Hi,
We're on vacation. Three states away from home hauling a large slide-in camper while towing a classic car on a trailer.

This morning the engine developed a light but noticable skip at idle. When rev'ed up, then allowed to returm to idle, the engine lopes down until settling in with the skip at idle again. No smoke. Power level.is normal. No skip under load. Truck is a 2002 F-350 dually with the 7.3 PS and a six speed manual. Bought new. I service the truck every six months. It has 81K miles on it. Use Motorcraft diesel oil, Motorcraft filter, Optilube Oil Fortifier and Stiction Eliminator. Use Optilube XPD in the fuel.

Drove 500 miles today. The skip is no better or no worse..

Bought a INNOVA Car Scan PRO an checked for codes. There is a code for engine misfire. I'm thinking something related to an injector. O ring? broken wire?

Is there any reason that driving the truck home will damage the engine?

I have to be back home for multiple medical tests and a procedure. I'd rather have the truck serviced by our local dealer who trust.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hiya! Welcome to FTE!

First thought is check the tin nut on the rear of the IPR. It can walk loose and the IPR will not work properly. Snug it up but don't crank on it, it's flimsy. I'll post a pic below.

Also inspect the wire harness where it drapes across the driver side valve cover at the 42 pin connector. It can chafe and cause shorts there.

What code, exactly, did you get? Not familiar with that scanner but many scanners will not read the codes. These trucks are not fully OBD2 compliant. We're special!

From your excellent description I think the truck will get you home just fine. It may be fussy but no harm will be done. Might be as simple as a bad load of fuel.

Conventional 7.3 wisdom is always use fuel supplements, but never use oil additives.

Get home, get healthy, and fill us in.

 

Does it go away with the ICP sensor on top of the driver's side head unplugged?

 

If it's isolated to one cylinder, it's usually something gone wrong under the valve covers. With that engine misfire code, it will point you right to the offending cylinder.

 

Thanls everyone! I called our home Ford dealer and spoke to thier diesel technition. He is a fine young man who is fully up to date on all aspects of diesel repairs. He does not believe that driving the truck will cause any damage to the engine. The only thing that concerned him is the odd chance that an injector is stuck open dumping fuel into a cylinder. The lack of smoke and no loss of power indicated that a stuck injector is not likely. He thinks that the problem is likely under the valve covers and is likely electrical in nature.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful suggestions. Unfortunately I'm not in any sort of condition to climb up in the engine bay and attempt repairs. Besides, the truck is currently running. It might not run anymore if I start poking around in there.

Since no one is very concerned about engine damage, we're going to continue our trip and keep our fingers crossed that this problem does not progress before we return home. Once home our dealer will pick up the truck, make the necessary repairs, return it to it's garage, plug in the camper, and send us the bill.

Monday the 25th I follow up with my orthopedic surgeon related to a wrist fracture, and double rotator cuff repairs. Wednesday, it's a CT Miligram to monitor a spinal cord tumor. Friday is a Cyro Ablation for the beginnings of esophogeal cancer. The following Monday is a Cardiac Stress ECHO for suspected blockages and probable stent placement. All of this stuff should work out fine, however it will be best if I turn the truck over to the professionals.

 

Stuck injectors aren’t common in the 7.3.

I see you’re from NC. 3 states away could put you in my neck of the woods. Expecting you went somewhere warmer than WV though.

 

@gcspray , we all hope that the rest of your trip is trouble free (mechanically or not) and you can enjoy the adventure.

As Jason mentioned above, there are quite a few of us FTE'rs in your home area of Bryson City, NC. As a matter of fact, my wife and I were just in Bryson City 2 weeks ago as we travelled from Knoxville, TN back to our home in northeast GA. We really enjoy that part of the country and get up to boondock in the mountains as often as we are able.

On a side note, we have a NGA FTE GTG a couple of times a year in the mountains near Blairsville GA. Everyone is welcome and details are found at the following link.

NGA FTE GTG!

Stay safe out there and keep us updated!

 

Thanks everyone, We are camping in Eastpoint Florida, near to St George's Island. I had a 96 7.3 that would have an injector stick when cold. Once it warmed up the injector would free up. When first started it bellowed copious amounts of thick white smoke. After it warmed up it didn't smoke at all. Mark at our local Ford dealer replaced the injectors and those weird valve cover/wiring harnese gaskets, and the old truck ran like a new one.

Mark believes that the injectors on the 02 are fine, however the gasket/wiring harnase gaskets are the problem. He said that he will check all the other potential external stuff before taking the valve covers off.

 

Sweet Travel Lite TC!! Don't see many of those illusions on the road, very top shelf hard side camper.

 

Nice Ride...

In the event you narrow down the issue to the harness or gasket it is not that big of a job.
A couple months ago I replaced the driver side setup to include a good cleaning job in only about four hours. If you choose to do it yourself just take your time and have a 3/8 wobbler and a couple short extensions for the back bolt.
Good coffee is a plus on the job.

 

Thanks BeachcamperF250, Owning Travellite Illusion 1100 is a love-hate relationship. The basic camper box is decent, however I have found several places where they made major mistakes while building the unit. Instead of removing the messed up panel, they patched it up. The jacks fell off the first year. The A/C unit was installed so they recirculated the cooled air within the unit. It dripped consendate all over the floor and didn't work correctly. The water pump failed the first year. The shower stall leaked into the sub floor because the flange was mounted on top of the shower wall. Many moons ago I was an RV service tech. Lucky I know how to work on RV's, because I have had to rebuild this unit. Warrenty issues were a problem. I seriously thought about suing Travelite. There was one secratary who finally answered the phone who was helpful. She and I worked out an agreement. If TL would send a list of needed parts that weren't available aftermarket, I would do the work myself and we'd call it even.

When the jacks fell off, I built a steel frame that ties all four sides of the camper together. If a jack comes off again, it will take half of the camper with it. Basically I disembled the unit, installed the steel structure, and reassembled the unit. I found out two things while having the camper apart. First, the insulation is very poor, and I'm being kind. Second, the unit was brand new, and already had water damage from slow leaks. This was no surprize, as most RV's seep water from day one. When I reassembled the unit, I used butel rubber instead of putty tape. I sealed all of the joints with 3M 5200 marine sealer. The unit is a 2016 and looks new. The reason it looks new is that when not in use, it's parked inside a garage with 12 foot ceilings.

I made a shower wall kit out of fiberglass panels, that overlap the flange on the shower base.

Replaced the factory installed A/C unit with a high efficiency Coleman unit. You can hang meat inside if you wish. The original AC unit could not be operated off the generator along with the microwave or water heater in electric mode without tripping the main breaker inside of the ginny unit. The generator will operate the new AC and microwave at the same time.

it seems that since Travelite's primary business is building Cowboy campers, the Illusion was thier first attempt building a highline camper. They installed the tank monitor so that one has to stand on thier head to read the guage. Unmarked switches are installed in weird places. It took six months to figure out what were turning off and on. The water pump switch is close to the floor and gets kicked by people all of the time. I am in the process of relocating everthing to user friendly locations.

Now for what we like about the camper. Love the fiberglass counter tops. It's obvious that TL attempted to use the best RV appliances available, not the cheapest ones. The one piece fiberglass front cap is a great feature. The Lance unit that the TL replaced had a window in the front that leaked and rotted out the overhead bunk. Guess why no RV has a front window any more? Because they always leak. We love the three way Dometic Fridge. We operate on 12 volts when on the road, 120 volts when available, gas when parked without hookups, boon docking, or mooch docking. Love the fact that the appliances are dual fuel when possible. They installed two Fantastic Vents in the camper. Fully loaded is the only way an Illusion was available. And the jack-knife sofa in bed mode is the best place to make love to the wife.

We really enjoy the camper. I bought it right after my previous wife passed away. If I had known that I would rebuild it, I probably wouldn't bought it, but once I bought it it was too late to turn back.

i have added a 700 watt head unit with a subwoofer. It can be switched to 6 outside speakers and operate an outside TV if we want. I have also installed extra outside lighting that can be operated in amber mode for camping, or bright white flood light mode if needed such as launching a boat at night or making an emergency repair at night.

 

I forgot about the rear step. In 2019 while camping, I stepped out of the camper onto the rear step. The bumper was attached without any supports. A metal bumper attached to a wooded camper with lag screws. When I put my foot on the step the whole thing tilted downward under my weight. I slipped off and landed on my right shoulder. The rotator cuff was completely torn off along with my bicepts tendon. After reconstructive surgery and physical therapy I have some use of my right arm again, although it will never be normal again.

 

Maybe that is the reason I DON'T see them on the road, they are in the dump!

 

i probably gave you the wrong inpression of the camper. Few RV's have quality that matches price these days.

I have seen several older Illusions that are holding up well. Mine may have been a lemon, or maybe I'm being too critical. This is the seventh TC I have owned over the years. It's probably number two in terms of build quality.

Either way, it's right on target now and ready for the long haul.


Here's the step solution. This is a Fox Landing made for Artic Fox by Torqlift International.

 

Here's the structure that I built to support the bumper and step.