Hopefully you can give me some insight on what is wrong with my truck… The truck in question is the 2005 in my signature. I will give you all of the history I can think of, so please excuse the long winded post!

I installed my Quadzilla Adrenaline w/ PV2 in January and noticed that my lift pump was weak. A couple of months later, I upgraded the pump and lines to an AirDog 165. About a month after the AirDog went in, I lost my fuel level gauge. It slowly got to the point where I’m not showing any fuel at all. I am assuming this is due to the sending unit but I have yet to drop the tank to confirm.

About a month ago, I did the stupid and shut the truck off at a drive up window. The truck was still running due to the turbo timer and I just took off as normal without turning the key back to “on”… I idled through the parking lot and the truck finally dropped EGT temp enough to turn off the truck while driving. I realized what happened, put the trans in neutral and restarted the truck without turning the key to “off” first. I drove the truck for another couple of minutes and shut it down. While I was sitting with the keys out of the ignition, I noticed that my dash lights were on as if I had the key in the “ACC” position. After playing with the key in all positions (except “Start”) and seeing no change, I started the truck. The poor thing sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders and it wouldn’t shut down with the key. I pulled the air filter and killed the motor by blocking off the intake air and disconnected the battery. However, I did notice a little trail of smoke coming from the turbo area before it got shut down completely. I reconnected the batteries after 30 minutes or so and everything seemed normal.

It was after this that I thought I noticed a loss in power and it seemed to “bark” the turbo more often than before. I deducted that this was in my head at the time as the difference was slight but I wasn’t able to break the tires loose as easily as I had before. I adjusted the Adrenaline to where is felt strong down low again and I wasn’t getting as much “bark” but I could easily hit 1250* EGTs with an empty truck in less than a block. I figured I just had it set too hot and figured I would adjust it later.

This last weekend I pulled my trailer (10k lbs) on a 500 mile trip with some good, steep passes. Even on the flat it felt like I didn’t have the power I used to have. I had adjusted the Adrenaline back to stock parameters and was running it on level 2. As soon as I started hitting hills, I was topping out on EGT’s and needing to slow down and take it out of OD to pull the hills. This is very different than before! I ended up shutting the Adrenaline off completely and pulling the rest of the trip in stock tune.

After the trip, this is what I noticed: 1) I averaged 10 mpg(!). This is 5 – 10 mpg less than I usually see. Before this my worst tank was 14 mpg and that was racing. 2) I’m using a quart of oil between fill-ups. Up until now, the truck used maybe ¼ of a quart in 5000 miles. 3) The truck starts and idles like it always has. 4) Under heavy load with the trailer, it seemed to have a weird tick. Almost like an exhaust leak on a gasser. I can not get it to make the noise without the trailer and a steep hill. 5) During the trip, all the gauges seemed normal: It would boost up to 40 psi, rail pressure looked normal, temps normal, etc. 6) I have no check engine light.

Okay guys, I know that was long but I’m new to this diesel stuff and wanted to give you the most info possible. Where should I be looking? Help me get this thing fixed before I put a for sale sign in it. I’m officially fed up and have dumped too much money into this thing already…

 

to me. being pretty new to diesels too. it sounds as if somethings not right with your turbo. 1. higher egts. 2 loss of mileage. 3. weird tick noise. 4. peculiar loss of oil.

maybe. check for oil leakage around turbo. also and im just spit ballin here. you may check an see if your oil inlet into turbo is working to capacity???

it seems to me that your turbo is not working as it was before. either due to internal failure of some kind or (an this is why i suggested the above) not being lubricated properly which would cause more friction and effectivley loss of power/function under normal circumstances. as well as prolonged turbo damage.

if there are no turbo issuses. i hate to say it but it could be computer(ecm) related or even programmer related.

again this is newbie advice. haha someone feel free to correct me or let him (and me) know if you already know whats wrong. hope its nothing to serious and good luck bud

 

Well I'm 95% sure I blew up the turbo after trouble shooting with Vinny at Alligator. (Awesome guy, BTW.) I need to pull off the intake and charge pipe to see for sure. Guess I need to scare up some money for a turbo upgrade.

 

Could you have let something into the turbo as you pulled the air filter assembly when you suffocated the truck?

Did you use a rag or something that may have had loose pieces when choking out the engine?

It seems like that is when everything went south for you.

 

I just used my hands to suffocate the truck. And the air filter was only off for seconds before it happend...

 

Check you engine oil and make sure it's not way over full. It's a sign you got really bad injectors. Also, need to check for codes. Even though the CEL isn't on, there are probably a few codes stored in the ECM.

 

The engine oil is not over full... I'm using a quart of oil every 300 miles!

 

K. See what codes are stored.

 

Sounds like intercooler and Injector issues. If the turbo is still pushing good boost, I wouldn't spend too much time on it. If the batteries were disconnected for 30 minutes, that might have cleared some codes. The egt's suggest inadequate airflow, and the power loss sounds like weak injectors- opening too soon.

 

Could there be a problem with the wastgate controller? Im having issues with boost too. Im showing plenty of boost but my milage went down and when the turbo spools up i dont feel the increase in power anymore. Someone said that the wastgate controler might not be letting the wastgate close all the way.