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Hesitation when Wot

6K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  Mike Six Oh 
#1 ·
I'm purchasing a 03 excursion limited Rwd as my first diesel truck ever. I have a big family so I really wanted something heavy duty and the Excursion really fit my needs.

Now I fell in love with this excursion and I'm soon to have it this week. I did test drive it like it owed me money.

Some information in the mods on this truck.

Egr delete (welded shut)
New Ford HPOP
New Ford water pump
New Ford alternator.
Has a stock exhaust, regular height. Truxk has not really been molested. It started right up with no issues what so ever, no idling issues. BTW ALMOST FORGOT, it has a Super Chip Flash paq 1705 if I remember correctly. It's on ECONOMY MODE.

So my issue is when I stomp on it, it has this hesitation like if it's losing fuel. I'm not sure. It's like a sputter but it's not timing. It's as if the truck doesn't know it's being stomped on and then it picks up. And it surges as if it doesn't go smoothly up the Rev limiter. It doesn't have guages, so my first investment was to get the Sct x4 to get a monitor on the truck.

The original owner only uses conventional oil and not synthetic so he told me that he uses rev x to help the stiction. Could it be low fuel pressure? Ficm? I have even read about the vgt veins sticking? I'm really confused. I'm hands on with cars and gasoline engines, never really cracked open a diesel. Any advice as what to do as soon as I get the truck, what should I be looking for.

Thanks in advance for the advice.
 
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#2 ·
For a typical new to you 6.0, do nothing except maybe an oil change and a Fuel filter change for at least a month, to get to know your truck. So many things you can do to it to "Bulletproof" it, so you'll need to decide how to spend your money.

For the hesitation, the FICM is easy to check with a monitor. The fuel pressure is a little more difficult since these truck do not have a built in fuel sensor, so fuel pressure is an add on for most kits. IMO, sticking VGT veins would not cause the motor to sputter. Before the monitor, the only cheap thing to do is drain the furl water separator under the truck.

Once you get a monitor, you can use that to troubleshoot.

If the numbers on the monitor look good (FICMv, ICP, IPR), I'd do a good DIY oil change ($150) and fuel filter change ($50) and hope that would fix the hesitation. I'd then do a Blue Spring upgrade $70. If that didn't work, I'd then install a fuel pressure gauge with a billet fuel cap ($100) and fuel pressure set up for my edge ($180). If fuel pressure was bad, I'd suspect a bad install on the blue spring, followed by a fuel pump going, or maybe one of the two screens in the fuel tank clogged with something. If fuel pressure looks good, I may consider Autoenguinuity Software with Ford Pack ($350) to do a contribution check. If the contribution check was fine, then I'm at the end of what I can do, so I'd bring it to a shop to hook to there computer ($100-200). Maybe they can flash the truck back to stock to see what that does.

I may have been better off going to the shop first, but now I'd be fully tooled up and ready to go next time.
 
#3 ·
I appreciate the advice. You think Water in the fuel tank would cause this. The truck has been sitting for quite some week now. Current owner bought a new 2016 f250 platinum. So the Excursions been sitting for about a month now. Starts right up beautifully. The truck runs so nice. It's just that one thing at Wot it Goes and Goes fast but a Lil lumpy and wild.
 
#4 ·
I don't think the odds are good, but its free to check and needs to be drained every 3000 miles.

I had a car where I got gas at a one certain station and until that gas was burned off, I had hesitation and sputtering when giving it throttle to go somewhere from a dead stop. That station was always 5 or 10 cents a gallon cheaper, and I believe they had water in the gas.

I don't have any experience with hesitation and sputtering with my truck, but what I put above is what I'd do to troubleshoot. Someone else should chime in soon.
 
#7 ·
So I changed the oil to Rotella t6 5w40. Motorcraft oil filter. Changed the fuel filter which was not motorcraft. It was black. Changed that, today I will do the water and fuel separator under the cab. Also threw in 2 bottles of revx to the mix.

I can feel a huge difference when I start up the vehicle, but occasionally when at cold start up it's a rough idle. I got a code of p2290, p0269, p0401, p0404, p0405, p0603, p132b.

It Runs very well once at operating temperature. Today I should be checking the Ficm for voltage.

Should I need a blue spring kit???
Is my #3 injector stuck or bad.

I cleared up all the code with the superchip and they haven't came back.


Only issue is it sounds and feel a like crep when cold start. No power. Once it's hot, that turbo spools up perfect with amazing power. And occasionally it will give me like a surge. Before the oil change it was worse. Now it does it way less.
 
#8 ·
My guess is the previous owner knew that it had atleast one injector going out so he put rev-x to cover it up. Do you have a sputter or bucking when you are in overdrive and give it some fuel?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#10 ·
1. I wouldn't worry about the codes until they come back....if they haven't been cleared for a while, they may be old codes.
2. If your gonna own a 6.0, you need a way to monitor it before anything else. Sct Livewire, Edge Insight or torque Pro App and the bluetooth adapter (cheapest route.
3. Running bad cold and no power is injector stiction...the Rev-x may/may not help. I ended up doing injectors.
4. I know you said the egr cooler was deleted but what about the egr valve? If its still in lace, it may be carboned up which will cause it to run ruff.
 
#11 ·
So today I ordered the Elm327 for torque pro to atkeast monitor my situation, and also measure my ficm voltage.

I also replaced the primary fuel filter. Which to my conclusion the prior fuel filter was not a motorcraft. It had rust deposits. And on one side of the filter 1/8 was clear. The rest was BLACK. And you could tell it wasn't doing it's water separation. It's now been about 300 miles on the synthetic oil and rev x. And everyday it seems to get easier on start up.


Guys I appreciate all these replies. It really helps me to get a 2nd opinion on my hypothesis. Lol.

I'm so bummed out that neither primary or secondary fuel filters were motorcraft.
 
#12 ·
Did you drain your water in fuel plug when you changed the filter? If not, i'd definitely do that. Did you change the secondary filter as well?

Also, you can check your FICMv with a multimeter pretty easily. Takes 10 minutes.

-jokester
 
#13 ·
I did change the water. It was rocky. Like rust deposit. Yes I changed both fuel filters and oil to motorcraft. The oil was a motorcraft, but the 2 fuel filters were not. They were black filters, that look squished inside the fuel filter resevoir. Cause they seemed weird. And filthty.
 
#14 ·
Could have been oem. If they are neglected they turn very dark color and get filthy quick. The filters are very fine and will pick up the smallest of debris. The primary filter should also have a cloth like material around it which helps to seperate the water.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#15 ·
This is a picture of an OEM fuel filter after 3k miles. I think I got some bad diesel.

Anyway, that brown crud got in my HFCM and was reducing the fuel pressure. I tried to clean the HFCM, but it didn't work, and fuel pressure went to 0.

I ended up having to switch the HFCM.

With this, the only reason I noticed a problem was when I monitored the fuel pressure gauge. Had I not had the ful pressure gauge, there were no performance or any change to the normal engine monitors on an Edge, so IMO this would have eventually starved the fuel injectors if I went to WOT. What I did notice is that on a 6 hour drive, my normally rick solid 52 PSI fuel pressure dropped to 30 under half throttle.

If your "dirty" filter looked like this, there are a few youtube videos and posts that tell you how to clean these deposits out of the HFCM. Thousands and Thousands of gallons has been through this pump. The 6.0 doesn't just pump diesel to the engine, it pumps it back also. Eventually the brown crud in the videos or a charcoal like deposit cakes in the HFCM.
 

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#16 ·
So yes. My filter was not like that. They were smooshed DOWN like if they were to long for the reservoir to hold. And it did not have the film. I notice now cold starts are a little easier.

But I did connect my torque app and got my Ficm voltage. I'm not sure If I'm doing something wrong but it reads 5.1 volts. Battery voltage driving is 14. 0v. And key in. 12.8. When cranking drops to 11.3v.

I tried adding custom pids. And it keeps crashing my obd2 adapter. These are the only sensors I was able to add and work.

I plan to get my ficm rebuilds in the next 2 weeks. I have not checked my alternagor. As it's brand new from ford. Previous owner said he used AutoZone or duralast and they were gone in 6 months. Not sure if theirs an issue there aswell. I did check both batteries. On cold they read 12.6-12.8.

I also plan to get the blue spring kit and banjos for more fuel.

In the picture my phone didn't pick up boost. It did before, I was boosting 20 lbs at around 3000 rpm. I try not go tooo much as I do not want to damage anything without fixing the injector issue I'm having.

I hope you guys can continue to help me. Thank you guys for all this knowledge.
 

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#17 ·
So I got a replacement obd2 adapter and I'm reading Ficm Voltage is stable 48.5. Seen it drop to 47.5 but when cold truck starts off at 48.5. Ordered the blue spring kit along with the 6.4 banjos and washers and got a hand loosen hcfm drain.

I'm debating weather to purchase some Arcoil or another bottle of revx to throw in. I get code for cylinder 3 contribution balance when cold. Once it's hot it does not throw codes. Is this severe stiction on injector #3.

I'm hoping that the blue spring will give it some more psi and hopefully bring it back alive.

I also ordered a ficm relay. Just to be sure. What else can I check in the meantime. I still have to pull the egr valve and see if it's clogged.

Below was a screenshot on my koeo.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you.
 

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