2005 F 250 Super Duty Question...Long Ramble
Greeting All! I have a '05 F 250 Diesel that has always been serviced, checked, and kept up, and currently runs and sounds great. In April '15, we were coming home from Georgia to East Texas, and in T...
Forum Discussion
Background: The 6.0 was built by Navistar for Ford. Ford sued Navistar because the 6.0 had the most expensive recalls of any engine Ford has ever put into its vehicles. Recall costs per unit are around 10,000. Navistar responded to Ford's suit by saying that they had designed the engine to be a 300 HP engine and Ford had retuned it to 340 HP to beat its competitors. The internal components of the engine weren't designed for the additional pressures and they failed.
This was the first generation of diesels to use Catalytic converters and pollution controls, so a lot of the issues were growing pains. One of the components that frequently fails is the Exhaust Gas Recirculation Cooler. The EGR injects small amounts of burned exhaust back into the combustions chamber to reduce pollution and allow the engine to run cooler under heavy loads. The cooler uses engine coolant to cool the 1400 degree exhaust before it's injected back into the engine. The cooler sometimes gets plugged with casting sand leftover from manufacturing the engines and blocks coolant from entering the cooler. At that point the EGR cooler can melt, allowing engine coolant to enter the combustion chambers. Small amounts of coolant in the combustion chamber will appear as white smoke under load and you can see bubbles in the coolant tank. If the hole gets too large and allows too much coolant into the combustion chamber you get a hydro lock condition that can bend connecting rods and blow the tops off pistons.
Another problem with the EGR Cooler is caused by using an improper coolant. The high heat from the EGR cooler can cause coolant to form silicate solids which will also clog the cooler. Ford/Caterpillar make a special coolant that will not form silicate when exposed to the high heat.
Coolant travels through the engine oil cooler on its way to the EGR cooler, so if the EGR cooler gets plugged, the engine oil cooler stops working.
The engine also uses high pressure oil to actuate the injectors. The pressures can run over 3500 psi. It's very important to keep clean oil in the engine. The High Pressure Oil System has O-rings that will eventually leak. They're located under the valve covers, so the leak is internal to the engine and you won't notice any oil on the outside of the engine. The engine gradually looses power.
Another problem is the Fuel Injector Control Module (FICM). I've had to replace two of them on my truck. One of Ford's software updates increased the voltage that the FICM operates at in order to increase the temperature and speed the warm up. The FICM wasn't designed for the additional voltage and it would melt the solder connections. I believe that Ford changed the voltage back to the intended level on a subsequent software update. There are companies that sell remanufactured FICMs that have high temperature solder connections.
Another issue was the fuel pressure regulator springs. The original springs would get weak over time and the engine would loose power. The springs on my truck broke and the truck would randomly quit when cruising down the road. The spring is located at the top of the engine near or on the fuel filter canister and is fairly easy to change. Unfortunately the knot heads at the local Ford dealer decided I needed my Turbocharger cleaned and charged me $1300 in addition to the $80 for the spring. I told them it was a fuel pressure issue, but they went ahead and cleaned the turbo anyway. That's the last time I'll ever do business with them because that was the third time in a row they did unauthorized work on my truck and charged me for it.
Ford purchased some of the earlier trucks back from consumers due to the extensive recall issues.
Ford no longer purchases engines from Navistar. They build their own and they use a different design.
This was the first generation of diesels to use Catalytic converters and pollution controls, so a lot of the issues were growing pains. One of the components that frequently fails is the Exhaust Gas Recirculation Cooler. The EGR injects small amounts of burned exhaust back into the combustions chamber to reduce pollution and allow the engine to run cooler under heavy loads. The cooler uses engine coolant to cool the 1400 degree exhaust before it's injected back into the engine. The cooler sometimes gets plugged with casting sand leftover from manufacturing the engines and blocks coolant from entering the cooler. At that point the EGR cooler can melt, allowing engine coolant to enter the combustion chambers. Small amounts of coolant in the combustion chamber will appear as white smoke under load and you can see bubbles in the coolant tank. If the hole gets too large and allows too much coolant into the combustion chamber you get a hydro lock condition that can bend connecting rods and blow the tops off pistons.
Another problem with the EGR Cooler is caused by using an improper coolant. The high heat from the EGR cooler can cause coolant to form silicate solids which will also clog the cooler. Ford/Caterpillar make a special coolant that will not form silicate when exposed to the high heat.
Coolant travels through the engine oil cooler on its way to the EGR cooler, so if the EGR cooler gets plugged, the engine oil cooler stops working.
The engine also uses high pressure oil to actuate the injectors. The pressures can run over 3500 psi. It's very important to keep clean oil in the engine. The High Pressure Oil System has O-rings that will eventually leak. They're located under the valve covers, so the leak is internal to the engine and you won't notice any oil on the outside of the engine. The engine gradually looses power.
Another problem is the Fuel Injector Control Module (FICM). I've had to replace two of them on my truck. One of Ford's software updates increased the voltage that the FICM operates at in order to increase the temperature and speed the warm up. The FICM wasn't designed for the additional voltage and it would melt the solder connections. I believe that Ford changed the voltage back to the intended level on a subsequent software update. There are companies that sell remanufactured FICMs that have high temperature solder connections.
Another issue was the fuel pressure regulator springs. The original springs would get weak over time and the engine would loose power. The springs on my truck broke and the truck would randomly quit when cruising down the road. The spring is located at the top of the engine near or on the fuel filter canister and is fairly easy to change. Unfortunately the knot heads at the local Ford dealer decided I needed my Turbocharger cleaned and charged me $1300 in addition to the $80 for the spring. I told them it was a fuel pressure issue, but they went ahead and cleaned the turbo anyway. That's the last time I'll ever do business with them because that was the third time in a row they did unauthorized work on my truck and charged me for it.
Ford purchased some of the earlier trucks back from consumers due to the extensive recall issues.
Ford no longer purchases engines from Navistar. They build their own and they use a different design.
