Exhaust issues - Diesel Forum

srjones1 · 11-12-2012, 02:47 PM

Well I'm too frustrated to spend time searching for this topic so please bare with me... My 08, 6.4l went into regen the other day and when I got to where I was going I shut it off even though it wasn't done. When I started back up the check engine light came on and stayed on. When I got home I hooked up the code reader and had 55 faults which is nearly impossible in my opinion. I cleared them and had 0 come back. When I went out today, I left the code reader hooked up and watched it. No codes came back but it runs like crap. It idles fine but when you get it on it a little it wants to bog down. the check engine light came on but went off after about 10 seconds. Based on earlier experiences years ago, it seems to be an exhaust issue to me. While idling, I can rev the engine to 3k rpms and higher and the boost gauge doesn't move much which seems to support my exhaust theory since it works off of exhaust gases. So my question to the people here is, will removing the dpf and cleaning it and possibly removing the converter completely solve this? I'm not in a position to drop 1500-2000 this week to replace the dpf or do a delete. I've read numerous posts and watched a dozen videos where one was pulled, pressure washed, and replaced with satisfactory results. What do you guys think?

107,000 miles, normal maintenance, no regular heavy loads, no major issues, some smoke from under the cab during regen at times but nothing alarming.

Signed,
Very frustrated and disturbed

Ding126 · 11-12-2012, 06:08 PM

I think you answered your own question..Wash it! What do you have to lose?
Good Luck, let us know the out come

srjones1 · 11-13-2012, 07:54 AM

Well I got it out and pressure washed it in reverse flow. I have never seen a black as black as that was! Now I'm sitting here letting it dry with a blower stuck down in it to get the water out. I also got out a million little brown things. Idk what they were though.

Wonder what would happen if I started it right now???

senix · 11-13-2012, 09:54 AM

I would not start it while it is out. You will go into regen and maybe limit mode. Not sure though.

I would imagine there is all kinds of crap.

I watch a video of that from someone else. Lots of brown comes out. Guess maybe that is the color it turns when the soot is burned as ash? Not a ash color though.

srjones1 · 11-13-2012, 10:14 AM

Ok, for those interested... I let the blower go for about 1/2 an hour and even though I could never feel the air come out the other side, it eventually quit dripping water so we put it back in. When I first started up I could hear air coming from under the hood which I eventually found at an exhaust joint near the back of the engine. I assumed it was because there was residual water still in the dpf causing back pressure and I was right. As it ran, water was being pushed out through any crack it could find so I let it run until it the water stopped and the air sound stopped. Took it around the block and I can't remember when it ran so good and quiet. So I kept driving and got the "drive to clean" message and hit the main road and it poured steam for a 1/2 mile or so then the "cleaning filter message" came on. I drove about 10 miles and came back. During that it smoked like a usual cleaning but not nearly as bad as it had been. It was still "cleaning" when I got home but I just let it idle for awhile. I finally turned it off and rechecked all the bolts then let it idle again for about 15 minutes. So far everything seems to be good and it runs better. For now I'm just going to do my normal driving and see what happens. Hopefully the problem was indeed a clogged filter but only time will tell now

aquaman350 · 11-13-2012, 12:17 PM

Definitely followup and let us know how it goes. I dropped my DPF off at 30K and blew out some ash with my shop blow gun. I'm at 43K now and all seems still ok. There was a small cloud of soot, but the rest of the stuff that came out looked like small snowflake particles. I assume soot is more of a fine dust rather than particles. I always envisioned ash to be white.. I guess not

Strange thing though.. I just replaced my air filter and my last 2 regens were around 180miles apart instead of my 250-275. Not sure if that is coincidental with colder ambient outside and a lot more slow stop-and-go city traffic recently. However the sluggishness that usually happens the few days just before I go into regen disappeared

Here's a pic of about maybe 3/4 of the stuff that I collected. I'm sure there was quite a bit more that blew away

srjones1 · 11-19-2012, 08:13 AM

Update... After about 200 miles, it has run better than it has in a long time. Thinking back, the turbo boost gauge rarely went above 5-10, now it is around the 20 during acceleration. I also used to get a lot of smoke from under the cab during regen and yesterday it went through it's full cycle and that didn't happen. I'd say that if you can't just delete the dpf then at least clean it out sometimes. It wasn't hard to do.

superduty6.4 · 11-19-2012, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by srjones1

Update... After about 200 miles, it has run better than it has in a long time. Thinking back, the turbo boost gauge rarely went above 5-10, now it is around the 20 during acceleration. I also used to get a lot of smoke from under the cab during regen and yesterday it went through it's full cycle and that didn't happen. I'd say that if you can't just delete the dpf then at least clean it out sometimes. It wasn't hard to do.

It's good to see that worked for you.