Hi guys. I just got home from a 300 mile trip. I towed 7000 pounds of hay on a 2500 pound trailer up a few grades. On the two steepest grades I had a massive power loss. My boost gauge was dropping down to about 10lbs. of boost by the time I made it to the top of the grades and giving it gas did nothing. On the flats and the start of the hills the gauge reads about 20 lbs. of boos. My engine and trans temp gauges were both in the middle where they always are and my egt gauge read about 1190 max. Both grades took about 5-10 minutes to go up and I started at about 55mph and made it to the top doing 20 on the first one, with the power loss starting about half way up. The A/C was on low going up the first grade and going up the second I shut it off just in case. The second grade was not as steep as the first and the power loss was exactly the same but didn't occur till I was at the very top. I also noticed both times before it happened an antifreeze smell. After the first grade I pulled over and checked and there was no puked fluid and the antifreeze resivoir was filled to the mark. When I got home I unloaded the trailer and drove with and without the empty trailer and cannot get the problem to reoccur. As soon as I get past the crest of the pass and get to the bottom of the grades it runs perfect. Boost works like normal again. I've got a trip to go on this weekend and I've got a camper and trailer to pull, which should weigh about the same. I'm worried I'm going to have the same problem. I called my dealer, they said I could bring it in, but unless it threw a check engine light that there's not a lot they could deduct from my explanation. Now my mods. I disconnected the EGR about 20000 miles ago. I've got a k&n intake, AFE turbo back exhaust, and a 6" lift with 37's. The truck has 46000 miles and its an 04' CC LB 4x4 auto. It was about 90 degrees today if that matters. Sorry to have such a long intro but I wanted to get any questions answered. I plugged in the EGR later just in case that's the problem, but I didn't have any big hills after I did. I don't understand what the problem is. I could see the computer maybe backing off boost if it was overheating, but that's not a rediculous amount of weight. Plus, the gauges were all reading normal and I wasn't making massive EGT's. The clutch fan was turing on going up both hills too. Thanks for the help. This is my first post in this forum and my first real problem with the truck. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

By the way, there was no smoke at all before during or after the power loss problem. Also, the truck idled and ran fine on the way down the hill and afterward. Thanks again.

 

with EGT's that low I suspect a fueling issue. How many miles are on your fuel filter? It may run fine under no or mildly increased load. pulling a grade under load your ECM will attempt to increase fuel to maintain rpm. If the filters are restricted and your fuel pressure is falling off then your engine can't create the extra power to maintain desired rpm.

 

My filters as far as I know have never been changed. I bought the truck with 25000 on it and its got 46 now, so I don't know about what the previous owner has done. I understand the fuel filter problem, but would that cause a lost of boost? I dropped from 20lbs. to about 10.

 

Your turbo creates boost from exhuast gas expansion. If you are not getting enough fuel you might have a hard time building boost due to the lack of combustion gasses. I am not saying this will solve your problem, but I will say I change fuel filters ever 15k miles weather it needs it or not. I'd say weather or not this solves it, you should probly change them anyway and if you take it to a dealer and they diagnose your truck and it comes back as filters it would be pricey. You can get the best price on the filters at an international truck dealer vs ford.

 

Ford says to change the fuel filters every 15,000 miles. Fueling could well be the cause of the problem. If the filters haven't been done, it is way overdue.

Fuel filters are addressed in the Tech folder. To sum things up, there are two fuel filters on these trucks. One is the little guy next to the oil filter up top on the engine and the other filter is down on the driver's side frame rail, under the big plastic cap. You drain the separator and do the big one first. Your International dealer will probably get you the best price on the filter set.

In terms of other possible explanations, the truck's computer will defuel you if it senses an engine overheat or high EGTs. It will also cut your engine power if your low fuel light comes on in an effort to prevent fuel injector damage from air bubbles. The fuel light means you've got about 75 miles left on the tank.

 

I'm going to change the fuel filters today, so hopefully that's the problem. That would be the cheapest fix I've ever had to do. Do you guys think that 1190 egt for 5 mins. straight is too high for too long? I've looked at a bunch of threads about egt's and they all seem to say keep it below 1200 and you'll be fine. I know 1190's pretty close, but without the engine temp going up I didn't think that was the culprit. I had 3/4 of a tank of gas so I'm good there. Thanks for the help and suggestions so far. I've got that trip to go on this weekend so I'll repost after that and say if the filters cured the problem. Thanks again for the help.

 

I wouldnt worry about 1200 at all. its a good number to stay under but I have run mine hotter for longer than 5 minutes in snow drifts.

 

When you say the engine and transmission gauges stayed in the middle are you talking about the stock gauges in the dash? If so they are glorified idiot lights and won't move from the center of normal until after you have overheated. I believe the engine will start to defuel before the temp gauges read high. You really need to look into aftermarket oil and trans temp gauges.

 

I don't have an aftermarket trans temp gauge, but the stocker was below middle. The engine water temp gauge read about 215 max.

 

You could have an oil cooler problem, causing your oil to get too hot, and the engine is defueling because of that. That is why I recommend getting an Oil temp gauge over water temp.

 

Oil cooler issues usually lead to coolant puking, are you experiencing coolant loss from the degas bottle?

 

Evan, I meant that the oil cooler may be plugged so the oil isn't even making it into the cooler, therefore the oil cant be cooled by the engine coolant and starts to overheat. The engine coolant wouldn't puke in that instance, and his coolant temp gauge wouldn't show anything out of the ordinary.

 

Generally they just become resticted, which leads to higher temp oil goin in and causes even more flash boil. But yes if it was completely plugged it most likely wouldnt cause a discernable change in cooling system operation.

 

I changed the fuel filters today. It won't cause me any problems though until I'm towing. The old filters looked fairly dirty but no major chunks or anything. There was no coolant missing out of the degas. I did check it after I smelled coolant. No leakage whatsoever, the outside of the bottle was totally dry.