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6.0 cut off on the road, won't start now. Please help me out!

3K views 16 replies 7 participants last post by  GIPP3R 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey all, looking for some advice here in trying to avoid a visit to either of the local mechanics that might not have a lot of 6.0 experience.

My truck has been running flawlessly since I bought it. The other day, I started it up as usual at 55 degrees, and it started right up and went into high idle. Let it warm up for about a minute, and then pulled out onto the street. Everything was going just fine, all gauges were normal, and then it just cut off the second I hit 15 mph. Was able to roll it off the road, but now it won't start. Turns over just fine, has perfect fuel pressure, oil and ALL 6 of my filters were changed not 750 miles ago, and just switched from 15w-40 amsoil full synthetic to rotella T6 5w-40. No serious leaks other than one that looks like a rear mainseal leak that has been present for at least 6 months. Unplugged the ICP sensor (on passenger side valve cover), didn't see any oil, and still couldn't start the truck after extended cranking. After 5-10 seconds of cranking, the oil pressure gauge on the dash will come up to normal pressure, but still no start (assuming that indicates that low pressure system is working, so I won't pull the oil filter). I have no way of running a scan on the truck at the moment aside from the codes that the programmer will pull. I have no trouble codes present aside from the one that popped up once I unplugged the sensor. History report shows a replaced oil pump at the dealer at around 50k.

Really, really, hoping someone can help a brother out here. In dire need of a truck for this weekend, and I'm afraid that even if I get the truck towed, my problems won't be solved. I have some mechanical experience, not much with diesels, but am not afraid to get into it to an extent, and I have a good bit of electrical experience. They warned me, but like everyone, I took on the 6.0 challenge..... :eek:hnoes:
 
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#2 ·
Just a thought, did you actually try starting it With the ICP UNPLUGGED while u were checking it?
 
#3 ·
any codes that you can retrieve?
 
#5 ·
Zsargent, I get a code for EGR throttle, OBDII, and occasionally PCM. These are all caused by either the delete or the programmer though, I've had them for more than a few months. No new codes since the issue began... I wish there were though.
 
#6 ·
The EBP sensor has been giving me issues for the last two months, praying that it's the reason for my no start. I will unplug it when I get home and crank the truck, hopefully that does the trick. If not, I'll be pulling the IPR tomorrow afternoon.
 
#7 ·
ficm may have **** the bed.
 
#8 ·
If you have a tuner on the truck, Return it to stock. Do you have a way of checking your High pressure oil to make sure it's.. I wanna say at around 500psi while cranking? Also check your FICM fuse make sure it's not blown or corroded.
 
#9 ·
So, I have an update just in case y'all were interested... Got towed to Wicked Diesel in Bedford, VA because I don't have any means of working on the truck while I'm away at school right now. High pressure oil was at 30psi while cranking... Diagnosed as an HPOP failure, as well as a new IPR and an oil change, to the tune of $1700. Get a call a few hours after labor started, and the mechanic found that there were shards of gasket in my HPOP that are essentially what took it out. He said that he knew exactly what an oil cooler gasket looks like, and that was it. Turns out my oil cooler gasket is disintegrating, and it sent pieces of gasket up into my system, killing it. What amazes me is that he told me that this most often happens with a Dorman or other Chinese oil cooler, but after pulling up the records, my truck had a brand new Ford OEM oil cooler put in less than 5 years ago, so I'm damn near positive that its not a knock-off. Looking at a total bill of around $2500 now... not a good introduction into the diesel world. Blessed to have access to a very experienced mechanic though. Will keep y'all posted, but I'm still surprised about the gasket failure...
 
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#10 ·
... but after pulling up the records, my truck had a brand new Ford OEM oil cooler put in less than 5 years ago, so I'm damn near positive that its not a knock-off. ...
The aftermarket oil coolers are physically different inside and visually different outside from OEM. Have them keep it for you so you can take a look. It'd be interesting to know.

That said... there is no guarantee that aftermarket seals couldn't end up somehow with an OEM cooler.

Glad you found a good shop and thanks for updating.
 
#11 ·
Update

So, as promised, here's the update.

Picked the truck up this morning from the shop. Both of the mechanics I dealt with over the phone shook my hand, and then the one that worked on my truck showed me the HPOP screen and the IPR with the screen on it, both were absolutely jammed full of nasty green gasket shards. Unfortunately, it sounds like the oil cooler and HPOP were both trashed which is what I really needed to see, if I'm going to try to pull off any kind of warranty coverage from Dorman (that, and I still don't have proof that it was a Dorman oil cooler in my truck). He walks me out to my truck, goes to crank it up, and immediately I notice that there is a whining sound coming from what sounds like a pump somewhere in the truck while it's waiting to be cranked up. Cranks it up, it runs for 3-5 seconds, with tons of white smoke bellowing out, then it just cuts off. This repeats a few more times, and the mechs start pulling sensors trying to get it to start up and stay running. Eventually, after about an hour of messing around with it, they determine that the Edge Evolution that's on the truck is what is causing the problems with the starting. Mechanic claims that he drove it 40 miles on Friday afternoon and then just let it sit all weekend waiting for me to come pick it up, so he didn't think to try and start it up again. As soon as its unplugged and returned to stock, the truck runs fine. I walk back in to the shop, as the mechanic is trying to sell me a new programmer, and mentions something about how I might need a new MAP sensor because its throwing a code for it. I walk in to the office, get written up and checked out for $2500, swipe the card, and I'm on my way driving my truck in stock form.

I get back to my apartment an hour and a half later, and realize that I probably should have raised a little more hell about the programmer, as it was working fine when I dropped it off... Also, he mentioned something about how my truck had never had the blue spring mod done to it, even though the last owner told me that it did and had shop records to back it. However, this evening I checked the fuel pressure (as my monitor on the edge now has no power or anything, it did before it was messed with this morning so fuel pressure and boost is all i can look at...) and I'm looking at around 50 PSI at idle and start, and around 45 cruising. I was looking at right around 60PSI at start and 55 PSI cruising before this whole incident, and I just now noticed that they billed me for a "fuel pressure regulator", and I don't remember having any fuel issues whatsoever... Could this be caused by the lack of the programmer or am I looking at a whole different issue? I'll be getting on the phone with the shop and edge products tomorrow morning, but I could really use some advice on how to proceed. Chances of a Dorman warranty covering this is slim, especially because of the fact that I don't have the oil cooler. And what the heck is this new whining noise when I'm trying to start up?
 
#12 · (Edited)
#13 ·
If your whining noise sounds like that, someone missed an o-ring in the process of digging in your regulator.

What I don't get is why there would be any reason for them to be in your regulator given your problem.
Thanks for the response dj. I ended up making a trip back to the mechanic, picked up my oil cooler (which was indeed a dorman, working on that warranty claim now), got a new programmer since the Edge fried while it was in the shop, and had them check my fuel system. Hooked up a manual gauge, pressure showed 45 PSI pretty much constant from idle to 2200 RPM. They diagnosed it as a failing/weak fuel pump, wanted $400 to replaced the HFCM. So I said screw that, and drove back to my apartment (60 miles away). Made a 250 mile trip back home for Thanksgiving, which is where I'm at right now.

With the intention of testing the "failing fuel pump" theory, I bought a used HFCM from a 2006 6.0 with fairly low miles the other day, and pulled the fuel pump. Installed it in my truck, and had slightly better pressure for about a day (52PSI), and now I'm right back to where I was, 42-45 PSI at idle and cruising at 2000rpm. The only difference now is that the intermittent noise from the fuel pump before starting has gone away.

The noise in the video is pretty close to what I have, but much less pronounced and occurred at different times in the priming cycle. As for why they were digging into the regulator, I got a call from them one morning before I came to pick the truck up asking me if I wanted to do the Blue Spring upgrade since it wasn't on my truck. I said sure, as long as there wasn't any extra labor, and told the mech that that was surprising as the previous owner claimed he had had it done to the truck and the PSI was great when I bought it (60PSI). So that's why they went digging into my regulator. The question is, would they have been able to tell that I didn't have the blue spring kit without taking the regulator off in the first place? If not, you've got the right idea... why were they taking off my regulator in the first place?
 
#14 ·
Gipp3r,

I don't think there's a way to tell if the BS update was done unless you tear into it. or you have low fuel pressure.
I wouldn't be too happy if the shop fried my Edge.....

You can pull the cover off the regulator yourself and check it out. I think DieselTechRon has a video on youtube about doing that....
 
#15 ·
zsargent,

Pulled the cover today, everything looked to be in place. New gasket, new plastic air valve piece, no double o-ring, new seal where the spring itself goes. Only thing that looked questionable was that the "blue" on the spring looked like it had worn off a good bit, about 1/3 of it was gone and I don't know if that is typical of a fairly new blue spring update or not. Was done less than 500 miles ago, I thought the spring would be pretty much in perfect condition.
 
#16 ·
Do you think some bad gas is getting through the filter and going into the fuel pump? This happened to me recently and the truck ran fine, the only symptom was the fuel pressure dropped to 35 when I stepped on it. Prior to that, it never fluctuated from 52.

My truck recently went down with bad fuel filters from either bad gas or tank delamination. I think this gunk made it through to the pump and caused the HFCM to fail. Its at the shop waiting to be picked up. There was three types of gunk in the filter. One was a slimy light brown gunk, the second was what looked like flaking black paint that all came out of the Water in fuel drain. The third was a charcoal like substance that was caked to the inside of the black fuel filter cover. This may have killed your first pump and the is killing your second.
 
#17 ·
Chris,

I don't think it has anything to do with the fuel, but I will pull my filter when I get a chance. At this point I think it might be a blockage in the fuel system somewhere. I just don't understand how the PSI can go right back to what it was before, after I change the pump, unless it's a coincidence that it just so happened to fail right after I installed it in the same exact way.

When I drained the water in fuel, it was totally clean. I did all my fuel filters less than 1000 miles ago. Additionally, I have a Racor bypass system, and I drained that as well. There was some brown sediment at the bottom of the Racor system in the separator cap, but that's about it.
 
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