I have a 2015 F250 6.7 with 56000 miles on it that I’ve owned for about 4 years. I don’t do a lot of long trips but I do tow a 2 horse straight load gooseneck trailer from time to time. My check engine light keeps coming on for the emissions the DPF is clogged. Ford said it was about 50 percent clogged and they drove it and got it to be 90 percent clear. A week later it came back on and I couldn’t go over 50. I kept driving and it came off. 2 days later towing a horse trailer it came back on. I know it’s because I don’t drive it enough on long trips. Should I delete it so I don’t have to worry about not going on enough long trips or possibly think about switching to gas. I like the torque on the diesel towing and I just paid this thing off and would hate to have another payment. But I don’t want to delete it and have it cause other mechanical issues. Trying to make the right decision. I appreciate any advice. Also I’m no mechanic so I’d have to have a shop delete it and make it idiot proof for me. Thanks ! Sorry for the long post

 

Before you go the delete route, which is iffy because tuners have been put out of business by the EPA, consider an additive. The Better Diesel Fuel Borne Catalyst is what I use and my regens go quick and almost always down to 0%. It may not help in your situation, but it's worth a try.

 

A full delete is your only solution if you want a happy engine and a happy owner. That decision is up to you and you need to understand the process and the consequences of deletion. I am aware of someone who deleted theirs at 85k and has never been happier with his truck.

 

Before a delete I would try doing a stationary regen. You need a windows laptop /tablet and Forscan which is free. You also need a quality obd plug, I use the MX+ Bluetooth adapter.

 

That's an excellent suggestion. Way better and cheaper than my suggestion.

 

I would be trying to figure out why you're plugging up so often? This would be where to start rather than treating the problem/symptoms. Prevention is always cheaper and less frustrating than tratment.

The newer diesels like to be taken out and ran at highway speeds and allowed to get hot. Most engines especially diesels run cleaner at load and speed. That's why we only tune our units at greater than 50% load in the power plants, 3600 RPM in Canada, Mexico and the US and 3000 rpm in most of the rest of the world.

If you aren't getting everything up to temps due to low speed and short trips that could be part of the problem.

Are you losing/burning engine oil?

Where are you getting your fuel?

You running Red diesel from the farm? These engines run Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel ONLY!!! Anything else will cause trouble so be sure and stay away from off road/red diesel. It's not only not healthy but illegal if you get caught. Washington and Oregon DOT check even pick ups out where I live because of loggers saving money and filling their trucks off the tanks at the site. Had em one time stop me in a company truck and they stuck a tube in the tank to check the color.

Deletes can cause a whole different group of issues and some in depth opinions ( i will share if you insist) but I recommend not too.

My experience and opinion is to find the cause and correct the issue first then as a last resort think about deleting.

 

When I first bought my 16, I knew nothing of modern emissions systems on new diesels. I am lucky that my driving habits and where I drive keep my emissions happy and working right. I currently have 60.5k miles and usually do about 18k miles per year. I've only towed a food service trailer for my friend for about 22 miles but that's it. I live south of Buffalo in the hills away from the city. My round trip for work is 36 miles or so. That includes hills, expressway and city. So it's a mix -- all unloaded. I usually go from about 425 miles to close to 500 miles for regens. On two different road trips in Kentucky (hils), I went over 500 miles but not by a lot.

My way in to work I climb a decent hill which gets EGT1 close to 600 degrees. EGT4 stays rather cool in the 200s to 300s. EGT1 is after turbo and EGT4 is after the DPF. I wait for the oil to hit at least 100 degrees before I hit the throttle harder but not full throttle until all the way hot. Once on the hill and a make a left about 1.5 miles away from home or so, I hammer it harder to get EGT4 into the 500s, usually low 500s. A short while later, I turn right at a stop sign. I hammer it down again to get EGT4 even hotter to keep soot load from climbing. Sometimes it will passively regen and reduce a little. I probably started doing this about a month ago or so after I read about it in a blog post on SPE Diesel's website, that hitting the throttle hard very once in awhile keeps the emissions clean and flowing. .

When I drive to work the altitude is dropping so I have the soot load building. In probably 4 to 5 miles away from home, EGT4 goes under 500 because the road levels out and then begins to drop. That's when the soot load then begins to climb back up. Even on the expressway at 70 mph, with no hills to climb, the soot load continues to climb before I get to work. I usually see about a 10 point increase in soot load % on the way in to work. How I know all this is I have the Banks iDash 1.8 to monitor those PIDS ( parameter IDs).

When I drive, I engage the Tow/Haul mode and lock out 6th gear. The reason is the more the engine lugs at low RPMs because the 6R140 loves to shift too quick into the higher gears IMO, the more soot is produced to load the filter. I also sometimes lock out 5th gear as well as the situation calls for it.

On the way home, the altitude climbs and I can see from anywhere from a 2 point reduction to a 5 and up point reduction in soot load when she passively regens. The Dpf has to be a minimum of 472 degrees I believe before the soot starts to burn off.

Back to your truck, I think the problem is that your unloaded driving is not enough to keep the DPF from burning off the soot during a regen. If you don't have a way to monitor those PIDS, then you have no idea when the truck is in a regen and to keep driving to allow it to complete. By the sounds of it, you have a lot of stop and go driving or not enough highway driving to allow the regens to complete. Therefore your PDF is plugged up.

With all that said, I am not a mechanic or expert at all but just watch and keep track of this stuff for my truck. Plus I've learned a lot online and here.



Great comments. Agree 110%.

For the record, I am not against deletes per say but why delete a well running stock truck? Every situation is different and it's every truck owner's decision. After I bought my truck and heard that the extended warranty I bought, 7 yr./125k miles did not cover the emissions, I started researching deletes. I wasn't going to do it unless or when i had a problem. Then in 2019 the EPA began cracking down on the manufacturers and began a 3 year mission this year to enforce their laws. Then most of all the delete stuff disappeared from the internet. Now you have to know a guy who knows a guy. Even then if you have problems with the software, you have no company support because of the increased scrutiny of the Feds.

While I know there are guys here that run deleted with no problems, there are many a new folks here buying deleted trucks and not being aware of what they have. They don't get the tuner or the tunes. And they are getting screwed big time. They just bought someone else's problem. That sucks.

So while I did consider it in the past in case of a potential problem, my goal is to buy aftermarket products to help me run my truck well up in miles like the S&S DPK (disaster prevention kit) for my HPFP CP4.2 and AFE Power's DFS780 filter/pump to filter out the entrained air in my fuel to possibly make my stock injectors last longer.

With all this being said. I am into my truck long term and it is my goal to see how far I can take this engine. I have a FS2500 bypass that while it doesn't get the soot out, it does help keep insolubles out of the oil. Because I live in the Rust Belt, I get my truck oiled every year with Carwell Products. I have plans to do my rockers and lower panels and bottom of doors with Chassis Saver Monsta Liner tintable bed liner so I can keep the body solid. But that's for another thread.

IMHO, I don't see everyone's need to delete every truck that rolls. I don't mind the DEF and I've gotten used to not smelling the fumes. But man, I love the sound of a deleted 6.7 Powerstroke. It sounds like a jet engine. If the truck idles a lot, doesn't haul anything, drives in stop and go traffic, then yeah delete. Better yet, just buy a gasser. I can't really talk though as my truck is just a daily driver for now.

 

Truck went into engine idle mode and wouldn’t go over 4mph. Had it towed to ford Saturday. They just called me and said it needs a new DPF around $3700.

it prolly clogged up because I’ve been working from home since Covid and it hasn’t been doing much highway driving now.

ive been using highway diesel no farm diesel

 

When I was up in Alberta 2 years ago I found that my truck did not like the short runs at low speed (5 miles from camp to the station we were building) and I went into ReGEN every couple of days so only resolution was a nice road trip. Site was about midway between Dawson Creek and Rycroft both are north of Grand Prairie. I'd take a run into Dawson and get top off my tank and run back just to clear it all out.

It helped to do the fast idle mod but the computer still sees it as an idle situation so no regen. Need to program the new keys for remote starter next so the truck'll warm up a little before I go out to it. I'm turning into such a wimp.

 

diesels hate short drives. The emissions hate it the most. My truck needs more than 5 miles to get warmed up. Transmission needs more than 10 miles to reach operating temp. I try to avoid short trips as much as possible.

 

Mostly unrelated to this thread, but I want to point out that Red Dyed Ag fuel is also Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. Its every bit the same as highway fuel chemically, other than the dye. It has to be as tractors and combines now run DPFs and SCR systems just like on road diesels do. I still agree though, pay your road taxes by purchasing on road fuel. Don't try to cheat the system and run dyed.

 

Google "6.7 DPf Delete kits" and you will see there are still a few. And do not let anyone tell you what you should or should not do. This is not a forum for the emissions police. That is solely up to you.

FWIW, I did this very thing on two ranch trucks and two years later, they run like a scalded ape. No more DEF fluid BS and much more reliability and power. A similar situation to yours forced the decision. If DPFs are so important but just a filter, they should not be upwards of 4k f******* dollars to replace. It is a GD filter for crying out loud. This is one of those times that they know they have you, so they gouge you.

 

Agree 110%. If we have to use DPF/EGR/SCR crap on our trucks, then it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to maintain. Reminds me of Obamacare. Health insurance was dirt cheap before the gov't mandated it and now its unaffordable.

 

If you are going to delete your emissions make sure you can get away with it in your state. Also want to do it ASAP as is becoming increasingly difficult to get the tuners and subsequently someone to do it for you.

My decision to delete was a no-brainer as I had a warning light for a DEF sensor right after I bought the truck used with 125,000. Got it done in late 2018 by a local diesel performance shop.

 

FWIW, I don't believe anyone here is the "emissions police." I don't really recall anyone here telling the OP what to do. I do recall different opinions being expressed but you know what they say about opinions.