2000 F350 ext cab 4x4 V10 120,000miles WTF??!!! Hooked up to the trailer and juuust started heading out of town to go race, got about 2 miles and dang near ate the steering wheel, had the cruise set to 65mph, eating my sammich and boom, truck lost power right now. Kept it running good enough to hit the exit, got to the stop sign and was going to take it to a friends shop right off the interstate and it killed at the stop sign, fired it up, idleing like absolute dog crap and would not stay running without feathering the throttle, had to have pedal to the floor and feathering it to get 200' into his parking lot and then it dies again. Had 4 of his techs brainstorming trying to get me back on the road, we start it and it'd surge to 1500 immediately, then die. start it up-surge then die.
Checked fuel pressure, 35psi and supposedly ford calls for between 28-45psi operating range so good there.

NO CODES AT ALL

Tech felt on rubber elbow under throttle body, HEY we got a hole here, i'll have ya on the road in no time. Installed new hose under the throttle body that goes to the PVC valve. Fired it up, surge and die, surge and die. This whole time it's doing it, the exhaust looks like a diesel pulling truck under load, coughing black smoke like a ****.
So tech disconnects PVC out of valve cover, now the truck stays idleing just fine, smooth, but still black smoke puffing from exhaust, STILL stinks to high heaven, not really the sulfer smell, just a weird, not right smell. then he plugs the PVC valve back into valve cover trucks starts sputtering and eventually dies. Shake PVC valve and it's clicking back and forth, not sticking what so ever

Hooked up the big dog scanner, said O2 sensors were reading a bit funny and they were already past closing time so i just wanted to limp the rig back home and wrote off racing after spending hundreds in preperation So i had a hellava time getting it home, the black smoke was soo bad, i honestly could not see the trailer behind me, it was black as coal and THICK!! 10mph was top speed feathering the throttle to keep it running. So i ended up dropping the trailer in the street half way home, and fought to get the thing back here. So went and bought 2 new O2 sensors, unplugged the battery to reset everything, gave everyting a once over, fired it back up...same thing, spitting and sputtering with a hellofa miss in it, black smoke coughing out the exhaust, rough idle. Unlug PCV valve, all is fine again as far as smoothing out the idle goes, but it still has no power. I went to back it out and once again, feathering the throttle and thick black smoke rollin.

All 4 techs were stumped, but it was friday and 5pm so i expected that, but ANYBODY have a clue as to WTF i should be looking for, it's been running just fine since i owned it and then boom, today happened...so please, anybody that has any ideas, expereince, please help.
I put new plugs/COP's in last year, new fuel filter 2 years ago, just filled the truck up at the same station i always fill up at before heading out. Exhaust has been stinking on the sulfer side for about a month so i think the cat could be going bad, is bad, but no O2 sensors after cat so i would just expect no power, not black coal smoke like a **** out the exhaust.
HELP!!!!!!!! Naturally holiday weekend, nobody will be open or can get'r fixed until next week, so i'm kinda screwed for the time being.

 

Are you sure you put gas in it and not diesel

Denny

 

yeah, this station is gasoline only, we only have 1 diesel in the fleet, the rest are gasers

 

I would think if you are making thick black smoke of some kind you have to be burning some kind of non-gasoline liquid, or your computer is telling the injectors to spray way more fuel than required. I would check oil, and coolant levels (Normally these would burn white, but still may provide some hints.)

Secondly, I think rvpuller has a valid point to check for diesel however unlikely it is that you would have made this mistake.

 

Got a call from one of the guy i was phoning with back and forth today while the other techs were going over the truck, he just told me to pull the vacuum line on the fuel pressure regulator since if it's this fat it's possible the fuel is leeching back into the system instead of going back to the tank. and since it's unregulated the engine does'nt know to pull back other parameters to offfset it.

So tomorrow i'll have to see where the heck it is, and then call around to see if anybody even has one...if i can fix it early enough in the mornin, i'll still have time to get south and make the race.

The diesel assumption is valid, but the store up the road only has 2 pumps and nothing but 87 or 89 with 10%ethonal crap which i refuse to put in any of my trucks.

 

Maybe they got a bad batch of fuel it has happend before and in more critical vehicles, one of our local airports doesn't sell jet fuel because they are to small but they got a load of jet fuel into their tanks almost caused an accident, it did ruin several engines though. I'd ask them if anybody has complained of bad fuel. Try to smell the fuel if you can tell if it pure gasoline or if it is diluted with something.

 

Check your oil to see if it is
a) over full
b) smells strongly of gas.

You might have an injector stuck open.

 

If you had injector stuck open last night I hope you don't have bent rods this morning.

 

With the scanner, check MAF function. Sounds like the MAF is telling the PCM it's flow gobs of air.

Black smoke on a gasser is WAY RICH, like the choke is stuck on a carb.

Check the fuel pressure regulator with a pressure gauge at the fuel rail.

 

With the scanner, check MAF function. Sounds like the MAF is telling the PCM it's flow gobs of air.

Black smoke on a gasser is WAY RICH, like the choke is stuck on a carb.

Check the fuel pressure regulator with a pressure gauge at the fuel rail.

 

What am i looking for with the FP guage hooked to the fuel rail pertaining to the return regulator? The first thing i did was hook the FP gauge up to see that the pump itself was working like it shoulda been, it had 30 psi with just ignition key in on position and 35psi with the truck running, both well within Ford spec, but other than pulling the vacuum line off the return regulator to see if it made the truck run different..which it did'nt...i also did'nt see any fuel in the vacuum line either to indicate fuel was getting through the regulator and dumped into the intake raw and unmonitored.

The book says the MAF, AIC, TPS, all the things kinda of pointing at being a possible problem with these symptoms will throw a code, in all the years of owning this truck i've never seen it throw a SES light. I ran a ohm test on all the injectors and all were 15-16ohm so going by the book they're all within spec too.

Worst part, i had until 10am this morning to get on the road to make 1st round at the track, and I was calling every store in town to buy any and all sensors even remotely related to this problem and nobody, and i mean nobody had any of them in stock..."we can have it for ya Monday" so now that the weekend is wasted, i'm just going to trailer it to a freinds shop and tell him, "whatever it takes" and pray they can actually pinpoint it vs throwing upto a grand worth of parts at it poking and hoping to find the problem...but we'll see i guess.

 

Actually, it should be about 28-30 at idle, and 38-40 with the vacuum disconnected from the regulator.

 

Trailered it down to the shop, i'll give them a week to figure it out before i buy a new diesel and be done with it all...found a few i am looking at this week, but will be trying to talk them down a bit on price.....just wish ford had a good diesel, hate to go back to chevy, but i really dont have much choice anymore, ford has excellent platform but the crappiest diesel on the market, dodge has one of the best diesels in the crappiest platform ever. Chebbie has the best overall drivetrain in the weakest platform ever offered by a truck manufacturer, diesel engine in a el camino....but having a few expereinces with the duramax, that's the way i'm heading right now...the V10 has been good enough to date, but just not where near the power i need for what i'm pulling....it'll make a nice back up rig at this point.

 

Well...I guess you can use this as an excuse to get a diesel. I'd just repair the V10 if it were me. Thats quite a few new car payments as opposed to just repairing this truck.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

 

All i'll be doing to cycling trucks, get a new one and then the oldest one we got will be sold or stuffed in the back of the lot as an emergency only back up truck for whatever purpose.