Help 04 6.0 Diesel broke 180 miles from home
 

Help! Truck is 180 miles from home. I have had a few problems the dealer can't find, now it's not drivable and out of town.
Past problems: left work 1/2 mile all gauges went to zero throttle pedal no responce glow plug light came on. Wiggled key took off normal. Another 1/2 mile did it again and fixed itself, but was missing some. Got on highway and hammered it up to 70 finally straightened out. Changed oil, fuel filters and batterys (got a deal on Optmas). Took it to the dealer and had it reprogrammed (it had been 4 years since it had been done). Mechanic didn't see any history codes to explain my problems.
It has had a slight miss-bucking on accel 2 or 3 times since.
New problem: 100 mile into my trip I heard a banging or loud pop on the drivers side, sounded like shock or sway bar bushings were totally gone. It did this 5 or 6 times, but the road was smooth so it shouldn't be suspension noise. About 70 miles later the Tach needle starts bouncing up and down 300-500 RPM. At the same time engine starts to miss and lose power. I made it the last 10 miles with it bucking and missing.
After it cooled down I started it and it had a erratic idle then smoothed out. If I revved it up it would start missing. At one point a big cloud of blue smoke came out of the left side of the engine. I got someone to rev engine while I was on top and under engine, I couldn't pin point where it was comming from. The only place that I saw something was near the rear of the left head.
Any ideas?

Really need to get it hooked to a scanner, and get someone who knows how to use it to do some diagnostics on it.

Call Doug @ GoGo diesel in the morning, I bet he will give you some ideas as to what is wrong.

Thanks for the reply.

How many miles are on this truck and do you have any mods done to it? Sounds like an electrical issue to me (like a loose connection somewhere, or possibly even some chaffed wiring..)

73K. No cat. Rotella 15-40 changed 5-6K. Fuel filters max ever other oil change. New batts before old ones croaked. Antifreeze flushed last year. Cetane boost since 49K. Ford filters used. Had Super Chip on it for 5K. Took it off at 36K. I'm 58 years old and I drive it like I have to pay for it. Towed 6 loads of 18k 3 years ago (100 miles each). 8K race car trailer 50 mile round trip to track 20 times, hauled 6K trailer fromAz (2K trip) and the rest was driven empty.

I ahd a problem similar to this with the tach and speedo messing up. Didnt to it with the other guages though. And also had the problem with the miss or engine running funny as if bucking or hesitating. But never had the loud pops or sounds from suspension. I had takin it to Ford several times and they never could find the culprit. So I went over it with a fine tooth comb and had found that the electrical connections just outside the fuse box in the engine compartment were slightly loose. They made a small pop sound as I pushed them together so thats what told me the were coming loose. Ever since then I have had no problems wiht the instrument panel or no bucking/misses. Not sure if this will help at all. But its worth a look. Just dont know what to tell you about the other sounds your hearing.

update
 

Talked to mechanic at selling dealer that has done all warranty work and reflashs for me. He thinks it's a inj or 2 missfiring and the up pipe is cracked (smoke under hood).
Son inlaw drove it to the Ford dealer near him today, one mile from his house it smoothed out and ran great. I am waiting to hear from dealer about codes.

Injectors on these either start sticking, or just flat out go, they wont work fine one minute, then act up, then fine again the next minute. If anything they act up when truck is cold and smooth out as it warms up. If you're having this continuous run fine, then act up, then fine again, I would DEFINITELY go over your wire harnesses with a fine tooth comb. Don't let them throw injectors in it without properly diagnosing it. If they want to do injectors, DEFINITELY have the FICM tested first, it's easy as pie, you and your son can do it, eaiser than changing oil.