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Diesel exhaust smell in cab.

17K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  dannyboy950 
#1 ·
Hey Everyone,

I have a 2003 f250 6.0L Lariat with 128k miles on it. Recently with the cold weather I have been going out in the morning about 10 min before I leave for work and start it up, put the defroster on the get the ice off the windsheild, normal stuff. When I get back in the truck after its heated up it smells pretty strongly of diesel (I am pretty sure its an exhaust smell, but not 100%). So naturally I got on the forums for some answers. I am having a bit of trouble though determining what the issue may be.

Because I think it smells like what I believe to be an exhaust smell (pretty new to the diesels) I decided I would take a look at the back of the firewall for soot and around the turbo. From what I can tell theres nothing substantial there, just the normal dust and dirt build up that occurs. I ran my finger along the firewall and got a light black/brown dirt on my finger, but running my finger across the top of the grille put more dirt on my finger than the firewall. The firewall directly behind where the y pipe meets the turbo looked similar to the firewall behind the coolant resevoir. I also have inspected this area in the morning when starting the truck and I dont see any smoke, I would expect that I could if exhaust was leaking on a cold morning. I also dont really feel like the truck is lacking power at all, so I personally am rulling out an exhaust leak, please let me know if you know of anything else I can do to confirm this?

So I have moved on to perhaps there being leaking fuel. I know I have heard that the fuel pressure regulator is a common problem so I thought I would take a look. A visual inspection shows no leak, I dont see any fuel dripping out of it, and it doesnt look like the component is wet, there is no extra build up of dirt around it, just dry looking normal amount of dust. Also feeling around the bottom of the FPR feels dry (although with fuel evaporating quickly and a hot engine right below it I suppose this could dry up). I was thinking about changing the FPR just so I can get the newer blue spring in there and replace that keyhole gasket just for the heck of it and hope that it fixes the issue of the smell, but I am not sure that I like the idea of just throwing parts at the truck and hope they remedy the problem. Thoughts?

If you have any thoughts on this they would be appreciated. Please keep in mind that I am new to this truck and any suggestion, while greatly appreciated, would be improved by giving me a general location where the item can be found or any specific faults to look for.

On a differnet note, does anyone have a link for the 6.0 Bible, the one link on this site I have found never opens for me...
 
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#2 ·
Climb under your truck and look up at the up-pipes attached to the exhaust manifolds. The bellows (flex joint) is a common place to get an exhaust leak.

I can't get the 6.0 Bible to come up any more either!

But here is one to try: Powerstroke 6.0L Technical Intro Manual

:)
 
#4 ·
So I went outside again to warm up the truck this morning. After turning it on I opened the hood and looked for fumes in the cold morning air. Still didnt see anything at first, but I could definitely smell it.

I brought a small flashlight and turned it on and shined the light in the engine bay. Although I couldnt see fumes in the morning light, they showed up in the light of the flashlight. They seemed to be heaviest over on the passenger side so I took another look and saw connection between the turbo and the exhaust looked like it had some soot on it.



So now I am thinking I should clean this up, tighten up the clamp and see what happens. Does anyone know if I should remove this, replace any gaskets or anything? Thanks
 

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#5 ·
If that flange is misalligned tightening the clamp won't help you can't draw the flanges together. You will need to remove the clamp and loosen the turbo mounting bolts and jiggle the turbo untill the flanges are flush the reinstall everuthing bolts & clamp.
 
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