Looking for some insight on what may be causing an issue I have been having with my 6.0L for the past 2 years. When I pull heavy loads after about 4hours of heavy pulling, the engine begins to miss fire on 2 cylinders and throws and engine code for the misfires. After I remove battery cables for 8 hours the issue clears up and the truck runs like a scalded cat again, that is until the next time I put it under such conditions. As this condition starts to develop I can hear the turbo spooling up and then back down at idle randomly. Lately the truck has taken to smoking when I put my foot into in while in this condition. My theory is that a sensor, or combination of sensors is teaching the computer bad things resulting in whacky performance of the turbo and putting the truck into "Limp" mode by shutting off injectors......Bear in mind I am making vast and not terribly substantiated guesses as to what is going on. I cleaned the Mass Flow Sensor and when I took it out, before cleaning it, it looked as clean as new. Any ideas what my be causing this are greatly appreciated.

Am I looking at something that could result in catastrophic failure, ie. turbo disintegration, etc. if I keep up with this practice until I solve the issue?

I have to make a 1200 mile run across Nevada and Utah in 2 weeks and I don't want the truck to grenade in the process.

Thanks.

Mos

 

Moved to the 6.0L PSD forum.

Stewart

 

Hi Stewart,

I am new to this or any forum.

What are you telling me?

Thanks.

 

He's just telling you he moved your post to the correct forum.

What are you using to monitor data live?
Any codes?

 

Navistarnut,

Thank you for the clarification.

I have an OBD11 tool that shows the static error codes. I am not able to monitor data live with that tool to my knowledge.

 

Sorry,

OBDII device.

 

youll need something to monitor the live data... problem with injector codes is theyll sometimes throw the codes for the wrong cylinder.. you need something where you can turn on and off the injectors individually and see where the drop in power really is... Ford IDS, Auto Enginuity are the main 2 out there... but there are a few others... with as computer controlled as these vehicles are you need something to run the same diagnostics the dealerships do with diagnosing the trucks...

sometimes a follow up or a prior injector failing to fire can cause the one in the middle to read weak and toss the code... this is why viewing live data is a biggie... you might find you have more than one... the reason its only showing up when your pulling those heavy loads is because your making the engine work harder and is needing to utilize all the cylinders to make power... in the factory tuning they will attempt to compensate to hide a weaker injector under light conditions... which unfortunately can hide 2-3 failing injectors (depending on how bad theyve failed)

also keep in mind these are hardset codes... so after the injectors have been changed itll take some time before the computer goes and actually deletes them.. it has to realize the problem is no longer there... these trucks go through a relearn procedure periodically...

 

Thanks Sparky83. Just so I am clear you are thinking that this is actually injector related and not sensors, turbo or computer and that I will need the live data to be able to pin-point which injector is the culprit?

If I make this run to Utah will in damage my motor? It must be a slowly dying injector or an intermittent thing because it pulls like a champ for a long time, sometimes up to 12 hours and this never happens. This will be the 5th trip to Utah pulling between 8k and 10k pounds each time, having exhibited this issue several times in between trips and it never exhibited it until the last trip. Pulled the battery cables and it cleared up and went back to running like a champ.

Would an injector issue also cause the turbo to mis-behave and randomly spool at idle? As the the truck begins to experience issues of "underpowered" or miss, and well before it throws a code, the truck will begin to billow black smoke when I put my foot into it, (more than normal), and the turbo will audible spool up substantially several times while at idle. The spooling only occurs, however, after the truck is warmed up and has been driven for a while.

Do you think I have multiple issues at play and will the live data help me to capture this specter?

Thanks again for any and all input, much appreciated!

 

the spooling at idle is the computer going through its relearn cycle... itll do it for about 20 minutes.. it cycles the vanes in the turbo to learn where the best performance positions are at different places... without the live data its really hard to know for sure where your performance issues really are...

the black smoke is raw unburnt fuel... these trucks do not have the emissions controls a gasser does... (there they use o2 sensors to calculate proper fuel ratios) in a diesel theres nothing like this to measure the unburnt fuel so its sorta guessing at the air/fuel mix.. when you put your foot in it the trucks delivering the max amount of fuel the injectors capable of doing to give you power... the smoke is just showing your overfueling the cylinders until the turbo catches up to force more air in and balance out the fuel air mix.... in the factory tow/haul mode it richens the mix more for more power..

but again without the live data and the tests from the programs you wont know for sure what the real issue is.. which btw everytime your pulling the battery leads your forcing the truck back into that relearn procedure... it can take anywhere from a week to a month for this cycle to complete... yes your clearing the soft set codes... but not the hard set codes... which most scanners cant read the hard set codes in the computer.. nor does disconnecting the batter delete them...

 

copy that. I will look into getting my hands on one of the readers you suggested, Ford IDS, Auto Enginuity, and go from there.

Thank you for your time.

Once I have some data I will come back if I have any questions.

Have a FANTASTIC Holiday Season!

 

Heya DMos, Welcome to FTE!

Like navistarnut advised, I moved your post to the correct forum to get you answers.

You originally posted in the F150 forum but we gotcha covered.

Stewart

 

Copy That.

AWESOME!

Thank you.

 

You can download Forscan for free to a laptop, then get yourself an ELM327 like this one to communicate to plug into the OBDII port.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NLQAHS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It costs a LOT less than things like IDS.
No, it won't do as much but it does a TON compared to lesser more expensive set ups.
Forscan has a lot of cool features such as in your case with a question on some injectors, the injector cycle test

You can even drop out one cylinder at a time for testing purposes, or cycle the turbo veins with the VGT slide bar control.
It takes a few minutes to get comfortable with it, but any good system does, and the barrier to entry is pretty darn low

 

I will see if I can round up a windows laptop and get started.

Thanks again for the GREAT input, much appreciated!

 

thanks Mike... i couldnt think of what the other one was everyone recommended...