Wow, I,ve learned alot from all these posts. I used to work at a dealership and carry all the avaliable diesel certifications up to 2001. I teach at a tech school now but i did get to go to new model training for the 6.0L. Unofficially the ford instructor blamed the engine's problems on the injector design and fords desire to use Pilot Injection. Notice that International( which does not use pilot injection) has used this engine VT365 for a couple of years and has not had very many problems. Siemens, the manufacture of the injectors was not aware of fords desire to use pilot injection and did not make the injectors strong enough to take this punishment.
Pilot Injection is a small injection of fuel into the combustion chamber that gets the burning process started, It is closely followed by the full injection of fuel.It does wonders for quietness and seems to improve drivability.Lots of big diesels use pilot injection. Ford introduced piot injection in 1997 and called it split shot injection. It used a machined equalizing port in the fuel chamber that equalized fuel pressure and stopped injection for a millisecond during an injection sequence.This quieted the engine down and increased HP and torque. The problem with the 6.0L is it opens and closes the injectors twice during an injection sequence. The injectors could not handle this, and I knew of many early 6.0L that were getting complete injector replacements. When I heard of the reflashing of the PCM's to cure "the problem" and the complaints of reduced power,mileage, and smoking I had a feeling they had disabled the pilot injection. My local ford dealer could not confirm this.All your posts have proved my suspicion. Any way this is FYI .I love the 6.0L but I will keep my 95 PSD for now.

 

I have an 04 model truck with 03 Engine, Pilot Injection? It is still vey quiet and powerful.............

 

John

I think they only disabled it for the 03's. I think they redesigned the program and the pilot injection and hopefully the injectors for 04.

 

PI is gone, all PSD built after 01-01-04 have it off from the factory and the Dec. flash turns it off in the 04's built prior to that. This is do to rolling idle problems i was told by a tech.

The injectors were changed in mid 2003 to a more robust unit.

Hope this helps

 

So my truck has PI?

 

PSD6litre40; "So my truck has PI?"

That is going to depend on build date and if you have had any of the Flashes done. They were turning off PI in the 03 motors with earlier flashes, Oct. flash for one. I will look at the flash list when i get a chance and see if it was disabled with an earlier flash.

 

On the flash list what mod is it that turned off the PI????

 

Motown Fire,

It was done with the Oct. Flash. FMC terminoligy is "Improved Idle Stability When Warm (Single shot injection)"

Here is a link that lists what each Flash does. They are cumulative.
http://www.flatratetech.com/6literpo...l_updates.html

Hope this helps.

 

Wow, so they did do away with it. I wonder why they just didnt set it up mechanically like the older pilot injected type? I guess they wanted more control over it. Sometimes I think they over engineer stuff. Regardless of all thiee problems, the 6.0L is still the best on the market.

 

Main reason is the EPA and the new emisson rules that are getting ready to take effect. With computer controlled fuel, air, timing etc, you can adjust the engine more precisely, for a more complete burn and lower emissons. All new diesels will have to meet the new requirements by 2006 i believe.

The mechanical injectors cannot compensate very well for changes in charge air temperature, density etc.

Also the PI on the 6.0 when operational only works at idle. Above idle rpm's system goes back to single shot.

Hope this helps.

 

Build date for truck is 9/22/2003 Motor is sometime in September also......................

 

Thats an 03 motor. The first 04s came off the line on Sept 26th If the truck has not had the Oct. flash it still would have the PI.
One sign of this is a noticable "romp" at start up that last about 1/2 a second. Or atleast thats the way mine was . You could have a oasis report done to find out for sure. You would have to have a dealership run your vin# to find out Or there may be a upgrade sticker on top of the radiator stating something about a recalibrate

 

Ford solved my PI problems by allowing "somthing" into the cylinder when they swapped out a bad EGR cooler. The something was coolant and it allowed the #7 and #3 cylinders to eat themselves. My new engine (built 1-8-04) doesn't have it and I don't know if I care. Since Ford is replacing my truck completely now I'm guessing my next new engine won't have it either.

 

hope the new one is right, did they figure out anything on the extras yet.

 

What are the drawbacks of having the PI disabled? If it's only at idle then power/torque/response are unaffected? The only effect will be a noisy idle similar to a 7.3L?