Got a check engine light back on June 8th. Took it to the dealer and they replaced the EGR Valve, performed a diesel fuel injector cleaning, put in a bottle of DLEF, cleaned carbon from the intake, and re-calibrated the PCM, TCM, and FICM. Everything was seeming to drive fine.

Took off on a family vacation and drove from Central Florida to Utah (2400 miles). At one point in Santa Fe, NM - got a WIF light after getting some of that B5 diesel outside of Amarillo, TX. Thought it could be that. Emptied the water at a hotel, WIF light went away. BUT - the truck started puffing black smoke on acceleration and on cold starts (never has done that before).

Made it to Utah. Took it to a local dealer here in Utah - told them the symptoms, gave them the work order from the previous dealer with my history of the WIF and smoke, etc. They performed diag's and everything, two different techs drove it - hooked up to computer to monitor - and they say that it is performing under spec and running beautifully. Fuel system is checking out, egr cooler tested fine, injectors are performing right, not throwing codes. They were unable to find anything wrong.

Got the truck back, got up this morning and the truck started fine with some darker smoke on start up, and it still puffs some black smoke on acceleration. This is just concerning to me because I never saw smoke before the initial work on the EGR valve and software updates. Still has power and runs fine, just the presence of that smoke on cold start and some hard acceleration.

Also - oil level is perfect, no coolant loss, EGT's are fine, I don't have a way to monitor EOT or ECT - but dealer took it for a 30 minute test and verified everything there. Fuel filters and oil filter are OEM and changed before I left Florida.

Could this just be some bad fuel winding its way through the system? I use Diesel Kleen (gray bottle) on every tank.

See my sig for my limited mods...

Please advise.

 

You seem fairly certain that the smoke started after the B5 fillup, and you are in a good position to make that jump. So I think you should work with that assumption. How many miles since that fillup? It's a pretty good drive from TX to UT, so I assume you filled at least 3 times with straight D2. You would think that fuel would be very diluted by now.

Did you or the dealer happen to pull the primary fuel filter and look at it? I think I would do that, since bioD is known to loosen stuff in the fuel system the first time it is used. You might find that even though you only have 2,400 on the filter, it has collected slime from the tank.

Doesn't seem like 5% should really cause any issue, but that's about all I can think of.

 

Thanks for the input, bpounds.

Yeah, I have at least 3 fill ups with dino diesel and Diesel Kleen into it since then.

I have not pulled the fuel filters yet, haven't had time. Could a dirty filter cause the black smoke on acceleration?

I am hoping this will burn itself out after some more miles - I am driving to Idaho tonight (230 miles), so we will see tomorrow and I will check the filters then.

 

Could your X have been puffing the black smoke ever since you got it re flashed and you never noticed until the WIF light had you looking for anything that was different than before? I have noticed a lot of 6.0s puffing some black smoke at take off lately and I wonder if the new flash is causing it. Just my .00002

 

Wow - now that's a road trip!

 

Yes, this is a strong possibility. But what would the new flash have done to cause this smoke generation? And should I be worried about it and looking for signs of other trouble - trouble that are symptomatic of what I mention in my first post?

 

I am still not done - our ultimate destination is Island Park, Idaho!! (and everything around there.)

 

You've done your due diligence and got a clean bill of health from a dealership. I would probably just drive it and put the hammer down hard frequently to exercise that turbo. Then just keep an eye on it and see what happens. What else can you do, really?

 

That is my anxious sentiment, also, bpounds. Thanks for the words of wisdom. The drive tonight will be a good set of ups and downs to exercise the vehicle. I will return and report how it performed and hopefully the smoke will start to wain, or become something I have to get used to.

 

What dealership did you use here in UT? I know some of the techs and they are personal friends and do great work.

 

I kinda had something similar a year or so back, I live in Illinois and most stations carry B11 here. I took a trip out to Colorado and pretty much after I filled up from Nebraska and on, I had black smoke on acceleration and start up. It never affected the truck one bit as far as performance, but I thought it was kinda weird. It really never came back after that.

 

It was Ken Garf Ford in American Fork. I talked to one of the techs there, can't remember his name, but he looked like Santa Clause!! They were pretty good guys, and fair. Didn't charge me the $90 diag fee after having the truck for 24 hours and doing a bunch of testing. I went ahead and had them R&R my front brake pads and turn the rotors and after all was said and done, they did not charge me for the diagnosis!!

Do you know or recommend them? Being from across the country, I went with the closest Ford dealer - didn't have a recommendation to go on.

 

Hopefully this is something like that - and as simple - but time will tell.

 

So, I drove from Cedar Hills, Utah up to Idaho Falls, Idaho tonight (235 miles of gorgeous interstate, I-15 all the way). It drove excellent on the highway. I do have one observation and question:

I notice at lower boost instances, say between 7-10 PSI, and going anywhere from 60-70 mph, and I hit a hill - the application of the accelerator will cause the EGT's to rise, but the boost will lag slightly. Could this be a turbo issue?? Something a dealership may not have diagnosed?

Just seems like the turbo is 'slow' on initial acceleration, and hard acceleration - and when it catches up, it puts out the black puff of smoke until the pressure builds and the air starts flowing.

Make any sense??

 

If the boost seems late, it sure sounds to me like that would be related to the puff of smoke you have been seeing. The fuel got there, but the air was late to the party, ya know? So yeah, sounds turbo related, but I just don't know enough to comment beyond that.

I don't think it's going to hurt anything. I hope you can just enjoy your vacation and start thinking about it when you get home.