Stumbling issue...

[CamTom12]

Right now I'm having a bit of a problem with my Powerstroke... I've got a rough-ish idle and a surge from ~1300-1800 under light load. I have checked my harnesses under the valve covers so far. They were a little loose but not too bad so I pushed them in tighter and buttoned it all back up. Haven't checked fuel pressure yet and Ford wants $140 to do a buzz test and a contribution test. Oil is recently changed with 12qts Rotella T and 2qts Lucas oil additive. Fuel filter was changed about 5k miles ago. Truck was scanned at Autozone yesterday with no codes. It's really wierd because it only does it when its warm.

Also, all I've done to the truck is disconnect my wastegate and cut the muffler off (3" piece of straight pipe in it's place) and it recently started blowing black smoke on hard acceleration. It used to not smoke at all even after the mods, just like a stock tuned truck, but now at WOT I'm leaving black smoke from ~2500rpm on up to redline. Maybe it's an injector? I sure hope not though, that's a lotta dough!

My next steps are to check fuel pressure at idle and under load (need to buy a gauge), then I need to find someone that won't charge an arm and a leg for the electrical tests (any tips on where to look? I live near Nashville). Anything else I can check out to troubleshoot this problem?

I've got a buddy that's a big diesel guy and he told me to start checking sensors, like TPS and crank position and all that. Where do those sensors live? I figure it's not too expensive (maybe?) to replace some sensors.

[CamTom12]

Ok, scratch that, it's doing it warm and cold... I guess I just never noticed it before when it was cold.

On another note, my batteries all of a sudden won't hold a charge... I figure it's coincidence but that it might be worth noting if it might be related...

[Ditty]

Your surge problem is normal. The Whoosh whoosh whoosh sound from the turbo.

The other stuff....I dunno!

[CamTom12]

Turbo surge? I thought that only happened under load? And I don't get any whoosh-whoosh-whoosh when it happens, just a little hesitation/surge. Also, it's been getting worse lately

[Tim99ws6]

Just a thought, but could it be the turbo itself having problems? maybe not spooling freely? maybe something is at fault with the wheel?

[Ditty]

Ohh...THAT type of surge. I have NO idea then

[jfines@cox.net]

Well if you lived near me, I would say come on over and we could hook her up to the good ol snap-on scanner. My scanner does everything.

As for the problems, I have no clue. I've never delt with that before.

[Tim99ws6]

Actually, Cam, Randy@pewitt's has a snap-on, as well as Tec-II and all that. You might wanna see if he could scan it for you.

[CamTom12]

Yeah, I'll give him a call and see if he'll charge me for that. Thanks, Tim!

Also, I noticed my battery's not holding a charge anymore, which kinda came out of nowhere... What would the symptoms be if the glow-plug control was on and powering the glow-plugs all the time? And is that on a switched power source?

I noticed today that she feels really sluggish now...

[CamTom12]

OK, not sure if its the batteries not holding or them being drained HARD when I turn the key to run. I tried it once the last time I started her up and watched the needle fall down to ~10, didn't rise again when WTS light went out, then cylcled the key off and on again to see if it'd do it again and the volts went to red on the ~8 side...

Maybe a glow-plug issue?