Installed fuel pressure gauge.....now truck wont run right

[Tampa450]

So I got new Isspro gauges......and they look sharp...... but now I have a miss (rough idle low power)

2002 F250 basically stock- NO chip

I did a cc test with my scangauge and it gave me a P0284 code.

Cylinder 8 contribution/balance fault Power cylinder, valve train or injector problem, circuit

I tried a buzz test and it sounded right, but scangauge said "cannot complete test"

Im very close to 200,000 miles on what I believe are the stock injectors (I got the truck with 120,000)
I was hoping to make it to 250,000!!

Before we messed with the truck to install the gauge, the truck was running great though.
It started nice and ran strong/ idled smooth right away even on cold mornings.
Now after the gauge install....it idles obviously rough and is very low on power....

Is it possible the injector just went bad? and THAT bad?
I had to get fuel injectors replaced in my 550 before and I could gradually feel the truck getting worse, not isntantly like this. The 550 would run bad cold, then warm up and run better, when it had bad injectors too....

I searched and found someone who had the same problem and a black cps fixed it... (I have the grey recall one)
Im not holding my breath on that one though....

I have a friend with a snap-on scanner........ How can we determine if it really is the injector or something else?

[Marv]

Shawn, just to clarify, you installed your gauge on the V3 manifold correct? Just wanted to make sure you didn't install it somewhere else on the fuel system.

Could it be air in the system? At first thought, I would think that if you installed it on the manifold, not enough air could enter the system to give you any issues. I do know however that my truck ran rough for a while right after the V3 installed - of course I had the plugs out of the heads for that. After a little driving it cleared up and I could only attribute it to the air finally getting worked out of the system.

I would find it very coincidental that your injectors would go bad at the *exact* same time you installed your gauges, but I guess it could happen.

I'll admit though, I only know a little about the 6.0 and even less on the 7.3, so I'm sure I'll be little help. However, maybe some of the more experienced 7.3 guys will step in here shortly.

Good luck man!

[greasyX]

Let us not forget #8 is the injector that should have the longlead injector,due to fuel starvation,if this is the issue you will notice more on #2 then WVO as the V3 compensates (somewhat) ffor the inerent flaw in design.Last time I looked jason sells a fix for that issue(crossover rail design).Let me know if that helps,well back to work.................

[Tampa450]

Yes installed on the v3

Marv-
I drove the truck a good bit...to try to work any air out.....and purged it a few times.... Plus now Im getting the code... So I dont think its air.

Thanks, though....I appreciate any/all suggestions

[Tampa450]

Let us not forget #8 is the injector that should have the longlead injector,due to fuel starvation,if this is the issue you will notice more on #2 then WVO as the V3 compensates (somewhat) ffor the inerent flaw in design.Last time I looked jason sells a fix for that issue(crossover rail design).Let me know if that helps,well back to work.................

From what I understand...installing the V3 gets rid of the dead head situation on #2 and veg already.

Switching to oil doesnt affect the way its running AT ALL....
My Donaldson is on its way out, so when I switched over - fuel pressure actually dropped and stabilized at around 55
On #2 its not stable and bounces anywhere from around 50-80

well back to work.................

Does that mean that your job is ?

[greasyX]

yup,part time job,two days a week..................sunday and monday.......greasy

[Clay]

I would bet its a coincidence and the injector just bit the dust with 200k miles on it.

[skyskijason]

I vote coincidence also. Get a buzz test and contribution test done. Air not likely an issue - every time you purge, all air is eliminated.

Sounds like a great oppurtunity for UPGRADE!

Give Swamps a call and get yourself some nice single-shots. Better atomization = more power and better mpg's w/o needing more HPO. Ya can't go wrong!

You can DIY (8) injectors yourself for just a little more than stealership will charge ya for (2) stockers. Not a bad job either...

[Marv]

I would bet its a coincidence and the injector just bit the dust with 200k miles on it.

What a crappy coincidence...lol.

[Jack_Toepfer]

Coincidence is a tough sell for me.

Did you use thread dope or tape on the gauge solenoid? (Just a possibility that this may have slipped through any and all "cracks" and gotten to an injector.

In your first post you also said "gauges" meaning that you probably installed an EGT, TRANS, BOOST or some other type of additional gauges. If that is the case I wouldn't be so quick to single out the FUEL/OIL PRESS gauge. Drilling for an EGT could put debris in the exhaust, which wouldn't necessarily cause an injector problem but it could result in loss of power or loss of a turbo.

Placement and proper connection of a boost gauge could also result in loss of power as well as funky codes on a scan reader.

Trans temp wouldn't play as large of a role as far as troubleshooting rough operation... unless it boiled down to a bad electrical connection.

My point being, coincedence is a last resort. If your scanner and your buzz test are not giving you the same result or are erroring out before the test is complete, keep advancing in that direction before you throw thousands of dollars at the problem. Not that you wouldn't love new injectors... you just may not need them.

I was also under the impression that just installing the V3 eliminated the "dead head" portion of the fuel system. The crossover would eliminate it while on #2, but doesn't the V3 feed the fuel to #8 first? Resulting in "lower" flow to, say, #1? Essentially just reversing the direction of fuel flow from #2 to VO. Thats why we're unplugging the heads and sending VO in the back door.

Shawn - I say check and double check that the injector is absolutely the problem before you throw money at hardware. Maybe spend some of that money at a diesel shop to verify that the injector is bad. They may credit that labor $$ toward a future purchase if it boils down to that.

[Tampa450]

Give Swamps a call and get yourself some nice single-shots. Better atomization = more power and better mpg's w/o needing more HPO. Ya can't go wrong!

Thats actually EXACTLY what I wanted to do ......at 250,000 though!

Coincidence is a tough sell for me.

Did you use thread dope or tape on the gauge solenoid? (Just a possibility that this may have slipped through any and all "cracks" and gotten to an injector.

In your first post you also said "gauges" meaning that you probably installed an EGT, TRANS, BOOST or some other type of additional gauges. If that is the case I wouldn't be so quick to single out the FUEL/OIL PRESS gauge. Drilling for an EGT could put debris in the exhaust, which wouldn't necessarily cause an injector problem but it could result in loss of power or loss of a turbo.

Placement and proper connection of a boost gauge could also result in loss of power as well as funky codes on a scan reader.

Trans temp wouldn't play as large of a role as far as troubleshooting rough operation... unless it boiled down to a bad electrical connection.

My point being, coincedence is a last resort. If your scanner and your buzz test are not giving you the same result or are erroring out before the test is complete, keep advancing in that direction before you throw thousands of dollars at the problem. Not that you wouldn't love new injectors... you just may not need them.

I was also under the impression that just installing the V3 eliminated the "dead head" portion of the fuel system. The crossover would eliminate it while on #2, but doesn't the V3 feed the fuel to #8 first? Resulting in "lower" flow to, say, #1? Essentially just reversing the direction of fuel flow from #2 to VO. Thats why we're unplugging the heads and sending VO in the back door.

Shawn - I say check and double check that the injector is absolutely the problem before you throw money at hardware. Maybe spend some of that money at a diesel shop to verify that the injector is bad. They may credit that labor $$ toward a future purchase if it boils down to that.

- We used teflon tape on the threads of the fuel pressure gauge, I thought about that possibility too, seems remote, but I'd by lyin if I didnt tell you Ive been thinking about it as a possibility.

- The gauges installed were
1- A new Fuel Level gauge for the veg.....Replacement to match the rest.
It uses the same wiring for the stock v3 gauge but just hooks up to the pigtail type hookup that ISSPRO uses a little different. This gauge seems to be working fine and I dont see it causing this.....

2- An Oil Temp gauge that I was gonna use to monitor to temp of my veg oil.
(I kno not necessary..but hey, its a 3 gauge pod!)
This one has a little story.....We tried to just tap into the temp sending unit installed on the V3, and run that to the gauge. Since I had issues we disconnected this gauge and as of right now, its not hooked up. (I can worry about that later)

3- The Fuel Pressure Gauge...Ok heres the story on this..... I (as in "me" Shawn) looked up at the V3 and saw what LOOKED like a schrader valve but was really the Fuel Pressure regulator on the V3 (Allen w/ the locknut) So we unscrewed that whole thing from the v3 and started trying to find an adapter to get the sender in there. I guess luckily we couldnt find anything, because I came onto the site here and found a pic of where the REAL schrader valve was..... . So we put the regulator back in the V3 and hooked up the gauge in the right spot...... I told Jason on the phone what we did with the regulator and all, and he told me how to "set" it close to where it should be (how many turns on the allen)

So there's the gauge saga.....

Swamps injectors would be awful nice.....but awful expensive...especially right now.

My friend with the snap-on scanner is sick, so we havent been able to see what it says yet.... It'll tell us more than my scangauge...

[Jack_Toepfer]

Sucks about the pres.reg. I'll be thinking about this tonight.

[VTVegiPower]

Unfortunately I am experiencing similar issues with an '03 6.0. Been running V3 for over a month now, not many miles, maybe 1000 on VO. All of a sudden last week truck started to run terrible..skipping at idle and WOT...no power at all...had to put it in 4lo to drive it into the garage. Scanned it with superchips and got a bunch of codes.

P02631 contribution/balance fault on cylinders 1,2,and 5
P0305 Fault cylinder F: Misfire detected cylinder 5
P0603 internal ctrl mod Kam error
U0105 lost comm. with fuel injector ctrl module

We cleared the codes, changed the fuel filters (even though they were near new), fired it up again and ran it around a little bit with the same performance results. Hooked up the superchips again and got

P02631 contribution/balance fault on cylinder 5
and more time needed to complete checks

Just took it to a shop down the road (not a diesel tech by any means) and his scanner is telling him that injectors 1 and 2 are dead.

This truck has only ~72,000miles on it so it just doesn't seem really likely that it would be injectors. I'm trying to narrow down some possibilities before throwing injectors at it. Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

[Marv]

3- The Fuel Pressure Gauge...Ok heres the story on this..... I (as in "me" Shawn) looked up at the V3 and saw what LOOKED like a schrader valve but was really the Fuel Pressure regulator on the V3 (Allen w/ the locknut) So we unscrewed that whole thing from the v3 and started trying to find an adapter to get the sender in there. I guess luckily we couldnt find anything, because I came onto the site here and found a pic of where the REAL schrader valve was..... . So we put the regulator back in the V3 and hooked up the gauge in the right spot...... I told Jason on the phone what we did with the regulator and all, and he told me how to "set" it close to where it should be (how many turns on the allen)

Tampa, just as a note, having the pressure regulator out shouldn't hurt anything as long as you reinstalled it and set it correctly.

I pulled mine out a while back to clean it and it worked fine once I got back together.

Not exactly sure you were saying you were worried about pulling that out, but thought I'd share that it shouldn't hurt anything.

[Jack_Toepfer]

'03 6.0

Found your problem.


I really feel for you 6.0 guys. I've never heard of another single engine with as many problems that constantly show their face and cost as much to fix. The guy who just bought the cap for his truck from me said he went through 3 turbos and 2 sets of injectors while he was under warranty. Now that he isn't... he wants to get rid of the truck.