6.0L Power Stroke Engine and DrivetrainDiscussion of the 6.0L Power Stroke diesel engine and drivetrain in the 2003-Up Super Duties and Excursions. No gas engine discussion allowed except on transmissions and drivetrain that pertain to all models. Please confine discussion of topics in this forum to those items that are specific to the 6.0L Power Stroke engine.
Thankfully I don't live in CA. They would like to ban all diesel engines from the state. If they are successful in doing so perhaps the citizens can line up and pick up their necessities from government managed deposit sites located at the state lines.
I hope you can settle with something that makes you happy but my opinion is that any new truck has the potential to leave you stranded without the ability to patch it up and limp it home. I had a 97 with the famous 7.3 and found myself dead in the water when the HPOP suddenly quit. My 67 and 70 trucks I can always fix enough to limp home.[/QUOTE]
Potential yes probability not so much. Also with a gas engine the parts supply system is far better than diesel, so the possibility of finding a part in the nearby parts store is better. I believe a good share of the problem is that they started computerizing gas engies in the 70's and have had a lot of practice while the computerization of diesels by comparison is quite recent. As a result the gas engine electronics are a LOT more reliable. If that gives you pause just think about how many computer controlled cars and gas trucks are on the road vs. the small percentage of diesels. When was the last time you heard of a computer failure in a gas engine vs. computer failures in diesel. I personally have put over a million miles on computer controlled gas engines of varied manufacture and can count on my fingers the number of electronic components I have had to replace. I have never been stranded where I could not find a part new or used to get me home and the number of times I have been in that situation can be counted on one hand without using all the fingers. I'm going back to what I know.
Savin, Diesel engines arent all that they would like to ban. I dont know if it is the excessive sunshine or what but we have our large contigent of wackos that would like to go back to living in caves wearing fig leaves and exist by scrounging naturally growing fruits and vegetables. God forbid you farm the land, or develop it in any other way because in so doing you might disturb the habitat of some cockroach. This is not a subject you want to get me wound up on.
As promised I am posting the problems found. I sent the ficm to ficm repair for bench testing. It had barbequed the logic board. With all the holiday delays I still do not have it in my posession but they assure me that when I plug it in it will run. They also flashed it to a previous update which he stated should make the truck run noticeably better. He strongly recommended repalcing the alternator as they are noted for having voltage spikes which is the most likely cause of the barbequed board. So with the ficm repair and a new alternator that brings my total to about $1400.00 worth of parts to drive this truck 16 months and about 8,000 miles.
You are doing much better than I on the cost per mile so far. In 6 months I have driven mine 2000 miles and spent over $7000.00 in parts. A total of 8 days of free labor (mine) gives me a cost of $3.50 per mile + fuel. I need to drive it a long time to amortize that down but I might sell it if I can recover my investment. For now it could not be running any better. I was determined not to let the blasted thing beat me but the pleasure of driving it certainly hasn't been worth the pain and expense of dealing with it. Maybe there is a forum for recovering 6.0 addicts. "hello, my name is----- and I am a recovering 6.0 owner."
Grumpy- thanks for the update. All too often theae threads go unresolved and no one can learn from them.
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'05 Ford F250 6.0 CC LB 4x4
'10 BMW X5 Diesel
'08 BMW 535xi
'85 Porsche 911 Carrera
'66 Porcshe 911 long term project
'76 Jeep CJ7 current project
Makskibum,
I can only hope that all the cash I have shelled out on this thing does someone some good. For whatever it might mean to someone do not ignore any sign of alternator problems, it can get expensive and quite irritating if it dies far from home. When I got this thing the alternator light used to flash occasionally. I found that the wiring at the alternator was pretty well hacked up. I tried to get a plug with pigtails from ford and the only one they showed for the truck was a two wire so I repaired it as well as I could and wire tied everything in place. In hindsight knowing what I now know I would have searched to the ends of the earth for the proper plug wired it in with extreme care and removed the alternator and had it completely bench tested.
Apparently the FICM is extremely voltage sensitive which makes me wonder why some electrical engineer type has not explored the possibility of making a 12 volt surge protector to isolate the FICM.
I am waiting for my FICM to arrive and also a NEW alternator from bulletproof diesel, they sell a new alternator delivered for less money than I have been quoted for rebuilt locally. Having spent many years early in my career looking at open hoods I know all too well that ALL rebuilders are prone to using highly questionable parts and I don't need to put on an alternator that could potentially have voltage spikes which could easily take out the board again.
Grumpy- in most cases its not voltage spikes that take out the FICM- its low voltage in (from weak batteries or failed alternator- BTDT) putting stress on the circuitry that raised the output voltage to 48V. The injectors in modern diesels need higher voltage to move the fuel metering element in them. Unfortuately the auto industry in general has resisted changing the operating voltage to 42 or 48V- eliminating the circuitry that pulls voltage up (operates at relatively high heat).
__________________
'05 Ford F250 6.0 CC LB 4x4
'10 BMW X5 Diesel
'08 BMW 535xi
'85 Porsche 911 Carrera
'66 Porcshe 911 long term project
'76 Jeep CJ7 current project
Probably one of the most common topics in all the dozen plus 6.0L forums for the past 5-6 years! I bet the top 3 are filters, fluids, and ficms (well, head gaskets probably belong in there somewhere also - lol). Heat is hard on them also - some of the internal components are not really made for the service they are in. Ed installs upgraded components but still does not warranty the repair if the charging/electrical system has problems.
Grumpy- in most cases its not voltage spikes that take out the FICM- its low voltage in (from weak batteries or failed alternator- BTDT) putting stress on the circuitry that raised the output voltage to 48V. The injectors in modern diesels need higher voltage to move the fuel metering element in them. Unfortuately the auto industry in general has resisted changing the operating voltage to 42 or 48V- eliminating the circuitry that pulls voltage up (operates at relatively high heat).
I am not an expert on this and all I know is that when I spoke to ficm repair I was told that the board went because of voltage spike, which apparently is all to common on the original alternator. Again I am only repeating what I was told. Hence ordering a new alternator as opposed to rolling the dice with a rebuilt. At this point it doesn't matter to me as all I want out of this truck is 200 miles. 105 miles to get it down the mountain and possibly another 100 to get to a dealer that has the used chevy/gmc I am looking for.
$10K in retrofit and maintenance sounds about right.
__________________
2004 F250 with a 2005 motor (not on Oasis) bought in 2010
$11,500+ to make it right with all the good advice here
60K miles in last 2 years and 190K miles to date
Words of Advice: Read and Learn.
Grumpy..If u do get another ride, hopefully will be better? Countless stories here on 6L..good/bad & just plan ugly. Tks. for update & better luck in future.
Buster..are you serious about who should give advice?
I received the alternator from Bulletproof, it was an "I think that this is the right one but your build date is very close to the cutoff". When I received it it did not look like what I remembered the alternator plug looking like, so after a short conversation with bulletproof I was told that the plug I was describing sounded like a two alternator system.
Up at 5AM the next morning for a 217 mile round trip, not a two alternator. Took off the alternator to compare them side by side. First thing I found was that the wiring repair I had tried a year ago july because my local ford dealer COULD NOT FIND THE CORRECT PLUG had loosened up and because it did not have the waterproof plug the terminals were corroded. The alternators side by side were identical and the new one bolted on. The old one was stickered "remanufactured" which translates to put together by some programmed moron to the least possible standards. Dont ask me where they found it but the regulator they installed while having the same plug configuration only had two pins in it, no way to know how or even if this factored in. Put the new alt on and it bolted on, mounting hole spread was correct. OK, so far so good as far as the alternator fit but I still need the correct alternator plug. At this point I am now considering truck wrecking yards or other possibilities to find the connector. Back down the mountain with the old alternator in the trunk of my Mercedes roadster, the second most unreliable vehicle I own, and on a long shot a stop at a dealer that is more or less on the way home. This is the largest Ford dealer in the L.A. area. I lay the alternator on the parts counter and ask the parts man if the connector is available. Three minutes on the computer and he dissapears into the parts room. He shortly returns with two packages, he says that it is one of these. The first is not even close, the second plugs right on. So for a mere $50.00 I am able to purchase the plug with three inch pig tails three crimp connectors and three pieces of shrink tube, and I thought the Mercedes parts counter was ugly. In conclusion all I can say is if the first Q@&^#&&^&*$&#*%^&I$*%^ parts man I spoke with a year ago July would have had more than two functioning brain cells and had found the alternator plug we probably would not be having this converation, thank you very much. Also if I knew then what I know now I would have searched a lot harder for the connector, a very expensive and irritating lesson, which I can only hope someone else can learn from so it at least has some positive aspect.
My truck did the same thing yours did. It turned out that i sucked some trash out of the tank into the injectors. It was already time to replace them so it didnt take much to make them quit.
[QUOTE=OT;2257601]Grumpy..If u do get another ride, hopefully will be better? Countless stories here on 6L..good/bad & just plan ugly. Tks. for update & better luck in future.
It is not a question of if, it is a question of when. If I get the ford down the mountain it will be parked and not moved until I find the right Chevy and then will be driven only as far as necessary to trade it in.
As for better luck, that remains to be seen. Only thing I can say is that I do not see how the next one can possibly be any worse.
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