my 6.0 is sometimes hard to start. no smoke or any other problems. has 78000 miles. it starts easy most of the time. it always starts but sometimes take a min to get started. they said it was the oil filter at the dealer. they changed it and still does it.

 

I have a 2006, with 81,000, that had the same issues. Up until this last November it would crank no more than 1 1/2 seconds to start (It was consistent this way for 4 1/2 years). Then it gradually took a little longer and longer to start until last week, when it was taking 2 1/2 to 3 seconds. Then last week I drove it about 20 miles and stopped to get something to eat. 10 minutes later I tried to start the truck and it wouldn't start. It would crank and crank, but no smoke, nothing, like it was starved for fuel. I had it towed home and the next morning it started right up.

Before it failed to start last week, I was trying to solve a slow start issue just like you're having. I checked the low oil pressure (good), the FICM voltage (good). An interesting fact is that there was never any cough or sputter, it would just crank for a longer amount of time and then start right up and run fine. I did notice that the power was not there on the freeway. It seemed to top out and not put out once the RPM's were up.

As you will see on many of the forums the 'Long Start Cold' and No Start Hot' is is a classic symptom for either a failed STC fitting on the HPOP, or leaky o rings in the dummy plugs or stand pipes.

So, anyway, I've been collecting up parts for the day when I could to do everything that was needed to make it reliable again, so I took the week off and started tearing into it. I replaced the STC fitting on the HPOP, the dummy plugs and the stand pipes.

I also replaced the water pump, oil cooler and egr coolers, but this was more preventative than anything else. I kept my cooling system very clean; I flushed it at 60,000 miles. I will cut open the old oil cooler to see whether my belief is well founded and the oil cooler is still good.

All of this work cost me about $2,000. I think I saved myself about 3,000 in labor. If I have taken it to a mechanic they most likely would have charged me 2,000 to fix only what was wrong, so, I don't mind putting that money into it to get every weakness that I know of fixed on it.

So, if your like me you may want to do all these things when you have it apart, or you might want to do a little more diagnostic and narrow it down to either the stand pipes/dummy plugs or the STC fitting. If your lucky you can do without replacing the STC fitting in the short term, however, in my opinion this will fail in virtually every F250 that has it. I've seen on one of the forums that the fitting was recalled by International Harvester and they replaced almost every one of them at their cost. Ford chose not to do a recall and we are all paying the price.

I'm not quite done with the work. I may be done today or tomorrow. I'll update you on how it runs then.

Just a suggestion; if it's still under warranty you want it to exhibit the no start hot, so the dealer will have to fix it. If your dealer is like mine, they will play ignorant until the problem is so obvious they can't ignore it. One way I can think of to make it fail is to take it up a long steep upgrade and power up the hill. Do this a few times then drive home.
You will want to drive home because it will run until you turn it off and them when you try to start it again immediately, it will not start. I think what pushed mine over the edge is a full acceleration from 25 to 60 and then slow down to 25 again. I did this 10 times. That evening when I started it to come home from work, it sputtered a bit before kicking over. Then I drove it 20 miles and stopped and that was when it did not start.

 

Need some more info here. What year truck? Any mods? Did this start out of the blue, or over time? When it's "sometimes" hard to start, what's it like outside? Cold/warm? Does it start harder when it's already warmed up? Could very well be an oil filter, if you're using some aftermarket job that has it's own cap. They can cause all sorts of problems. A hard start with no smoke is almost always something causing the injectors to NOT fire. Could be a weak/dying FICM, simply weak batteries, a high pressure oil leak, the STC fitting, and so on. Answer the questions I've got here and we'll go from there. Don't forget, more details are better than not enough. Welcome to the forum!

Sounds like you're on the right track brother. I'd add a coolant filter if you don't already have one, especially with new components going back on like the EGR and oil coolers.

 

it is a 2006, have a edge evolution and air intake. i just had he truck about a year and a half. i think it started this spring. it don't matter about the temp outside, itjust does it when it wants to. i have also heard it is the oil pressure behind the trubo that causes this.

 

I'm not even sure what is meant by oil pressure behind the turbo. The only oil pressure the turbo sees is whatever your low pressure oil pump sees. There is an oil feed line on top, and an oil drain line on the bottom, oil goes in, lubricates, and drains. That's it. Whoever told you that, deserves at least one smack upside the head.

If it's an intermittent problem, it could be a chaffed wire or loose connection somewhere too. What I would like you to start with is a FICM test. You'll need an 8mm socket/ratchet, a multi-meter, a torx bit (I wanna say T15 or 20, I can't remember) for your ratchet, a buddy and at least 2 beers. This is a 15 minute project, and will tell us where to go next.

6.0's, FICM's and Cold Start Problems - PowerStrokeNation

Do that, and get back to us.

 

its not the oil in the turbo. its behind the turbo on he motor. they said it would take 2 days o be fixed( would have to remove turbo and raise cab to get to it). has something to do ith he oil some how. can't remeber what hey called it. will try to test the ficm

 

They were probably referring to the STC fitting.

If you have the patience you can troubleshoot it down to the point where you can make a good decision on what to replace. It sounds like Mdub707 is willing to coach you through this process. If you do what he says and tell him your results, he will be able to help you through it.

 

Under the turbo is your HPOP, it's your high pressure oil pump. This pump takes oil and feeds your injectors and is what "fires" them. It can drive injectors up towards 4000psi. On 05+ trucks the STC (snap to connect) fitting can often fail and cause a hard start condition, but it's usually a small leak and only shows its head when it's warm. If it's cold, the oil is thicker and it can build pressure with that small leak, but when warm, your oil is thinned out, thus harder to build pressure and get it started. It COULD be the issue, and so could a bad o-ring on one of the stand pipes or dummy plugs, but all of this would be quite a bit of work, especially for someone who doesn't do this all the time. The FICM shouldn't take more than 15 min of work, will teach you a little about your truck, plus you have an excuse to have a beer with a bud and "work" on your truck. Start there, it's easy and will at worst just eliminate a possible cause.

 

wouldn't a leak cause the motor to loose oil or see a sign of a leak? truck uses no oil. i change the oil every 5000 miles. it sometimes does his cool and hot. has not been cold yet.

 

When he says leak he means inside of the engine. For instance, i had a o-ring go bad on the inside of the top of an injector. It caused a high pressure oil leak on the inside of my engine. I couldn't see it but when the oil got hot.... it got thinner and it couldn't keep enough pressure for the truck to run. A leak doesn't always mean the spots on your driveway. Have it tested for a high pressure oil leak. Or you could do it yourself.