Chasing 6.0 gremlins...possibly related?

H

Hanburks

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Jan 12, 2013
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All right folks...I recently picked up a 2003 F350 with a 6.0. It ran like a scalded dog and didn't so much as fart funny for the first few months. Notice I said "ran"....as in, it used to run good. Over the last couple weeks its been slowly but surely falling apart. The sequence of events is as follows...

1.) battery light came on one day, put a meter on it and read 11.2-11.8 volts. Being the keen wrench that I am I immediately replaced the alternator. My expensive purchase didn't fix it. What's weird is that it always charges fine from a cold start until gets up to temp. Once at temp it only charges about half the time (no rhyme or reason behind when it charges...or doesn't).

2.) About a week after the charging issue began I started having cold start issues and until it gets up to temp it won't go over 2000 rpms. This has been getting progressively worse over the last two weeks and has no power regardless of temp or rpm range.

3.)A few days ago I noticed a slight air pressure leak sounds on drivers side of engine. Now, the slight noise isn't so slight. It sure sounds like a significant turbo leak to me.

I'll take any and all advise...well good advise anyway. I'd sure appreciate some guidance on each issue and to know if these things can be related.

Thanks yall
 
Weak voltage hurt your ficm. Turbo boot coming off the turbo got a tear in it.

Check ficm voltage if low you can fix with this http://www.theautopartsshop.com/fuel-injector-control-module/dor904229.html
From my smart car.
 
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Thanks puller. I've got a good path forward on the ficm and the boot. Any ideas on the intermittent charging?
 
Check the altenator again and also how fresh are the batteries?

My truck would do the same thing as the altenator issue. Had the alt checked and it checked fine. Put it back on and it ran fine for about a month then it started again. I checked all grounds and verified connections and connectors. Then replaced alt again and no problems since.
 
Further info...
-Batteries were bought new in August with 5/12 stamped on them.
-FICM has 50+ volts with ignition on & 51.2-51.4 volts at idle (tests good).
-Charging at 14.9+ volts at idle (when it decides to charge)
 
Replace the alternator harness pigtail.

When I first picked up mine, it was litterally doing the same thing charging as yours sounds like.

The engine harness leg to the alternator was stuffed with green corrosion and high resistance. bought a pigtail repair from the Ford dealer over the counter. replaced that 12" leg to to the alt. fixed the shoddy charging right up in mine.
 
Replace the pigtail on the alternator....no luck. Disconnected every component of the charging/battery system I could find, cleaned the heck out of every contact point and then reassembled while I did the pigtail work.

Any other ideas?...
 
it is possible you got a dud out of the box too. the rectifier bridge are crap on those. you can bench test it and find out for sure.
 
Got the alternator from Advanced Auto. Subsequently, I tested the one I pulled out and the new one...they both tested out just fine.

I found a posting from five years ago where someone was having similar issues and it turned out to be the "I" wire. I'm going to check that out today.
 
Talked with the manufacturer of my new alternator. After an hour and half on the phone and making multiple modifications to my truck...I have narrowed it down to the sensing wire (green with blue stripe) coming from the alternator plug to the dash. It appears that as the truck warms up some sort of abrasion or other damage to the wire causes resitance to climb up high enough to limit voltage to 2.0 volts. This causes the idiot light to come on, the system to over charge thus shutting down the charging system. Who'd a thunk it?
 
Still chasing the loss of power on this 6.0 of mine. New set of plugs cured the hard start. Just replaced fuel filters as well. Will barely get above 2000rpms and has no power at all. In nuetral it'll rev right up and seem to be fine but again, in gear I may as well be driving a Geo.
 
I'm curious as to how you're getting over 50V out of the FICM, many of the components on the FICM board are only rated for 50V, so if you're over you could possibly be doing damage there.
 
The tensioner on my 6.0 was bad. Would charge fine when cold, but would get weak when the engine warmed up.
 
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