Hello everyone,

I am having an issue that just started last week. When I push on the accelerator I get black smoke from the exhaust and low power. This happens at take off or if I am driving along and try to accelerate more. I especially notice it going up a hill since it starts dropping speed. I have a boost guage and the strange thing is it seems to be showing more PSI's than normal as I push on it...like jumps up to 20-25 psi when just giving it some gas. I can get the rpm's up around 3000 and boost stays the same but I barely gain any speed. I just took out the EGR valve and cleaned it and put new o-rings and a gasket on it. I also just changed the oil and filter today...used Motorcraft filter and Rotella T6 oil. After cleaning the valve I still have the same problem. It seems to be starting a little more rough now too? I have just replaced the FICM about 2 months ago and it's not the same starting issues as when that was going bad. Any ideas? I won't just start throwing money at it...oh and I have had a bad injector before and the symptoms were way different when it was the injector. Thanks in advance!

Here's something else I just noticed last night. It seems that my transmission temp is going up faster than it used to. This morning I started it up and the trans. temp started to rise after just a minute or so of warming up at idle...before even driving it. It hasn't gotten overly hot, just seems to be rising quickly? Does this even make any sense?

A father of 4 with little money to throw at this now!

 

My trans temp gauge always comes up before the oil temp does, always has, no worries there.

A couple things it could be. When it has low power and black smoke, is the boost normal at that point? It could just be the turbo sticking.

How many miles on this truck? How is it used? Tow ever? Does it sit a lot? Do you drive it like a grandma?

The quickest and easiest thing to check first is the EPB sensor. Look under the hood, drivers side exhaust manifold. Towards the front of the manifold you'll see a tube coming up out of the manifold and if you follow it up, the sensor is plugged in to the end of that. Remove the sensor itself and the tube, and clean both well. This is the EPB sensor/tube. EPB = exhaust back pressuer sensor. They get dirty from soot and what not and stop working right and will do similar issues to what you see. If you clean this and notice no change, yank the turbo and clean that. The EPB is far easier/quicker to do, so start there. Turbo write up here: DTS Articles - Turbocharger Reconditioning

Welcome to DB!

 

Thanks for the welcome and response! I will pull the EBP sensor when I get home and check it out. I was planning on yanking the turbo out this weekend and giving it a once over. I just changed the oil as indicated in my first post and was also wondering if it would be worth my money to throw a couple of bottles of Rev-X in it at this time? I've heard good things about it even if just from a preventative standpoint. Thoughts?

 

It definitely wont hurt. A few of the guys are running the evergreen AR9100 stuff now too, supposed to be better than rev-x and less money. FRICTION MODIFIER

 

Just to eliminate it I pulled the EBP sensor last night and cleaned it and the tube real good. It seems a little better but still has the low power when getting on it. The main thing I notice is that my boost gauge is going up about twice as much as it did when it was running right. Like what I would normally expect to see the boost going up to 10psi I see it go up to 20psi with no power gain. I have noticed a little whistle I think...maybe a y-pipe?? Any more thoughts??? Thanks!

 

It's a PITA to get back in there, but a crack/leak in the up pipe will have soot where it shouldn't be. My friend's truck has that problem right now. We just haven't gotten a roundtuit to fix it.

 

When mine was cracked I noticed noise more than anything, but no power loss. When I did my EGR delete and didn't properly seat the up-pipe to the turbo (big leak) it was really noisy, had exhaust smell in the cab and ran about 5-8psi lower than normal, but power was still decent. I highly doubt that's it.

Any smoke coming out when any of this is happening?

I'm almost wondering if the HPOP is going out. Do you have any way to get this thing on a scanner to monitor some things while you drive it?

 

Another thing I just noticed is that my engine temp. is rising quickly. I don't drive very far to work and it is pretty warm by the time I get home...less than 2 miles. I don't seem to be losing any coolant though? Is there any way to test the oil cooler? Should I flush the coolant and start with fresh?

 

Best and easiest way to ensure the oil cooler is working properly is to monitor oil temp and coolant temp and see the spread between them. They say (general rule of thumb) anything greater than a 15* spread, it's clogging and needs replacement.

 

i have had the exact same problem since i got mine back in dec 2011 replaced a ton of parts hpop, icp, ipr, cleaned egr multiple times, shaffers oil, rev x, blue spring, cleaned ebp, bp intercooler boots, checked ficm which came out perfect, i could go on and not saying i thought all those things were the cause but thought it couldnt hurt after a few grand into it come to find out it was a crack in my y pipe so i bought that and tomorrow im getting on it among a ton of other parts ill be posting about it through out the event haha keep an eye out for my post around sun or mon and ill let you know if it fixed it