Need advise on my 6.0

[rydensdad]

Hi there, I have a 2004 F350. It has been in the shop for three weeks and I need advise so I dont just through parts at it. To start off I took the truck to Ford to have my coolant container replaced, it was leaking. Alos my check engine light was on. The check engine light was apparently my FICS so I had that replaced. When I went to pick up the truck there was a small but noticeable surge in the motor(that wasent there before I took the truck in). It is a small surge but a constant one. I turned around and took the truck back. That was about to weeks ago. The tech finally called me to tell me that he thinks it is my turbo. His exact words were "all the evidence we have right now is leaning towards a turbo" It does not feal like a turbo to me. Will a turbo problem have small but constant surges?

[forddieseldoctor]

What's FICS an abbreviation for? Do you mean FICM? Turbo vanes sticking can give you all kinds of weird feelings and symptoms. Ask him if he did the vvt test on the turbo? It is a sensor that gets installed into the top of the center housing and rides against the vgt cam and tells you if it is sticking or not. It usually does a pretty decent job of ruling out a turbo as a cause.

[rydensdad]

Thanks Forddieseldoctor I will ask. And yes I did mean the FICM, sorry I am new

[forddieseldoctor]

Do you know if you have an early or a late 04? Some of the early ones may not be able to have the vvt test done to them. I don't remember the build date break. But I think it's right around 09/2003.

[rydensdad]

I dont know is there a place I can check?

[forddieseldoctor]

I just thought of something... I wonder if they let it idle to allow it to do a proper vgt learn cycle after they installed the ficm. The newer ones don't need to have this done, so every now and then people tend to forget to do it on the older ones. This would only be an option for the early build (before 9-29-03)

[forddieseldoctor]

Originally Posted by rydensdad

I dont know is there a place I can check?

If you pm me your vin number I can look it up. Otherwise look at the door sticker and it will have the month and year that the truck was built listed on it. The third option is to look at the right valve cover and see what year it has listed on it. The final way is to look at the egr cooler and see if it is round or rectangular. The round is the older ones.

[rydensdad]

man you are awesome... I am going to ask them in the AM

[jerryscott]

i had a problem like yours with surging, ford couldn't figure it out, then I got a service engine light and they said something was sticking in the turbo so they rebuilt the turbo and it blew up while doing a boost test so they put a new one in and I haven't had a problem with surging since.