Hi guys,
My name is Ryan Bastian and I have been helping a family friend try to figure out the problem with his 2003 Ford Excursion with 6.0 Powerstroke. I've been working on gas engines for awhile but am new to diesels so I have been researching these past few days trying to understand and figure out what's going on with this truck. Sorry for the long post.

Here is a run down
He bought it in Feb. of 2012 with 143,400. A month later he had a Banks Ram air intake, Intake manifold, 4" intake pipe, Banks intercooler, charge pipes, and turbo back exhaust installed at 145,035. A week later he had a Banks six-gun programmer with iQ installed at 146,358. In June he had the oil filler tube O-ring, turbo o-ring, right transmission cooler line, high pressure oil pump cover gasket, ICPR switch, EGR heater hose, 2 turbo seals, intake mani. gasket, 2 fuel filters, and the radiator replaced at 148,266. Lastly in August he replaced the Back pressure sensor due to a check engine light at 152,820.

the truck now has 154,000 miles and is used regularly for pulling a trailer with landscape material. When the problem first appeared the truck was running fine until he slowed down to pass through a small town and wouldn't accelerate past 40mph after exiting the town. and after it was shut off and driven the next day would not break 40 mph. It was taken to an aftermarket shop who said the turbo had failed. He then took it to Ford who told him he had blown headgaskets and needed new engine block among other things totaling 16,000.

When I got to look at the truck the same problem however I noticed the shift between 1 and 2 was hard and would only happen if I feathered the pedal it would not shift into any higher gears after. You can hear the turbo begin spooling at 1500 rpm all the way up 3200 rpm when the engine won't go any faster. At 2000 Rpm there is an intermittent unusual high pitched whine that appears to be the turbo. At 3000 RPM the truck lets out a massive plume of black smoke until I let off the throttle. According to the banks it is boosting at 26-31 psi. A scan revealed 2 EGR codes. There is also a white residue splattered all over the left side of the engine bay from the degas bottle.

I pulled the EGR valve and checked for fluid in the passage from a cracked EGR cooler, It was dry inside. I cleaned the valve and replaced the O-rings and reinstalled the valve. I then pulled the intake pipe off the inlet of the Turbo and checked for play, It is very minimal. After cleaning the valve I took it for another test drive I could now get it up to 60 mph if I babied it and feathered the throttle it would would shift through all gears. At 60mph the truck was running at 2500 rpm and would not go any faster it was like it hit a brick wall and you could hear the turbo pushing the air back out into the air cleaner. Using the Banks iQ Boost pressure were 26-31, EGT's were 1500 climbing to 1600 at 2500rpm, Coolant temp was 208 degrees, Oil temp at 216 degrees. Code P132B was triggered.

So I guess my question is does this problem sound familiar to anyone? Can the turbo while boosting at these pressures be going bad and causing the problems? Could a possible headgasket cause driveability issues like this? and Lastly what can I do to diagnose this before he spends alot of money he doesn't have..

Thanks for any help
Sorry again for the long post
Ryan Bastian

 

Unfortuately those early 6.0 PS were very problematic...to say the least. Those engines use a VGT turbo (Variable Geometry Turbo). Moveable vanes in the exhaust side of the turbo controlled boost pressures. They are notorious for getting dirty (carboned up) and sticking or jamming alltogether. That usually causes other issues and just compounds the problem. Sometimes just removing the turbo and giving it a thorough cleaning brings it back to life. But it will only happen again. EGR delete is also a good idea.

 

Do the symptoms occur when on stock tune?

Here is a troubleshoot for coolant loss.
http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/gen...nts-degas.html

While your at it, check the compression.

Then after you have fixed the problems, tell him to ditch the Banks programming, most likely has cost him a trans. SCT with custom tunes will be better for the motor and trans.

 

Put the tuning back to stock and try again.

I'd highly suggest cleaning the turbo, since you have an underboost code. Follow this: DTS Articles - Turbocharger Reconditioning The turbo may be hitting those numbers, but it's probably sticking for a while then breaking free and doing that. Or maybe that's just a recall. It's possible a new turbo is needed, you can just find a used stocker cheap on the forums or go with something like a powermax, for $1200 shipped or so. The turbo should have some up and down play, but not in and out play. The up and down is because when the truck is running it starts pumping oil through there and the idea is that the shaft of the turbo rides on an oil film. When the truck is off and no oil is going through there there is some clearance for the turbo to move up and down.

Do you know if the EPB tube was cleaned when the sensor was replaced? It most likely didn't need replacement.

If you have coolant spraying out of the overflow bottle (white residue) and the EGR cooler is dry, it probably is headgaksets. Though, I can't imagine it needing a new block unless it was severely damaged. Probably a good time for ARP's and some machined heads. I second the EGR delete idea too.

The weird shifting is most likely the truck trying to save itself from destroying the transmission due to the other issues, but hard to say until we get these issues fixed.

I'm with Lilpooh, get rid of the banks programmer. Overpriced junk IMO.