i am in no way a ford guy.. i love fords but after this truck, i have lost all faith in fords. im 17 years old and i personally drive a jacked up 08 silverado which has absolutely no problems compared to my ford. my father in 2003 bought this truck as a work truck so he didnt beat the hell out of his duramax duallys, its a 2003 f350 single cab with the 9ft dump body on it. after it running terribly since we got it my dad gave up on it.. he couldnt fix it or get it to run correctly or anything do the truck just sat in the driveway. we have a full shop at my house so i do all my own work, so please dont tell me to bring it to a dealer i just want to fix this thing. my father said if i can get it running that its mine to make money with(plowing, scrapping, landscaping ect), so i got to work... what happened was i was driving down the road and the truck just stalled. it had done this before(never ran right) and usually it started back up after stalling(usually only stalled at slow speeds/stop signs ect). this time it didnt start so i towed it back home with my truck. i pulld the fuel filter and its getting plenty of fresh fuel. tested the ficm and its getting the correct voltage(up around 48v) i changed the oil and drained the radiatior and refilled with fresh coolant. the truck will crank but will not start. usually to get it started i have to heat the glow plugs a few times then it cranks for about 5-6 seconds then the crank speeds up, the truck starts shaking and it starts(roughly). once it warmed up it wasnt bad. last night i changed the cam position sensor because i was told by both ford and some online research that it was either the ficm, cps, or crank sensor. since the ficm is good i went ahead and bought both the sensors. the cps was a PAIN to do, i was told to access it from the wheelwell but that wasnt happening, couldnt get to it from the bottom too easily either so i pulled the air intake filter and tubes, the battery and battery tray and just blindly reached down in the hole and got the sensor switched out. now it cranks, speeds up and starts shaking like it used to but it still wont start.. will the crank sensor possibly make it start once i replace that? or could it be a fuze or glow plugs or icp sensor? the crank sensor is even harder to get to than the cps sensor. looks like ill have to remove the ac compressor. how does the ac compressor come out? anybody have a diagram or pictures to show the bolts that hold it on? i couldnt figure out what was holding it onto the block. i took the fenderwell out so its easier to access. any other ideasS? opinions? whats wrong with this truck! its only got 62,385 miles! thanks!

Derek

 

Derek,

First, be happy you found us, because it sounds like a lot of wrong information. Camshaft and crankshaft position sensors rarely go bad on these trucks. What happens is there is something else wrong, the owner cranks and cranks and cranks but never gets the truck fired, and the truck throws codes for the CMP and CKP falsely, because it's not starting. Likely, neither needed replacing.

First things first. When you're cranking, are you seeing any smoke coming out of the exhaust? My guess is no, which means the injectors are not firing at all. First place to look is batteries (have them load tested, incorrect voltages are killers on these trucks). Secondly would be the FICM test, which you've done. You say it's around 48, how "around" are we? It should be above 45 at all times.

A VERY common problem on 03/early 04 trucks is the ICP sensor going bad from oil leaking on it and the wiring pig tail. I would go ahead and order a new sensor and a pig tail, regardless of this being your problem or not, it's a huge common fail point on the early trucks. You can also, for the time being, just try unplugging the ICP sensor and see if it starts. Unplugging it causes the PCM to default to a higher than normal ICP and it might fire. Another sillly thing to check being that you have terrible run issues and low miles/early year... pull the EGR valve and check it out. Clean it while it's out. Use Carb Cleaner ONLY. Remove the o-rings first as to not damage them cleaning. DTS Articles - EGR Servicing
DTS Articles - 6.0L EGR Valve Cleaning

Here's some info on the ICP sensor too: DTS Articles - ICP Sensor Failures

You say you have a big shop where you do your own work, do you have any sort of scanner where you can read some stuff for us? If not, and you plan on continuing to work on anything like this, most of us use AutoEnginuity with the enhanced Ford bundle. It runs about $360 and you can get it from site sponsors, all you need is your own laptop. You can then monitor all sorts of things going on with your truck, run cylinder contribution tests, injector buzz tests etc...

If you do have a scanner, we need to monitor ICP actual, ICP desired, and IPR duty cycle to see what the high pressure oil pump is doing. Right now, my guess from what I know, is it's either the ICP sensor/pig tail, or the HPOP is shot. Again, just a guess and my advice is to not just throw parts at it until we diagnose it 100%. You are safe in replacing the ICP and pigtail right away though, that should be done regardless.

Anything else you can tell us about the truck? What kind of oil and oil filters are used (I ask, because I've seen the wrong oil filter, like the kind that use their own cap, cause running and no start issues believe it or not). You should be using Factory Ford/Motorcraft or International oil and fuel filters ONLY.

Low miles, early year, tells me this truck sits a lot? Turbo may need a cleaning, EGR system may need a cleaning....

Welcome to DB, I'm sure you'll have more questions as you go, but this should be enough to get you started. We'll get that thing figured out in no time. You are not alone!

 

thanks! im going to try and get the icp sensor after school today, what is the pigtail? and what is the HPOP? im using rotella t 5w40 oil and a stp cartridge type oil filter, it does not use its own cap. not sure wgat the fuel filter is im pretty sure its stock, its clean though and theres plenty of fuel in there. i have a code reader ill plug it in after school today and see what codes its running. could the turbo being dirty or the egr system needing a cleanin cause it not to start? i mean after i changed the cam position sensor the truck fealt like it wanted to start, before i changed it it wouldnt do anything but a steady crank. it almost seems like its about to fire up but then fails at the last second. could glow plugs cause anything like this? blown fuses?

 

Pigtail, the wire harness that the ICP plugs in to, if you get a new sensor, get the new "pig tail" basically a short set of wires with the ICP sensor plug, you need both. Without the new wiring, it's pointless. Read the link I posted. HPOP is high pressure oil pump, by monitoring ICP acutal and desired, we can tell what the pump is doing (if anything at all). Get rid of that oil filter and get an OEM Ford ASAP. Make that priority #1. It may not fix your no start, but it might too. Either way, it needs to go. The wrong oil filters on these are all too common and can cause some very serious issues. They're often not the correct height so they can sometimes restrict oil flow (starve your bottom end of oil) and sometimes the oil 100% bypasses the filter all together because it doesn't sit right in there. PRIORITY. NUMBER. ONE. Wal-mart carries the motorcraft ones...as well as advanced auto.

You might as well change your fuel filters at this time too... International shop will have the cheapest ones.

The code reader might get us some codes, so that's a good start, but it's just that... a code reader, not a scanner. A true scanner you'll be able to monitor some functions real time, which is what we need. Start with the code reader though and let us know what you find.

Yes a dirty/clogged EGR valve could cause a no start. It actually makes a lot of sense now that you tell us it's never started very well and it's obviously not getting used a lot with the low miles. Does the truck idle a lot?

As for glow plugs... maybe, but unlikely. The glow plug systems on the 6.0's are very good. Where are you located and what's your temp? If it's plugged in and still not starting I doubt it's glow plugs.

 

i guess you could say it idled alot, not sure.. never really took notice of how long it idled for. i live in orange county ny so the temps are in the 20s-30s but the truck is in the heated shop. is it hard to clean the egr valve? can i just clean it or do i need to replace it? for the icp sensor and pigtail the sensor comes seperate from tbhe pigtail right? ill read your links in a few minutes. thanks! also not sure if i mentioned this but the truck used to stall at lower speeds then would crank hard and start back up, sometimes it would have to sit for a few days though before it started back up.. this time it stalled while driving and just never started back up, not sure if that helps at all to diagnose the problem.

 

Check out the links I posted, they will answer most of your questions. I live in Richfield Springs NY, not terribly far.

 

I know if it stalls when you come to a stop, or trying to back up then alot of times it is just an ICP sensor. A bad ICP sensor can also ,ake the idle fluctuate up and down and also cause surging, Has that ever happened? Also after you clean the EGR valve and reinstall/note- if the orings are damaged you must replace them/ Do not plug the connector back in, with the 03 trucks it won't throw a code, and it will keep it from causing more problems later. Ideally once you get this thing running good you will want to do a EGR cooler delete,almost mandatory on these things.
I don't like to spend other peoples money but if this was my truck then take Mdubs advice and purchase the AUTOENGINUITY with the Ford bundle for your laptop. It can do almost all the test that the Ford dealer can do. For whatit can do it will actually save you money, the good thing is you can also get other software for your other trucks, they offer different bundles.

 

Just a quick question, what's the best site sponsor to pick up autoingenuity from?

 

try Riffraff performance, others have been pleased with them.

 

ill have to look into that when i have the money, i lost my job a few weeks ago and im struggling for even gas money for my gas hog of a lifted truck . i ordered the icp sensor yesterday im picking it up today and i was looking at an egr delete, ill probably end up doing this next week. now i ordered the icp sensor i belive it was part # was something 103 not sure what the beginning part was. they did not have the pigtail. i went to napa they had NO idea what i was talking about when i asked for an icp sensor then they couldnt find it on the computer and when they did they were still confused, then they said they can get the pigtail but it doesnt match the sensor, so i went to auto zone, they too were confused and had no idea what it was, went to carquest and they didnt know what it was EITHER and couldnt even find it. so i went to siscos, they were able to find it and order it for me to get delivered today but they still had no idea what it was and couldnt get the pigtail... could i possibly put the new sensor in and just clean up the connector for now until i can get a new pigtail in the mail? anybody have a link to it? also i read online to acess the icp sensor from the top not the bottom so i began removing the turbo, figured id need to remove it to get to the egr valve as well. i cant for the life of me get this thing out.. ive disconnected and removed all tubes off the front, its got one tube coming out of the back and going down behind the motor so i loosened the clamp on that one and then on the back right hand side it looks like an exhaust pipe almost, what is this? and where exactly are these 3 bolts to take the turbo out? i used a few diagrams online and pulled 4 different bolts and the thing isnt even budging. i wanna get t all out regardless of if i need to or not because mice have made massive nests underneath everything from the insulation thats in the padding on the bottom of the hood and its mixing with oil. everything under there is covered in oil.