I bought an 06 F350 a few months ago and the fuel pump and regulator went out on it. Before that happened i was getting about 16mpg and since 13 and 14. What can i do to get the mpg's up. Thanks.

 

So it's been replaced with a new one or what? The pump is just the pump and the water separator as well as the fuel heater. It is regulated by a spring in the fuel bowl on top of the motor. I know if my factory fuel pump ever goes, I'm putting an Airdog 2 in it's place. It eliminates the entire setup on the frame and has an adjustable regulator built in. It will out-filter the stock setup and will keep the injectors with good clean, and air-less fuel, which is especially important when you start running hot tunes or big injectors. It wont hurt a stock truck at all either.

 

It was warranty work at the dealer that i bought from so it's probably the factory regulator they put on. I'm really new with this stuff so you are saying i can adjust something on the regulator that should help the mpg's?

 

6.0's run on about 55psi of fuel pressure. Sometimes when the pump gets weak, it can't keep that supply up and it will kill mileage and injectors. If you have a new one, probably not your issue. My guess is it may have been reflashed while at the dealer? Since it's under warranty, but that's just a guess. Usually that's what causes a truck with good mileage to go to crap.

There really isn't a "regulator" in the sense that you're thinking. Basically the stock pump pulls fuel from the tank, it goes through the HFCM (stock pump), then up to the fuel bowl on top of the motor (secondary filter is up there), and then feeds down to the front of the heads. Inside the fuel bowl there is a spring with a relief valve if you will. When pressure goes up and surpasses 55psi (supposed to be around there), it will pop open and bleed fuel back to the tank to relieve the pressure. Sometimes this spring gets weak and will crack open too early, causing low fuel pressure, which in turn causes crummy mileage, low power, and overall bad performance. This may also be something to look at. Gillette diesel makes an upgraded spring. I normally don't recommend buying this as I think it's a waste of money, BUT, in your case, if the stock spring is worn out, might as well use this one. GDS Fuel Spring

I personally don't like throwing money at the truck and just tossing parts on that I'm not sure are going to fix something or not. You should test fuel pressure to be sure that's what's going on. You can hook a gauge up on the fuel bowl. There are plugs in it or "test ports." Take the plug out, thread in a fuel pressure gauge, and check it out. That's just me. The spring is only $20 and isn't going to hurt anything if it doesn't cure your issue anyways, so that's up to you.

 

sorry just had one more question. What do you mean by reflashed?

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i was just wondering what you mean by reflashed

 

No problem man, ask as many questions as you want, that's what this place is for!

The PCM gets flashed with whatever parameters Ford wants to put on there. So each truck will have it's own "strategy." They change certain things with each reflash. My latest reflash has a feature that cycles the vanes on the turbo while it's idling, which is nice, to prevent the vanes from sticking, which is common. There's a lot to it, and is why the dealer takes care of it.

Doesn't mean it was reflashed, but it's possible. A lot of the earlier 03's got pretty good mileage (17-20), and some of the later flashes for whatever reason had some crummy mileage. I have an 06 truck and the best I've gotten was 15.3. This is an extended cab short bed auto 4x4. Pretty light truck. I've gotten as low as 13 too. This is empty. Towing, my milage actually doesn't change much at all.

 

thanks again for the help and i'm wondering also if getting the super chip that's advertised on this site will help alot and i'm planning on eliminating muffler and cat and going staight pipe. I got an extended warranty so if i need to take it in for work will the chip be detectable. I'm not planning on pulling any huge loads alot but through out summers my wife and kids go camping with quads and with our 22 foot camper will probably be around 15000lbs or so gross.

 

A chip can cause some problems with these engines. Personally I would not advise running a hot tune until you stud the heads, some tuners will let it push enough boost to blow the head gaskets, if there is a problem that is traceable to being caused by the programmer your warranty will not cover it. Unless you know of some shops that are on your side when it comes to warranty work, don't do anything to the truck that cannot be reversed, in the event of a big problem you want to be able to make that truck look 100% stock. If you do want a tuner, start talking to Ford shops, the shop out here installed my head studs, I had to fork out the $500 to buy the studs, but they installed them for free (usually a $2000 job) under warranty because they know that the factory head bolts are the #1 cause of failure in the 6.0L PSD. Best of luck with your new rig

 

Superchips is crapola.

SCT with custom tuning is the way to go. There are dozens of threads about why they are superior, just read around. I'd get a good towing tune personally. Eric @ Innovative Diesel makes the best tunes IMO.

Straight piping is a good idea, it will lower EGT's, let that thing breathe and sound awesome.

I've heard they're traceable if they look hard enough, but I've never heard of a single case of someone getting denied warranty as long as they've put it back to stock before bringing it in.

Also having Ford put your headstuds in is just delaying the inevitable. They will NEVER do this job right. Ford insists you can not deck the heads on these motors, so if one is out of spec, they will order a new one. Problem with that is, some of the new heads come in and they're out of spec.

I had my studs installed by a dealer and I was back in the shop with less than 10k miles with blown headgaskets again. It's not even so much the boost that blows the gaskets as it is the timing.

I do run hot tunes and I drive hard though.

The heaviest I have towed I grossed 17,100lbs and my truck is extended cab short bed so it's not the heaviest. I towed using Erics Aggressive tow tune, which is good for towing up and over 10,000lbs. Towed like a champ. When loaded that much, that is when the transmission tuning really shines. (No other programmers offer this transmission tuning).

 

thanks for the great info it's much appreciated. It's nice to know there is still people out there that like to help others. This site is awesome!