First off, I'm newer to this. I know the very elementary basics to this and I'm just learning mostly as I go along. Get ready for a long and interesting one. Thanks to anyone with the patience to check this whole thing out.


So, I bought a 2003 E350 Shuttle Bus for my bands touring needs. 150,000 miles, the body was built by Goshen Coach. Got the handicap lift, 7.3 (right before the 6.0...thank god) cruise control and still CDL. Really in awesome shape. No red flags just looking at it off the bat.

I bought it locally from a guy in Maryland (where im from) who had a failed business and his wife got sick (blah blah doesnt matter now, i lost the money anyway). But it HAD been sitting for 9 or ten months. So that had been addressed in all this. As well, the guy had the same problems listed and he said he had them addressed. It started fine, drove around flat ground and flat highway just fine as well. No reason to think the guy was burning me on this.

I go through alot of garbage buying it and making sure it works fine, I pick it up for us to head up to PA going up some larger mountains and very long, steep inclines then all the sudden the thing looses power.

I would be in the over-drive gear, it would drop into the passing gear and then it just starts shaking and loosing power. I throw it into 2nd, still barely makes it to the top so the point where it just comes to a halt. Shaking up a storm in the process.

Then we wait a good 20 minutes and it seems to be ok. Then it just happens over again. And over again, so we turn around. Going through the motions of going up and down hills the whole way back. Loosing the whole date and show in the process.

So I take it to a smaller repair shop and they go through the basics. Inspected the turbo, nothing wrong. Replace fuel filter, scan for codes, everything simple. They take it up for a ride, cant get anything to act strange.

I take it up a pretty gnarly hill, and wham. Thing throws an ICP sensor code at me.

They replace the ICP and throw some fuel cleaner in there to kill any plant algae that could have been in the tank sense it sat so long.

They test it for 60 miles or something crazy, and tell me its fine.

I take it on the same hill, wham-bam. Same thing again.

I take it back (I'm a thousand dollars in this already) and they said "screw it, well pay for it to go to a ford dealership".

Ford dealership says the ICP sensor was incorrect, so they throw the correct one in there. Flush out the whole gas tank. Then they tell the smaller shop that the PCM was the incorrect one for the truck and that the device needs to be flashed and reset with stock codes.

They go ahead and do that.

I pick it up again, I take it up the hill and what do you know. It does it again. But this time, at the apex of the hill, the thing is just hitting the rev-limiter and kurking out in that passing gear this time. We pull over after me having a talk on the phone with the guy and I notice white smoke pouring out of the pipe in the back.

I take it back after that weekend and we decide to take a technician with us so he can see whats up with it. But while on the way back to the dealership, the smoke stops. Leading me to believe the issue was just the thing burning too rich and just needing to be burnt off.

We take it up the legendary hill where all shuttle buses go to die and I get the thing to freak out on us for display. He determines that the PCM is just plain BAD and he believes it should just be replaced. It would be in 3rd gear and try to drop down to 2nd for more power and just loose it. So we agree to just wait for the new PCM and see what happens.

I call back after the weekend and they tell me "That didnt work. Honestly, were just wasting your time. I dont know what else this thing could be. You can take it to the hagerstown dealership and see whats up. Those guys are good."

They gave up on me and I had to come pick it up.

So my father and I decide to just play around with the thing and test the limits of what exactly its doing wrong specifically.


We took it around local roads and it was working fine as expected. The RPMS we noticed were actually pretty high. When we would just floor it in 1st and 2nd gear, we would notice in those higher RPMS in the lower gears, it would start smoking. And we hear the limiter kicking in while that issue would occur. THATS when the smoke would start kicking in. We would take it out for a longer spin and the smoke would burn off.

We thought...damn, well if this is doing this at high RPM, we should try getting one of those digital tuners and see if that helps it sense it makes the thing run in the lower RPMS (sense I kept reading that they perform better in those anyway). Maybe the guy was onto something with that PCM thing being replaced. Who knows.

I get the tuner, an Edge products Evolution CS (very easy and nice to work with by the way). And I load the Racing setting in...and holy crap. A bus should not be able to do that.

I made sure it wasnt stressing or working too hard, but I just wanted to make sure that it just wasnt put out of the factory geared low or just slower just for in-town-driving.

I never even bothered with extreme, that racing one was just too much as it is.

I decide to just make a modest change in power and take it down to "tow-haul". Supposedly adds 60 HP and 100 foot pound in torque.

So we take it out twards the hills and the thing does GREAT. Way better than before, keeping its power going up the hills. Steady, the rpms are constant, not trying to kill itself with RPM like the stock program was before.

Even up lager hills, it was fine!

But then I took it to the Gnarly hill. Were it met its match. It just started doing the same description I provided. Not as EASILY, but it did. Then on the way home, it got worse and worse going up hills on the highway. Even in the fancy sport mode, it just couldn't go up those damn hills. We watch the PSI gauge on the tuner while in 2nd gear and gave it the beans. It went all the way up to 12psi (which i presume is correct?). So that seems to be working ok. Took it in and out of over-drive and the thing still acts like a fool.

We started talking about the injectors and fuel pump acting up under true high stress situations being the issue.

But I'd like any points of view before I sadly make myself poor at the dealership at this point.

thanks for your time reading this!

 

I'm thinkin fuel supply. As you increase load, fuel demand obviously increases, and any restriction in the lines, weak pump or cracks that would allow you to suck air will make themselves known. I am leaning towards sucking air. is it just as bad with a full tank? there could be a crack or hole in the pick-up line inside the tank that is allowing it to suck air once the fuel level decreases.

 

I actually got it fixed, there is actually three fuel filters and only the first one got cleaned. Now it works just fine!

 

right theres the one on top of the motor in the fuel bowl, a screen on your electrip pump on the frame rail, and a screen in the tank.

but you say you got it fixed? good for you man, sorry you wasted all that $$$ at the shop.

 

wow what a bust, some jackass didnt do the job right the first time.. sorry man.