'04 6.0 hard start, low oil pressure?

[II_Slow]

Hoping for a quick response before I leave work today. My 04 6.0 has been running poorly for quite while, but this week has developed a hard start issue. Right before I parked it this morning to hop th van pool to work - the "check gages" light came on, and I saw the oil pressure dip low on the factory gauge so I shut it off immediately. I'm sure I'm delinquent on my oil change, and it has not historically used or lost oil, but can the hard start be a result of low oil level? I know the oil coolers have issues, but do the actually leak oil into the coolant or intake? Obvioulsy I will check the oil level. Anything else I should look for (oil in reservoir, etc?). I read somewhere it has to achieve 500psi of HP oil pressure before it enables the injectors, right?? If it's not low oil level, what else would cause the dip in pressure?

[fenkell]

possible high pressure oil pump

[II_Slow]

It was low HP oil pressure. In the shop now. Getting new HPOP and regulator, new EGR cooler and up-pipe, and new LP oil sending unit - all for for $1550 including labor. Got a buddy in the business - sounds like a good deal to me!
The gauge on the dash would occasionally drop to zero but he say's that is a common failure and unrelated.

[BeXtreme04]

The gauge is a switch either on or off.... It reads low pressure oil only... If your gauge suddenly plummeted then your low pressure oil switch either went bador has a bad connection, you have really low oil level, or the low pressure oil pump failed. Your poor running might not have anything to do with the low pressure gauge problem... What are your ficm voltages and icp desired and actual?


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app

[II_Slow]

He said the low oil pressure was fine - and said what you said about the gauge (more like an idiot light, reads mid scale or zero). He said the HP oil pressure was very low and that's not an unusual issue for a 8 year old truck w/ 150k miles and does account for the hard starting (turns over a LONG time before firing). The pressure only dropped a couple of times on the gauge and the engine kept running so it looks like a false fail. I had a similar issue with the cable a couple of years ago - may be the same thing again. It's had an exhaust/boot leak on the up-pipe since I ded the EGR delete 2 years ago, and he's fixing as well. Hopefully the marginal HPOP will explain the rough part-throttle performance, but he want to see good HPOP before worrying too much about that. The engine itself seems to be fine, and it's a shame to have such a nice truck running so poorly. Hopefully she'll run great again and I'll be happy with the PowerStroke. Right now, I sure miss my Cummins. '94 12-Valve - so simple and ran flawlessly (now totaled by my 16 y.o son!).
Oh year, injector voltage was 47V at the FCIM. What is the ICP???