I have a 2004 6.0 that started acting up at random times over the last 500miles as if it was governed at 1900 rpm and kinda gutless... Got worse and now I can barely start it up and it runs about for a minute but max at 2000rpm and then it slowly bogs down and sputters and dies.. I noticed the fuel pump made a funny gurgling sound and I have now replaced it and the fuel filters and the pump now purrs like it should but the problem is still identical. It also smokes white/bluish when it is running. HPO is all good and high. If I loosen secondary fuel filter cap it kinda squirts out fuel when I turn on ignition. Only codes it shows is #6 & 7 cylinder contribution... I'm at a loss..

 

On the initial problem my first guess would be bad egr valve as that is what mine did gutless, sputtering, and blowing white smoke. I never had the problem of it not running though.

 

Sounds like air in the fuel but odd it would run that long.

 

I had the egr valve out and it wasn't very dirty but I cleaned it. Didn't make a difference.

 

And right after it dies out after the 1 min sputtering run, I can't start it for a few minutes... It tries once or twice a little but if I wait a few hours it seems to start better and runs again for about a min and dies. Sounds extremely much like it's starving for fuel...

 

Moved to the 6.0L Power Stroke Diesel forum.

 

Check FICM voltage on a cold engine in the morning (coolest ambient condition), Check it KOEO, cranking, at 2000 rpms (if you can get it started).

 

FICM voltage stays at 47.92 all the time. HPOP stays high too. It says # 6 and 7 cylinder contribution bad... could 2 bad blown out injectors do this? The buzz test shows fine. It seemed to sometimes work and then not back and forth but now it only runs for a minute as if starving and goes out.

 

In addition to Bismic's instructions (provided you can get the truck running) perform a KOER turning the steering wheel atleast 15 degrees to the right OR left, then stepping on the brake to start the test. This will test the contribution of the injectors as well as, detect any misfiring injectors.

The misfiring injectors are the ones to go after since the ones showing a contribution fault may just be the result of a nearby misfiring injector. Just went through this with a Buddy's 6.0: #1 was misfiring, then 2,5, and 7, were showing a contribution fault. Injector number one was replaced and after driving to clear the air out of the fuel and oil system, it was good to go.

 

mine did that I had a bad fuel injector #3 got that 1 fixed and then another went bad same thing start and run then quit this time it was #5 so this time I had all the odd # injectors changed now it runs fine hope this helps you out !!

 

Those are similar symptoms to when I had an issue, it turned out to be low fuel pressure. If it doesn't have the upgraded fuel pressure regulator spring ("blue spring mod"), then install it. First check the fuel pressure - should be over 50 psi with the bypass fuel pressure tester from Ford. The bypass tester diverts a similar amount of fuel to what the engine uses running at full power, to simulate pressure and flow at high usage.

Mind you, the low pressure killed three injectors and in the end all 8 were changed. Also, in speaking with the Ford product engineer that supports this engine I found out that due to fuel routing inside the engine injectors 1, 3, 5, 7 are most vulnerable to low pressure, and in that order. Even number injectors see higher pressure than the odd number injectors do, under load.

 

Thanks for the replies. I have a Genisys Evo scanner but I don't think it shows fuel pressure. Is there a simple way of checking it with out $500 of special order gauges? I am planning to do the "balloon test" on the fuel lines coming from the heads next.

 

|No OBDII scanner reads fuel pressure, because the engine doesn't have a fuel pressure sensor (it bloody well should, you would think...). You can connect a simple pressure gauge at the test port on the secondary fuel filter - the one on top of the engine. You need a M12 1.5 thread adaptor, and any pressure gauge that can read up to 60 psi. But - if you don't know for sure that you have the correct relief spring, you could just go get the kit at the Ford dealer and install it. It goes under the pressure valve cover on the side of the secondary filter housing, which comes off with four M6 allen bolts. You get a new o-ring seal in the kit. I'm going to say that you may have already killed two or more injectors, but maybe not.

I'm also going to say that when I told my oh-so-similar symptoms to the Ford engineering product specialist, he went straight to fuel pressure, no stops in between. I was on a 1,000 mile trip, half way into it, and the first dealer changed one injector, the second dealer 150 miles down the road change a second injector, and when it roughed up the third time I parked it and we had it transported back to my home dealer (where I had bought the truck two weeks previously, so it was kinda under a "warranty"). The Ford engineer told us to test it first thing with the special bypass fuel pressure tester that he had designed, and sure enough - 40 - 42 psi fuel pressure with the load bypass simulator turned on.

Brian

Brian

 

I took out the secondary fuel filter, pulled the fuses for the FICM and fuel pump, cranked the engine and got a pop of air about every second (I think exactly when one cylinder has compression stroke) out of the center tube/hole inside filter housing... I think I may be well on the way to figuring out the problem!!!

 

Thanks MC5C for the info about that spring... I'll order one today. But I think a copper washer is gone under one injector... Or do the injector cups or o-rings do that too?