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Failing Injectors Cause Low FICM Voltage?

8K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  baldguy2001 
#1 ·
Hey guys. I have a 1.5 year old Swamps 58V FICM in my truck. For the past couple months this FICM has been tuned with the Atlas 40 tune from PHP. In the last few weeks we have gotten colder temperatures where I live and when I fire my truck up it romps pretty bad and lots of white smoke. Also after letting the truck warm up a bit and driving off it is really sluggish and as the RPM's come up I get some odd chatter noise from the engine that sounds like the injectors. Also my FICM volts in the morning has been dropping down to 40.5V on my CTS...I have not checked the voltage at the FICM itself and since my CTS only reads a max of 48V I am not sure what the actual voltage is at the FICM. I spoke with Swamps and they say multiply my CTS reading by 1.22 to get an approximate reading of the actual FICM voltage. So assuming this is correct 40.5 X 1.22 = 49.41 volts at the FICM. I bought this FICM from a very reputable diesel shop local to me so today I went buy the shop hoping to talk to the owner who I personally bought the FICM from unfortunately he was not there. One of his mechanics came out with the IDS program to check my FICM voltage and then looks at me and says my FICM is fine. I tell him I only have issues when the truck is cold and now my truck is warm so of course my FICM voltage is reading good. He then looks at me and says coldness doesnt affect my FICM voltage and if my FICM was failing it would show when warm just as much as cold. He then tells me my low FICM voltage is a result of one or more failing injectors and I should leave the truck with him so he can check it cold and find out which injectors are failing. I am just wondering what your guys input on all this is because what the mechanic has told me goes against everything I thought I knew about my FICM.
 
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#2 ·
I personally wouldnt correlate the two. Im almost sure I have some tired injectors and my ficm V reads solid every morning whether 10° or 30°. Probably just your ficm failing, imo. Sucks when you go to a diesel shop and they tell you something that contradicts what you've learned here from other techs. It's like, either you're the idiot or I am, lol.
 
#3 ·
mine always reads the same volts...my ford read 48.5 before i installed the BPD which reads 48.0 no matter how cold its outside or how cold the truck is...sounds like a bad FICM...did u talk to swamps to see if they could warranty it?
 
#4 ·
Hey guys. I have a 1.5 year old Swamps 58V FICM in my truck. For the past couple months this FICM has been tuned with the Atlas 40 tune from PHP. In the last few weeks we have gotten colder temperatures where I live and when I fire my truck up it romps pretty bad and lots of white smoke. Also after letting the truck warm up a bit and driving off it is really sluggish and as the RPM's come up I get some odd chatter noise from the engine that sounds like the injectors. Also my FICM volts in the morning has been dropping down to 40.5V on my CTS...I have not checked the voltage at the FICM itself and since my CTS only reads a max of 48V I am not sure what the actual voltage is at the FICM. I spoke with Swamps and they say multiply my CTS reading by 1.22 to get an approximate reading of the actual FICM voltage. So assuming this is correct 40.5 X 1.22 = 49.41 volts at the FICM. I bought this FICM from a very reputable diesel shop local to me so today I went buy the shop hoping to talk to the owner who I personally bought the FICM from unfortunately he was not there. One of his mechanics came out with the IDS program to check my FICM voltage and then looks at me and says my FICM is fine. I tell him I only have issues when the truck is cold and now my truck is warm so of course my FICM voltage is reading good. He then looks at me and says coldness doesnt affect my FICM voltage and if my FICM was failing it would show when warm just as much as cold.
WRONG.
He then tells me my low FICM voltage is a result of one or more failing injectors and I should leave the truck with him so he can check it cold and find out which injectors are failing. I am just wondering what your guys input on all this is because what the mechanic has told me goes against everything I thought I knew about my FICM.
A direct quote from Swamps website: (link: http://www.swampsdiesel.com/site/how_to_pdf/pdf/FICMvoltageTest.pdf)

FICM voltage tests should be performed with the engine oil COLD (ie, close
to ambient air temperature). This will force the FICM into it's inductive
heating strategy, which will give you a worse case scenario/voltage reading.
If the engine has been run (within 5-6 hours of this test), then the warm
engine oil may not give you an accurate FICM voltage.
A failed FICM can harm injectors by delivering low voltage to them.
I don't see where a failed injector could hurt the FICM, unless it had an internal short or something along those lines.
 
#6 ·
Thanks you guys everything you have told me is what I thought was true. I personally bought the FICM from the owner of this shop and installed it myself. I also have only ever dealt with the owner of the shop. I am going to give him a call tomorrow and see if I can talk to him instead of one of his mechanics. I will also contact Swamps and see what they say. my question to them will be whether my 58V Ficm falling to 49V is considered a failing Ficm since 49V isnt bad.
 
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