6.0 lack of power, white smoke/steam, hesitent on start and now no start...HELP!!!

[03F350Guy]

I have a 2003 6.0 and the trouble bug has bit me/the truck. Last wednesday my brother took my truck to Galveston which is about 75 miles away from my house. The truck was operating fine until he started the truck up to head home thursday around noon. The engine seemed to hesitate a bit and the rpms were a little jumpy for about 5-10 seconds. He then noticed while driving that from a stop/start there was a lack of power or as he said "it seemed to not shift out of 2nd gear." He said he would let go of the gas pedal then press it again and it would shift and drive fine. The whole drive back is pretty much highway driving and once he got on the highway it drove perfectly fine with no problems. Once he got to the suburbs/hit stops the truck worked fine with no problems as well. He dropped the truck off and it sat for about an hour. It started up fine and it drove fine for me, so i was unable to see a problem with the truck. I ended up driving it to the houston rodeo which was about 25 miles away and still no problems. The truck sat parked for about 6 hours and when i came back to it, it started up fine and drove perfectly fine. The next morning (friday) after sitting for about 8 hours i went to start it up and experienced the hesitation upon start up/jumpy rpms as if it wanted to die but it kept running. This lasted for about 15 seconds and started idling fine. Immediately upon driving the truck i noticed no power/acceleration, and when pushing the gas pedal white smoke/steam would come from the exhaust. This problem continued the whole way to work (about 8 miles) and would only be an issue getting it going from a stop or when i would accelerate, or try to anyways. The truck sat parked for about 8-9 hours then when i cranked it to go home it had the same hesitation problem and sounded very sick while running like it wanted to die. Since I work at a car dealership i decided to leave it there to get it looked at monday. Today when the technician went to crank the truck up it was only cranking, seemed like it wanted to start but would not start. The technician took a fuel sample and found there was nothing wrong with the diesel in the tank, but was unable to do further testing. He mentioned possibly a fuel pump, injectors, crud in the tank (problem with the fuel system). Does anyone have any suggestions, or has anyone heard of this happening before? Just trying to decide if ill be towing the truck to my house for repairs or to a shop for repairs.

I bought the truck in later 2009 with about 100,000 miles it now has 120,000 i am unsure when the fuel filters or fuel injectors were changed. It had an EGR cooler and oil cooler change 3,000-4,000 miles ago (6 months ago).

Thank you

[PSDMikeB]

Are you loosing any coolant? Have you scanned for codes? Do you monitor the EOT/ECT delta?

I would think the first thing to check is the FICM. Do a search and you will find the procedure (check it cold at three points: KOEO, cranking, and running). Also be sure you batteries are healthy - get them load tested (individually, not as a pair). Weak batteries can hurt the FICM. A weak FICM can kill injectors. Gets expensive fast.

Also you should change your fuel filters ASAP. They should be changed every year or 10K miles or so. Should also be draining water from the HFCM regularly.

MikeB

[2 stroker]

Check the degasing tank if it is low on coolant then when cold nose down hill some pull the egr valve to see if it is damp or wet if it is your egr cooler may be toast has the Ford Gold junk coolant ever be changed or had a flush need to change the fuel filters Ford or Racor only how many miles on the oil and filter max 5k must be Ford and these motor like a 5w40 Syn oil.
2 stroker