Alright, first off I have a 02 psd, intake, exhaust, dieselsite 6 pos chip and a factory tech v/b.

I recently towed a ~8k trailer to Moab and my truck was having power problems below 2300 rpm. It felt like it had no power.

It would get turbo surge, and under that rpm would only build about 6psi. Above that rpm, pulling a hill wouldn’t go above 16psi.

Egts were ok, pulling the hills would be about 1100, cruising about 700-800.

I checked my I/C boots and they were fine, as were my I/C tubes.

Upon reading I’ve checked my up-pipes and can’t see any leaks (but I might not be looking in the right places).

So im thinking either up-pipes, leak in my I/C, or the turbo. Are there tests that I can do to test those 3 things? Before I start tearing things out and replacing them.

Also, I unplugged the wastegate and it built a few more psi, maybe 3 more. But that was it.


Thanks for any help. Figured I check here before I take it to a dealer.

 

you can make a boost tester to check for leaks here is the link
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...-detector.html
Keith

 

Look at the collector just before the turbo, there is the turbo Y pipe going there and look for soot around those flanges, that will give you low boost.

 

ya thats where i was looking. and it is clean and looks tight. i also looked where the up-pipe conects to the exhaust manifold and it is clean also. maybe its not up-pipes?

is there any way to test my turbo?

ill look into making that boost leak detector to check my I/C.

 

just take the intake tube off the turbo and check for play, and see if it spins free, did you check your filters? fuel, and intake?

 

Are your egts higher than normal or about the same?

 

Do a fuel pressure test. Clogged fuel supply to the fuel pump seems to be an epidemic these days.

 

ill check the turbo for play, the fuel filter is fairly new and i just cleaned the air filter.

egts were normal. nothing more or less than i had before (when it was running good).

excuse the noob question, but how would i go about this?

 

Look also for air leaks into your fuel lines. It sounds a lot like lack of fuel to me.

NOTE: The 6.9 turbo'd F250 I had had a lot of problems because accumulated water in the fuel/water seperator caused a pinhole leak over time due to rust. This caused it to suck air, and I would not have found it if I had not installed an electric fuel pump farther back on the lines.

 

theres no leaks (that i can see), would less fuel cause a change in egts? (of which i dont have).

 

Less fuel = Less power.

A Diesel is a free breathing open-thoated engine that relies on fuel injection to produce power. More fuel - MORE POWER.

There are NO VACUUM leaks in a diesel. It doesn't signify. Air comes in all the time, the amount of fuel coming in determines performance.

 

have you changed your fuel filter lately?

 

id say about 2 or 3k miles. but it was acting like this when i changed it that long ago. ill toss a new one in there to check, might have got a bad batch of fuel somewhere.

it doesnt feel that bad when im not towing anything, i can tell a difference but im not in the throttle much when im just crusing. it was the towing to moab (about 700 miles) that made me really want to fix the problem.

 

There is also a small filter in the mixing chamber inside the fuel pickup.
Unfortunately you have to remove the tank from the truck and then pull the sender to be able to access it.
There have been countless stories here on FTE and elsewhere that testify to how much improvement has been gained by making sure the fuel supply is good to the pump.
My own personal experience is before: the engine would pull good up to about 2500 rpm and then taper off with very flat accelloration above that.
Do some fuel mods LINK and now after: I hit the rev limiter before the engine quits pulling like a locomotive.

 

A lot of people a lot smarter than myself are pointing to fuel starvation. I'd recommend a vacuum guage just before the fuel pump. This will show if you have clogged tank screens.

When I installed the guage it showed high vacuum, even though I was not experiencing any performance problems, yet. The pump was straining but keeping up. To confirm I removed the fuel cap and blew some compressed air through the fuel line and back into the tank. Vac readings dropped somewhat but not to where they should have been. At that point I dropped the tank to find the filter screens clogged. Not just the screen on the foot of the pickup but more so the fine mesh screens inside the mixing chamber of the pick up.

I did the Hutch mod and resolved the problem.