Advise in dealing with the Truck's Gremlins - '03 6.0

[robertgu]

I recently brought a F250 '03 6.0 PSD with 127,000 miles for a great price. While the truck was still in the "cooling off period", I took it to a Ford Dealership to give it a health check and to replace the ATX fuild.

The dealership gave it a clean bill of health. So naturally the next day I would get a CEL: P0102 low or no voltage from MAF. Easy enough, I reseated the connector to the MAF, unplugged the batteries and no more CEL.

That weekend I towed my toy hauler out for some ATV'ing and camping. Fully loaded, we're talking about 7k lbs towing through the SoCal mountain passes. Pulling into the camp site I get another CEL: P0401 low EGR. Cleared the CEL and it did not return. So now I have a planned date to clean the EGR valve later, not too bad still.

One thing that happened on the way back that has me concerned is the turbo. When I first got the truck, the turbo sounded like a 747, it had that high pitched and very noticeable turbo wine that you can very easily hear from within the cab with the radio off. After getting home from the ATV trip and driving around with the radio off, I can barely hear the turbo at all. If I accelerate at a brisk pace, I can hear the turbo but it's WAY more muffled, and sounds more like a low toned whistle rather than a high-pitched turbo wine of before.

Having owned this PSD for so short of a time I cannot say how performance is being affected with any certainty, but I would say the truck is sleepy from 0 to 2300 RPM under brisk acceleration and wakes up after 2300 RPM.

Another thing I need to figure out is the diesel exhaust smell I get from around the front of the truck. It had that smell throughout the very short time I've owned this truck, so if it's an exhaust leak, it would have likely affected the performance of the turbo at the time of purchase (when the turbo sounded like a jet) just as it would affect it now with the recent muffled turbo sound.

So here's my plan of action:
After reading tons of posts on this fine forums, I feel the most likely issue is stuck vanes. But I want to avoid having to go through the hassle of removing the turbo just yet, so first I'm going to clean the EGR, check all the turbo piping for cracks / leaks, and track down that possible exhaust leak.

Any additional advice or ways to test the turbo would be GREATLY appreciated!!

[Jeff14R]

Just had same issues and was busted y-pipe bellows. Must have been bad for a while, forgot what the turbo sounded like.