6 oh blues

Well I guess my luck has run out. The 6.0 in the SD is giving me it's first trouble since I bought it 4 years ago. Got in it to go to Lowes sat morning and it was idling rough. Turned around to go back home and it got worse. Guess the engine went into default. Would barely pull it's self from a stop.
Got in it last night to try to take it to the shop I use and WOW it ran perfect for a few minutes, but it did it again. By the time I got it to the shop it was running rough again.

SUCKS!!!!!

sounds like the FICM took a shit....................very common. Or it could have an injector issue, I've seen clogged fuel filters starve the injectors and it takes the return spring out in the tip allowing combustion gas to get into the fuel system and do as you describe.

Its been a really good truck so far. Hope its a easy fix.

easy yes, cheap.......................depends what you consider cheap. You pop the hood for any reason and its 500 bucks...............

Like I said........SUCKS ASS.
Got race car parts to buy, not truck parts. LOL!!

[quote="scottke"]Like I said........SUCKS ASS.


exactly, thats why I drive an old pos 99 lol.

7.3 is sounding good right now.
Guess I'll just hope for the best.

anything I can help with let me know.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

If you have a multimeter, you can test it yourself in a few minutes. Unbolt the degas tank and move it to the side, take the 2 torx screws out of the plate on top of the ficm, remove it and test the voltage at the screw closest to the drives side fender. (This is assuming you have a 4 screw ficm, not a 7) Test it koeo, cranking, and running. It should be between 46 48 volts. If it's toast, you can have it repaired for about 300 bucks compared to being charged over 1000 at a dealership for a new one. Ed at FICMrepair.com can do them in a day.
Also could be the egr valve sticking, not hard to pull it out and have a look/clean it, although if it's sticking it should set a code. Not trying to undermine Jon here, just some simple(free) stuff you could try first.

Lookin like good news. Shop says looks like some trash in the fuel. Been drivin it and is only idling a little rough. Says runs fine on the road.

How did they figure this out and what repairs made? I have my doubts this was all that was wrong or that its completely fixed........ Keep an eye on it.

Left the shop with it and it still ran like shit. Stopped to put more good fuel in it. Headed for home and kept running rough, finally just died. Wouldn't restart, sat for about 5 minutes then it fired right up and ran 95% better. Got to the house with no problem. Just a hint of a rough idle....??????????????????????

its not fixed..............if the lower fuel filter was plugged bad enough it starved the injs for fuel you have a broke return spring in an injector................or the fuel filter cap on the pump was not fully seated, look and make sure there is no gap between the filter cap and the housing. If its fully seated, the next time it quits running shut the key off and pull it from the ign, then go take the small filter loose from the front of the engine..........if that housing is not full of fuel an injector is damaged as I described. If its full then you could have a FICM voltage issue, in which we replace with half shell's due to the lesser cost to the customer..unless its an 03 that has the 7 bolt units, they have to have the whole thing replaced and reprogrammed.

Not slammin the shop but "junk in the fuel" short of gasoline or water contamination is no reason for it to run like you describe. I get them towed in all the time from other shops that have no clue.


side not, if there is black smoke coming from the tailpipe its usually FICM related, white smoke can be egr or a broked injector tip return spring broken as I described.

There is black smoke comin out, but mainly justwhen I shower down on it.

if its chipped up that could make the black smoke, I have just noticed when the FICM voltage gets low enough to make the truck run bad they will also create black smoke.

I saw in the other thread you had the truck back in the shop, any updates?

Not working on it till tomorrow. Hoping for the best. LOL
His snap-on scan tool showed #5 injector bad.

Voltage on the FICM was 48.

Gotter back Friday! #5 injector had a cracked tip.

Running great once again!

Going to the Bend next Sat. to finally do some testing! whoooohoooo!!

scottke wrote:Gotter back Friday! #5 injector had a cracked tip.

Running great once again!

keep them fuel filters changed every 20k.............

For sure. Thanks for the input!

scottke wrote:For sure. Thanks for the input!

Fwiw I change both and every oil change on my 2006. Overkill I suppose but I ain't taking no chances

I take off 2 days and come back to a pile of broke 6.0's....................life is good.