Background:

'04 135K No mods. Ever. Proper filters and maintenance schedule has been followed.

Over the last 2K miles was losing coolant. I've had an EGR cooler failure before - here we go again. Sure enough, it cratered. Lots of white smoke. Only went a few blocks and brought it home and parked it. Was running poorly (low power) by the time I got into the driveway.

Tore it apart to find the p/s exhaust manifold full of coolant all the way up to the juncture to the EGR cooler. (Yes I have pictures, but they're not great) Intake full of crud and damp/wet as well. Yep, EGR cooler strikes again! Was hoping it actually filled the exhaust once the truck was shut off, but no denying the cooler failed in a catastrophic manner.

So anyway, it's been deleted for good now. Everything's buttoned up, but the truck isn't right.

Symptoms:

Starts fine, but idles rough. Kind of loping. Never did this prior to now.
Doesn't accept throttle inputs readily, but doesn't stall. Just crappy response. Again, new development.

No smoke from the tailpipe. Hey! A positive! Considering when the cooler failed I looked like a mosquito-control truck, I'll take my silver lining.

No power. Foot to the floor nothing nothing nothing oh hello here come the rpms. (I expected this condition somewhat as a result of deleting flow to the EGR, but that doesn't explain the poor idle/poor throttle response) But even when the rpms are up and the turbo is spinning there's still something not right. Yes I was expecting I may have to go to a tuner now that the EGR is gone, but that should not effect idle. I wouldn't think anyway.

At low rpms it feels out of balance. It is loping, after all. This gets better (less noticeable) if I get out and drive, but doesn't go away completely.

BTW, driving it is no fun when you have to floor it if you want any hope of beating the kid next to you on his moped.

Notables:
Fuel filters, oil and oil filter fresh as of last night. No change. They were not overdue, and the old ones looked normal when removed.
ICP sensor is new. No change.
Batteries are a couple years old. Interstates. The alternator is original. My volt testmeter is inop so I can't say for certain what the output is.

It seems by searching this forum the FICM is getting blame for problems similar to mine, but I'd like some input from others before I try the shotgun approach to fixing this. As the alternator is original, it's possible the output isn't prime, and that apparently is getting blame for FICM failures.

The kicker is that right up to the point the EGR cooler crapped itself, the truck was running fine. Now, not so much. What is it?

 

Sorry to hear of the troubles.If the motor sounds normal but just out of tune I would think it is a electrical problem between the icp-ipr and FICM.

 

That's why I was hoping it'd just be the ICP sensor. Thinking perhaps I'd bumped it or cracked it while digging around in there. No such luck. Thank God at least I didn't have to dig under the turbo to get to it. In any case, w/135K on the original, I'm not broken up over having replaced it.

It seems to spin at higher rpms pretty much ok - once it gets there. Just takes awhile. Idle/low rpms is the problem arena.

Power is off at all rpms, but could be in EPA broken mode because I was messing with the EGR. That doesn't explain the full situation though. Being a dog is one thing. Being a three-legged dog means there's more going on.

 

Has the ICP pigtail been replaced(3 purple wires on the updated connector).The egr cooler removal shouldn't cause your symptoms. Mine only has a strange idle on stock programing without the EGR system.

 

Well, that's good to know. I appreciate the response.

I did not replace the pigtail, because the International dealer didn't have one in stock. Their price as of yesterday: $18.17/pc. Ford's: $89.04. Just now got off the phone with the International guy (tried to order it) and he told me he can't get me the pigtail. He really was not trying to be helpful in the least. Similar to my experience yesterday when I went to pick up the sensor. Today the guy told me on the phone he "hates it" when guys with Ford trucks call in. I didn't bother to tell him I hate to have to call him on the poor excuse for a motor they sold Ford, but it took some effort.

Anybody know of any International dealer that cares to do business and will sell me a part over the phone and ship it? Too bad the dealer that's three miles from my office doesn't want my business.

 

I figured this out. Kind of embarrassing in a way.

I really thought this was a fueling issue, and since it had run ok when parked (with the exception of smoking like an East German factory) I was hoping I hadn't fuddled the FICM too much when I moved it. I considered the possibility I'd just loosened a connection somewhere, so retraced my steps on the electronics.

Checked the FICM - everything seemed tight.

Started at cylinder no. 4 checking for loose connections on the injectors. Got to cylinder no. 2 and CLICK. Crap. Could it be that easy? Yep. That's all it was. Stupid stupid stupid.

I don't feel bad about replacing the ICP sensor given the age/mileage of it. Glad I didn't spend any more though.