our solar car team purchased a 2004 f-350 with a 6.0 l with the turbo and the truck will be used for nothing but towing a trailor. Our problem is we bought the truck and drove it to kansas from texas and then we found out it had a bad piston and was missing (didnt know this could be much of a problem in a diesel?) so we took it to get fixed, ford fixed it and now it seems to be underpowered under a load going up a hill? it seemed to do better when the engine was missing.

i noticed it chugs black smoke almost all the time and a truck this new shouldnt be doing this even when idleling. another thing to consider is that we run biodiesel

Matt

 

Just so you know, I believe Ford doesn't recommend using more that a 5% biodiesel mix on the 6.0.

 

They don't recommend it because biodiesel supposedly causes engine oil to thicken. Notice I said "supposedly" because this is the explanation I was given by a Ford instructor, but since there is no biodiesel available within driving distance from my work, I have not seen in first hand.

 

it can leak past the rings (maybe they are not seated good yet) as does any fuel, but i understood that its viscocity breakdown was greater than reg. diesel; the Univ. of Missouri said because of this that at B100 you should change the oil at 100hr intervals...which equates to every 5000mi of "average driving"...but not being a mech. engineer, or materials engineer i may be missing something or not understanding it correctly...anyways would like to get some long term info. on bio in a newer Ford so please keep us updated since I currently will not run it in mine because of any long term info.

 

i was told it had solvent properties.

 

but we do get our oil changed on time EVERY time, and i do believe we are using b5 or b10 max

Matt

 

from all the research I have done that should be ok, but like i said before i can't find anything but ambiguous information and "claims" for the DI Fords

 

alright, ill just keep it on the floor, it seems to be getting weaker pulling our trailor. it should have no problem pulling this thing speed limit on i-70

Matt

 

There is something wrong with the truck there is no way that it should have less power than when it was missing. I would take it back to the shop and have them fix it.

 

I have an 04 F-350 CC 4X4 and pull a 16' trailer with about 9-10000 lbs. of equipment (including trailer) ALL day long at 80mph with 4 adults in it. If your truck runs as bad as you state there is definately wrong. Take it back to where you had the engine rebuilt and have them fix it. IMHO.

Good Luck.

JB

 

I think the bio-diesel part of his explanation is getting way more scutiny considering the low amount stated (B5-10) .

The guy has a rebuilt motor and lord only knows how good they did.....

If we subtract that part it just sounds like one of those chafing wire harness on the valve cover\bad EBP sensor\bad flash scenarios that we see time 2 time.
I had all 3 and actually had the EBP sensor changed\recalled twice because the 2nd was bad off the shelf yet they gave the truck back to me

My advice would be to find the most qualified diesel in the area , NOT mention the Biodiesel, bring some beer and make some friends.



edit: have you tried checking the truck for codes?

 

When was the last fuel filter change. if you ran biodiesel for a while anything in the tank is now in the filter. biodiesel really cleans out the fuel system. I've been running bio for the last 7 years and the only problem is when I go from biod to dyno and back. The dyno has a lot of impurites in it and it winds up in the filter. So I've had to almost all the time change the filters at 12K and sooner if i've used the dyno fuel and switched back to bio.