Hey guys, this is what I have been into for the last little while with my 06 psd fx4. I thought I would return some of the info I've gained from here to the other not so mechanically advanced guys in regards problem solving some of the most common ailments of our steel beasts. The first thing I noticed with my psd was what is known as Stiction relating to cold start issues. As I understand it, natural oil contains varnish and other chemicals that, when heated by the repeated reciprocation of the high pressure injector spool, gums up the clearances causings a hard layer of grime cooked to the spool that burns off at normal op temp. I first noticed a rough idle when the temp drops to 3 * up here in good ol Canada, before long it turned into a bucking and jerking until stall and then to a delay in acceleration, and a lurch during its shift sequence from 2 to 3. Like every rookie does I dismissed it hoping it was interim, or bad diesel or whatever we hope for. Before long , I noticed the tell tale blue smoke puff upon accel when cold, but observed excellent performance when the engine is at normal op temp. After net diagnosing, I took the cheap approach and switched my motor oil to rotella T6 synthetic with rev-x formula added. The rev x snake oil did its job and temporarily stopped the Stiction. This is not a permanent fix. Poor maintenance and extended idles are reportedly one cause of injector failure. mine in particular. To throw a wrench in the mix I started to notice longer than usual crank times when hopping in the truck warm or cold, and once started, the smell of burning oil in the cabin. Oh no. It eventually did not start at all at a drivethru and was towed home. further Internet diagnosis determined the culprit was most likely a hokey fitting called the snap to connect, which is located near the hp oil pump and prevents the lower viscosity warm oil from producing enough pressure for the PCM to intimate a start. Took the truck in to reveal a confirming low ignition control pressure. That was 1200$. Shoulda did an egr delete then but didnt. Everything was hunky dory for a while until the rotella and rev x could not keep up with the failing injectors. Blue smoke returned with a vengeance and cold start issues plagues my brown beauty. After doing the pedigree FICM diagnostic (lots of links) and confirming 48v plus during each test phase I concluded a working ficm. For now. I knew the next step was an injector balance test and a look inside the egr valve body to see if I had moisture due to a faulty egr cooler (can also cause smoke, but usually more white and sweet smelling) it was somewhat muggy but inever had any degass blowback. After confirming the 1 & 4 hole injectors were not keeping up I had them replaced by my tech. Truck runs sweet . A few weeks ago i smelled burning oil again, noticed i was losing slight amounts every week. Back to the tech. there he noted higher than 12* vector? Or temp differences between the oil and coolant suggesting a clogged oil cooler. It's now at the shop awaiting a new oil cooler and an egr delete (while hes in there) which should reduce the chance of a coolant flash causing head gasket failure etc. That combined with a tune written for the egr delete the truck should be back up and purring. It's important to remember the age old saying...pay me now or pay me later. Change your oil, coolant and fuel filters on the reg or your asking for similar problems. I hope someone reads this the way I have and it helps to point them in the right directions . Cheers, Jeff.

 

Hi Jeff, I wish I had gotten this info to you sooner. I too have been down this road and paid mechanics big bucks to fix my truck in the past. I had my truck let me down at a drive thru also. I shut it off because the gal inside the place can't hear over the motor when ordering my food, then it would not restart, very frustrating and embarassing. It took me 3 years a tons of research to solve my problem and I now would like to share it with you. My truck always ran poorly after an oil change and gradually ran better as the oil aged to a certain point and then began running a little worse after that point. I had low contribution on injectors, hard cold starts, not starting at all when hot and this was even a rather short time after replacing 4 injectors (within 4000 milies) You can see my solution in the basement biz section because I am not so sure I can say it here due to forum rules. But to give you a hint the life blood is for sure in the oil! You can also see my own personal truck mods that I did at Oil Cooler Upgrade Power Stroke Diesel I built my own super tough external oil cooler and eliminated a ton of junk off the top of the motor as well as egr and cooler. I am so convinced this stuff works I am going to do something just to prove it to you and the whole community. I will send you a free sample. Let me know. Contact me through the basement biz section. Once people find out about this stuff it will save people literally thousands of dollars!

 

At the end of the day any oil additive is just a temporary fix. Good batteries and a proper working FICM do wonders for these trucks. I went with an older 7 pin FICM with older programming and it eliminated my stiction issues completely.

Oil additives are NOT going to do anything for hot starts either, that's a high pressure oil leak.

 

hey mdub707 just a curiosity what years did the 7 pin come on also wouldnt a 58 volt FICM eliminate this also

 

Im sorry but i dont understand how a working FICM either the new or old style is going to fix failing injectors? Please explain this further.

 

03/early 04's mostly. A 58V is just a higher current to over-ride that stiction issue easier, so in a sense they kind of do the same thing, just different methods.

I wish I had a good explanation, but you can hear a difference in the way the injectors buzz when you first turn the key, you can hear the truck idle different, it's smoother take offs, better throttle response... similar to having your FICM tuned. They always said tuning an earlier 03 FICM wouldn't do as much as it would for an 05+ FICM, because of the older programming. I have a 4 pin here that tests out at 48V across the board. I fire my truck up, and it stumbles a little, and will have stiction issues if I try and drive right away. Truck runs good, seems a little more laggy though. I swap my 7 pin on, 48V across the board also, truck idles quieter and smoother on first start up and I can virtually take off down the road without issue. The programming is different and drastically effects the way the truck runs. I think this is why a lot of guys are doing ECM rollbacks through PHP on their trucks, to get back to those old programs.

Of course good batteries, and a high quality synthetic oil help as well.