ended up making it work and was able to get a proper torque with a shorter torx and extension but not ideal. Will be ordering a shorter, extended torx.
--Per dieseltechron, "The passenger is odd" when remembering which cylinders are odd and even. The front cylinders would be one and two so the back injector I replaced was #7, passenger side, closest to the rear.
--injector torque 26 ft pounds.
--cycle the key on and off (not starting the car) to build up fuel pressure. Mine took a few times, the gauge was very helpful here. I also bumped the engine a few times with the starter bump on the passenger side to build up the oil pressure, not sure if that was needed.

After I buttoned everything up I went ahead and changed the fuel filters with Racor/Parker ones. Wix was in there previously. I also changed the oil to Rotella T6 5W-40 and put a Racor/Parker oil filter in there with a stock Motorcraft cap. I took it for a drive to pickup my travel trailer where I had left it in storage after the hurricane, about an hour and 45 minutes away and the I noticed the craziest thing. After an hour of driving 60 MPH, my EOT was only 188 and ECT was about 186! Previously the EOT had gone all the way up to 233 without the trailer. On the way back while towing I saw the EOT get as high as 216 while my ECT was about 202 but it generally stayed around 210 with the ECT at 198. Previously EOT had hit 245 towing on the same route. I'm speculating here but I think the T6 5W-40 is able to dissipate heat much better than whatever oil had been in the truck before, likely a conventional 15W-40. Flushing the cooling system is next up for me and I'm hoping a backflush on the oil cooler may save me some work in not having to replace that right away.

 

Injector box from Rockauto. Looks like Ford Motorcraft



​​​​old injector



Not really visible here but oil rail bolts missing from the bottom. 10mm Allen in the dummy plug

 

Looking to do some work on the truck here shortly and will probably start with the steering box and whatever other steering components I find loose when I'm in there.

Any recommendations for a steering box? I've done some reading and sounds like people have bad luck with rebuilt boxes from auto parts stores. Then there is red top and the blue top boxes. Red top sounds like a mixed bag. I can't find much on the blue top guys but their price doesn't seem too bad so leaning that route.

Will probably have to do brakes soon as well, they are screaming at me.


​​​​​​Picked up a leer cap last month, new shocks and cables for it and I'm a pretty happy camper.

​​​​​​

 

I don't have a recommendation for steering boxes other than to suggest Motorcraft is probably a good idea (haven't looked at prices, so they might be high and why you're considering other options). Are you certain the steering box is the problem? Have you looked over the front steering linkage (ball joints, tie rods, etc.)? Lots of folks have the ball joints go out quickly. I also have a 2006, but mine is sitting at about 61K on it. Ball joints are still good on mine although the seals are starting to get bad. Don't know if you've changed the air filter yet, but the stock filter made by Donaldson is the best filter for these trucks. Agree 100% with TooManyToys. I'd get that K&N out of there and replace it with stock. Good that you changed the fuel filters out too. You want to protect those injectors. Did the fuel look clean when you drained the water separator? Any sign of algae in it? My 2006 has grease fittings in the front axle u-joints. Yours may too. They are not easy to see, but don't neglect that if they do.

And no, these trucks don't come with stock coolant filters, but they should. I'm working on getting one together for mine, but I just did a very thorough flush of the system and changed to CAT EC-1 Extended Life Coolant (ELC). I personally think the stock oil coolers are OK so long as you don't allow the coolant system maintenance to go and have a filter. Mine is still good. If I needed to replace it, I would go with another stock one.

It seems strange that a simple oil change made your oil temps go down so much unless the oil was both low or really degraded and dirty. That might well have been the case though. Synthetic oil is good but it shouldn't make such a dramatic improvement over DINO oil that was changed and filtered as it should be.

 

I thought the temp change was strange too. Per the sticker in the windshield, it had been changed just a few months prior and not too much mileage put on it. Maybe it was low, there was a significant leak as a result of no crush washer on the drain plug.

Pretty sure the box will need replacement with how loose it feels and the way it binds at a certain point. There are moog parts in the front end that should be greased I'm sure but I haven't shook anything down yet to see what all is bad.

I'm a dummy and didn't think to drain the water from the separator when changing the fuel filter. I'll get under there and do that right away. Thanks for pointing that out - can you tell diesels are new to me?

 

I'm on my first diesel too. Draining the water separator can be a pain because the driveshaft on 4x4's are so close to the Allen key plug although yours may have the alternate drain plug. Actually, just did a search and it appears there are two alternative plugs now. I have the knurled version which came out first, but the other on Amazon has a hex head. I'd probably go with that one if I were doing it over. I use pliers to break the knurled one loose than by hand when it's loose enough. The hex head version might be better.



HFCM Water Separator Drain Plug Upgrade 6E7Z-9C082-A


6.0: Fuel Filter Change Guide

Tip, it's best not to drain with a full tank and also, don't park the truck pointed downhill. Otherwise, you will drain and drain and drain. It's good practice to drain it fairly regularly. When you do, run a q-tip inside and see if it pulls any algae out. If you do find algae, I suggest you get a bottle of biocide to treat the tank. It's kind of pricey, but a bottle can treat several tanks.

 

Been a while since I've updated the thread here.




Took the truck up to MD to see some family. When I was up there I ran into some issues with the truck.





I had a pretty bad studder issue when it was cold trying to drive on 95 getting up to 70. Thought I had another injector go out on me or the bad one (was told 2 were bad when I first got the truck) got way worse. I believe I could feel a slight hint of a skip when stepping into it before but nothing to violently shake the truck like this.




Nursed it home, ordered IDS software (thanks Sean!) And sure enough it looks like injectors 2 & 6 are bad. I'm not sure about 5 but when I did replace #7 I could tell that was the only one on that bank that hadn't been done. Here is a video of the test



Second issue is a coolant leak I'm facing. I noticed there was no coolant in the degas bottle and it took over a gallon to fill it up. Started reading and looked into the issues of puking degas bottles and it being a sign of head gaskets failing so I started sweating. After driving it a bit I found a obvious leak at the upper radiator hose where it meets the radiator due to a worm gear clamp. Once the system gets hot I can see coolant seeping out of the hose. Will be getting new hoses and some t bar clamps to be rid of the worm gear ones.

Still not trusting it was just the leak, I purchased a 30 psi guage and tee fitting to check the pressure in the degas bottle. Still need to get some hose to get the setup to work. I did a relative compression test in IDS but really want to make sure it's ok so I know all the issues I have going on.



IDS relative compression results


Final issue, checking ball joints I found they were pretty shot as I could see the play with the wheel off the ground and a pry bar under the wheel. I got some parts to do those but haven't found the time to get it done just yet.

I know I noted steering box needed done previously and still think that is the case as I can feel it bind in the wheel.

 

I posted this on a different thread but I had replaced injectors 2 and 6. I found out it still had the old style dummy plug and standpipe on that side.

Also since my last update I replaced the batteries with two new ones. The old ones didn't match in battery or CCA. The truck died on me a couple times after sitting for a week and I had some buildup of corrsion on the smaller batteries teminal.

Recently injector 4 went completely out, I believe a failure on the electrical side this time since it threw a code po271.

Here is the IDS


I'm going to replace #4 but #8 is only one left on the bank. It seems fine based on the graph, though higher than the others. Should probably go ahead and replace it though I don't really mind opening it up and changing an injector now that I've done it.

Does #5 look like it's on its way out though?

I'll be changing the oil with archoil after this to see if that will help the truck run smoothly.

 

Replaced injector 4 and code PO271 remains (injector circuit high). I placed the connector on injector 6, still got PO271.

Thinking I had a short in the circuit, I tested the resistance and didn't find anything. Not trusting my multimeter, I took the whole injector harness out for inspection. I didn't see anything obvious other than the missing clips in the FICM connectors (been like that a while). I tested for resistance and compared to other injector connections, no signs of any issues.

I cut back the wrapping just a bit around the FICM connector and did actually see some marring from chaffing on wires leading to injector 4. Did not see any copper though, I wrapped it up with some electrical tape and retested KOEO for that cylinder, making sure the FICM connectors were in there tight.

Code PO271 persists. Injector not buzzing.

Went and purchased a new injector harness from a local parts store, ran injector test for that cylinder, PO271 remains.

Leads me to thinking the FICM is bad despite no signs of low voltage issues and sync intact.