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Had the rcall done this morning. No big deal. Once I got the letter in the mail about the recall I did some looking around. I understand that the junky one was black in color. The new one is grey. However I did see a blue one on pure diesel power website. The blue one was $110 or so and made by international. The recall replacement one was $25 on the site. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the grey and blue besides $90 bucks.
I ran the blue for a while. It supposedly is an "improved design". I never had any problems with it and my truck ran great with it but when I installed my tuner I took it out and went to black at the advice of Diesel Innovations. They indicated that the blue might not be a good choice with their tuner. I still have the blue as a spare and will continue to run the black until it craps out. I also have a gray as a spare.
$90 is the difference. That pretty much sums it up.
The blue one has a slightly larger magnet, so in very small instances it can advance timing ever so slightly. Not enough that you would ever notice.
However, the new grey ones are in some rare cases causing problems with the cylinder contribution, especially on #8. There have been posts scattered in a few places of this problem. Right now it's rare. However, it's been proven very costly by a few people, since Ford thinks that diving in and replacing injectors, harnesses, etc is the best route, instead of swapping the CPS for the black one first and seeing if the problem goes away. An expensive mistake to say the least.
From what I've read, the blue one is for a different application of IH motor. If you put it in our trucks it will retard the timing slightly. I've heard 1 claim that it netted a 1 MPG increase. I've heard others say don't try it. I figure if it was really that good everyone would have a blue one by now.
I know someone else will be along, but for what I understand the BLACK one is the worst of them all, some have removed it still working and put it in their glove box for a spare and installed the GRAY one from Ford.
I have NEVER heard anything good from anyone concerning aftermarket units from the chain parts stores.
I understand that somehow the BLUE one from International is the best one going but don't really know why.
I think that if you got the new GRAY one done under the recall then you are OK, but I'd still get yourself 2 GRAY ones from Ford or Ebay or one of our site sponsers-(1 for you, and 1 for a fellow PSDer you might be able to help out of a jam)