2008-'10 F Series Super Duty Owners Please....

[NRALIFR]

I just returned from a long trip in the truck in my sig, and I was trying to pay very close attention to mileage, temperatures, how often it cleaned the exhaust filter and for how long, etc. We drove 5350 miles, got an average MPG of 9.5 (saw as high as 10), it seemed to clean the exhaust filter anywhere from 75 to every 125 miles, and clean it for as short as 12 miles to as much as 30 miles. The cleaning is of course dependent on how much fuel is being burnt. It concerned me a little when after a long drive heading west across the front range of Colorado on I-70, the message display in the dash displayed "Drive to clean exhaust filter" while I was driving two times in a row, and cleaned for longer than I had seen before with the message displayed the whole time. Normally, it will just display "Cleaning exhaust filter" for maybe 10 seconds then go back to displaying what was there before. Sometimes I don't even realize it's cleaning until I check it manually.

I've owned this truck for a couple years now. It has about 73k on it, but I've only put on about 10k of those miles. It's been a good TC hauler for me, the power and ride are awesome. The truck is almost bone stock, engine wise. The only mod I've put on it is a coolant filter, and a Scangauge so I can keep track of temperatures more precisely than the dash gauges.

It still has warranty on the engine and emissions, so I'm not looking to do any bulletproofing, deleting, tuning, etc. But, I know there are others out there who have this flavor of Super Duty, and are using a Scangauge, Edge Insight, or some similar device to monitor various parameters.

Even with the limited experiencing I've had with this truck, I'd say the terms "Dash gauges" and "precision" are mutually exclusive. The two dash temperature gauges are for coolant and trans fluid, and they both pretty much just sit at about the mid point of their range regardless of whether the Scangauge is showing 90 degrees or 190 degrees. The boost gauge functions as you would expect one to, so I don't monitor boost with the Scangauge, and since I'm not running a tuner I don't monitor EGT either.

I've got the Scangauge setup to constantly show oil temp, coolant temp, tranny temp, and battery voltage. It will display many more parameters than that, but those are what I'm interested in. From what I've learned about the 6.4, one clear indicator of engine trouble is when the delta between the coolant temp and oil temp is greater than 15 degrees under a sustained heavy load, so that's why I have the Scangauge showing those two temps all the time.

To the other owners of this vintage Super Duty, if you are running a Scangauge or similar device, what are you monitoring and what do you do with that info? If you're monitoring oil/water/trans temps, what do you consider hot enough to make you back off the throttle? I don't know what the PCM software limits are, so that's why I'm asking.

I used to own a '95 F350 with the 7.3 Powerstroke, and had installed Oil temp, EGT, and boost gauges on it in conjunction with a 3-way flip chip and other mod's. It had a manual tranny, so no trans temp was needed. I know some may dispute this, but the coolant gauge in that truck would actually rise and fall as you worked the engine, and would give you a rough idea of the temp.

I drove it that way for several years, and had developed a habit of watching the EGT and oil temp gauge when the engine was working hard. I tried to limit the amount of time the EGT ran in the yellow range, and would back out of the throttle when the oil temp started approaching 230 or so. With the 6.4, I've found that the oil temp can hit 230 pretty easily when it's working hard, but I still consider that my "back-off" point, or at least try to limit the amount of time it runs at that temp. The coolant temp is always 8-12 degrees behind the oil temp when it's heating up, and the tranny temp lags 10-20 degrees behind the water temp depending on how long I run it working hard like that.

I'd be interested to hear the observations and experiences of those who own the '08-'10 Super Duty's with the 6.4 Powerstroke, both in stock form and modded.

Oh BTW, on our trip...... other than burning up a bunch of fuel, the truck performed flawlessly. Not even a hiccup.

:):)

[NRALIFR]

Well, from what I've heard about the 6.4's, 9.0-10.0 is pretty typical when towing or hauling. Being a pre-DEF Diesel, it re-gen's a lot more than the current 6.7 Diesels do. I drive 65 on the interstates, and 60 or the speed limit on secondary roads. The MPG started out at 9.2 when we left, and slowly inched up to 10.0 by the time we got to our destination. It went down to 9.6 on the trip home because of the wind I believe.

I've never weighed this truck, but if I remember right they weigh about 9200 lbs, and I know my camper usually comes in around 5500-5600 lbs when it's loaded for a two-week trip, so it's right around it's GVWR of 14.5K.

We did encounter a fair amount of steep grades and headwinds. Our trip took us from Arkansas to Washington for a visit to North Cascades NP. Our return trip took us East as far as Yankton, South Dakota, then south back to Arkansas. Seemed like the wind was in our face a lot.

I can't swear to it, but it seemed like the truck was cleaning the exhaust filter more often than I'd noticed in the past, but I also know it was working hard a lot on this trip, due to both wind and grades. I was also making a point to pay close attention to how often it cleaned on this trip too. There are times that I would miss the initial message when the cleaning starts, and wouldn't realize it was cleaning until I manually checked. I can usually hear a difference in the engine noise when it starts cleaning, but not always. So, it's possible that my perception of how often it cleaned on previous trips wasn't accurate.

I appreciate everyone's replies.

:):)

[rowekmr]

Why is the avg in the single digits? How much does your truck weigh loaded or was it a lot of steep inclines?

[captainjohn2008]

I was going to reply to your questions on your truck and offer advise until I checked your profile and realized that you are slamming Canadians, so no, I will not offer you wisdom. JMHO

[FishOnOne]

Most 6.4 PSD I see running around here are deleted and for good reason. The first generation DPF equipped trucks are pretty brutal on fuel and dilute the oil with diesel fuel. End result will be rocker arm failure at a minimum.

As a side note I remember stopping by the shop where my cousin works to visit during hunting season and I could almost guarantee I would find a 6.4 PSD in a black box waiting to be picked up as a core replacement.

A friend of mine has a '10 6.4 PSD and he deleted his after he got tired of his fuel bill, and his previous truck was a V10 Super Duty.

For comparison my 6.7 PSD when pulling the camper will go about 500-750 miles before performing an active regen and will take 10 miles to complete.

I believe Ford made improvements to the regen strategy to tame it a bit after they ditched this engine so you may want to check into seeing upgrading your flash.

[jrp]

My '08 6.4L engine is all stock. Its a part time vehicle and only gets used about 6000 miles a yr, half towing and half running around town. During the 3000 miles of running around town (not towing) it almost never goes into "cleaning exhaust filter" mode. During the 3000 miles of towing my 5th wheel toy hauler, it goes into "cleaning exhaust filter" mode about every 200 miles and the cleaning lasts about 10-15 miles/minutes on avg.
Shortly after I bought this truck (used 2 yrs old) it was constantly going into cleaning exhaust mode and running very rough. The dealer found a sticking EGR valve and after changing that its run perfect ever since.