Please help someone, I have dumped so much money in my truck and an only able to drive it in spurts. Background story is I was driving down highway and truck read reduced engine power and turned off. Found out my low pressure pump was bad and changed it. Looked in the old pump and some type of blue plastic ribbon looked to have clogged it. It still didn't run, not even with starter fluid. Mechanic says it's the hpfp so I change that and all lines. Also change every sensor imaginable dealing with fuel, temp, and crank. Now it runs when first cranked fully cold as many times as you want you can turn off and back on, once I start driving it though and it warms up within a few minutes I'll drive and without warning it just turns off. Only way to start it again is with starter fluid and then I'm off to the races for a few minutes maybe even 25 minutes before it does back off and can only crank with starter fluid. When it runs, it's running great. I can let it get all the way cold again or wait till the next day and it will start right up no starter fluid needed and then everything happens all over. I need help really bad, I have been missing out on allot of work and draining so much money into it.

 

You should never use starter fluid to get your truck to start. It should never need it. Next you didnt include much information about what year truck you have. Is it deleted. Also you should take the truck to the dealer. They will have the proper tools to fix the problem. Sometimes it's cheaper to go to the dealer to fix these trucks.

 

I know but it was the only way to check for cranking. It's a 2013 everything is stock other than cold air intake. Well I'm about 6k in and it's at my house now from the mechanic shop just sitting. Hoping to find some help here and go do some checking myself before resorting to spending more money at the dealer. But I do agree should have gone to dealer but originally we knew it needed hpfp so didn't want to dish out all that money.

 

Did you check the MAP sensor to make sure it's plugged in? Truck needs to know airflow for the truck to run.I would look at all the sensor connections to make sure that they are plugged in correctly. Truck won't run if some of them are not plugged in. You could put the stock air box back on.

 

I did check all connections. It runs great first start of the day and then literally when the engine warms at all it won't crank back up unless a shot of ether then runs great again till it turns back off. I feel like it's a sensor but I have changed all of them except the diesel temp sensor next to the fuel line near filter. The code pulling is reading low injector pressure but then will crank and run fine till it stops again. I'm just so lost with it. I thought maybe they didn't set the timing correct when installing the new hpfp but everywhere I read says it wouldn't start up and run good if that was the case.

 

These trucks are far to complex to figure out these types of issues without diagnostic/scan tool software. I think you need to locate a well known diesel shop who has Ford's IDS (and a tech who knows how to read the data), begin data logging both the working cold starts and then the issues once it's at operating temp. Plus review freeze frame data if it stored any.

 

I didn't mention the codes that came I apologize, I'm at home and I left them at work. I'm pretty sure it says low injector something. I have to look tomorrow.

 

Back away from the starter fluid as that is a good way to blow the engine and get it to a Ford dealer technician asap.

 

This is my response (likely perceived as ignorant) - if you don't precisely know what you are doing then take it to the paid experts; the day of shade-tree mechanics are long past.

While you may perceive your local Ford dealer as a rip-off they usually fix it right the first time, and if they don't most of them will stand behind their work and make it right.
Pay now or pay later.

 

I understand what you are saying so that's why I had taken it to a real mechanic shop originally. Of course it wasn't a Ford dealer but it was at heavy duty diesel truck repair shop. My friend owns it and I see so much work to thru there in good order so I didn't think nothing of it. I'm very mechanically inclined and went to school to be a mechanic but that was nearly 15 years ago. Also it was a gasoline mechanic. Using a snap on scan tool so am able to get whatever info needed. I'm just stumped on how it could start and run perfect and then just turn off driving 75mph and only start with ether sprayed and run perfect again till it redoes all the same stuff. Let it cool for some hours and crank right up no starter fluid. It's crazy.

 

Have you dropped the fuel tank to inspect? We've seen a few cases here where guys that have used a fuel additive unknowingly dropped the cardboard insert from the cap into the tank. that insert is close to the same size as the fuel pickup in the tank....

 

A good diesel shop, as long as they understand Ford Powerstroke, can be as good or better than some dealers (a dealership is only good if they have skilled master techs for example) so regardless of the place, the PSD 6.7L troubleshooting experience is what is needed.

If you think one of the codes are injector related and fuel is being delivered at the proper PSI (dangerously high pressure btw), what are your fuel trims for each injector compared to factory spec cold vs hot? How is the oil pressure, are you getting good readings from that sensor both cold when it runs and op temp when it fails?

You're going to have to diag one important code at a time. I say important because there could be other codes generated because of the issue but not necessarily the specific issue.

Since you're using SnapOn, do you have access to ProDemand so you can run pinpoint tests? Other things that come to mind are voltages of certain components once you find a part to troubleshoot or looking at wave forms of certain components from a scope when it is running correctly vs failing, as long as you have access to known good.

I'm not anywhere close to an auto technician but just troubleshooting tactics/ideas I've picked up from listening to those who do know. I don't know where to begin, I'll have to leave that up to you.

 

I'd hope so since the LPFP and HPFP have been replaced but I agree, OP needs to answer (for himself), is fuel getting to/through the injectors correctly. Since he found foreign material in the LPFP, the tank pickup needs to be inspected. However, it wouldn't run when cold if the pickup were an issue as another thought.

I wonder if this has something to do when the fuel return? For example, does the fuel cooler operate differently depending on temp?

 

Not to hijack the thread but I wonder why they would make the fuel go to the same rail and then split to the other one, instead of just having one line go to each rail

 

Have you been able to get a fuel temp reading yet? Also, next time it does this episode, turn key to the run position and jump the starter. If truck cranks, the PCM is definitely seeing something it doesn’t like.