Pulled a camper to Clemson, SC this past friday and the truck ran and pulled like a dream. Got to campground and unhooked and setup the camper, then went to a busy gas station and topped the tank off. Approx 1/2 tank. I shutdown and started the truck several more times that afternoon with no problems.

Sat morning we got ready to go to the game "Go tigers" and the truck would not start. It would fire start to chug then die. My first thought was I got 1/2 a tank of bad fuel so I drained the fuel filter and plugged in the block heater. I Collected the drained fuel from the filter under the drivers door in a plastic container and it had small amount of junk in the bottom of the bottle with a slight water layer. The other stuff was a rusty looking color. Once again it was very little. Tried to start again with no improvement.

After talking to 3 Ford dealers and a towing company which took roughly and hour with no decent suggestions except to tow it in the truck did start. It Chugged and stuttered until I flipped the high Idle switch. Once the RPM's were up it smoothed out. After running for 10min or more on High Idle I turned the switch off and it Idled like normal.

Since I could not get any service done on the truck until Wed. and there was no way the campground was gonna let me dump 30 gal of fuel. I let the truck sit and went to the game to watch the Tigers bring home another "W". Whole different story on how I got there.

Sunday after leaving the truck plugged up all night I fired it up like nothing was wrong and
we hooked up the camper and ran that tank of potentally bad fuel back to the house with no noticeable problems or warnings.

Oh Yeah, alge/fungus.. It was mentioned that diesel can grow a fungus that can cause serious problems also. Any Ideas welcome.

 

I've seen it happen a few times actually, but different circumstances. On the vegistroke forum a few guys have seen this, but it's because the truck gets warm, then switches over to veggie and that diesel sits in the filter housing on the frame rail and just doesn't move. Some of the early 6.0's had heater elements on the filter housing down there too, so it just bakes the diesel over and over, and eventually algae grows. I can't imagine this happening on a truck that runs on diesel 100% of the time though, but I guess it's not impossible. You may have this heater, since I think it went til about 05. You can simply unplug it in the warmer months, it will probably help tremendously.

Your issues are probably closer related to a FICM issue or glow plugs, since it seems to start and run fine when it's already warm, but has trouble firing up after it sits overnight. I would start with a FICM test, since it's easy and will at least eliminate it as a possible cause. Then I would look into testing the glow plugs.

 

its monday morning and I went out to crank the truck and No start. This time it just turned over with very little will to fire. So Starting to think maybe a cold start issue more than the fuel. I filled up at my normal station last night and I know they do a ton of diesel sales.

 

Get the batteries load tested, then test the FICM.

 

Being put on the honey do list, but moving it toward the top

 

In the shop. FICM being replaced. Mdub707 thanks for the info

 

No problem. For the future, I can fix dead FICM's too, for probably a whole heck of a lot less than they're going to get you for a new one... but at least you're getting it fixed now!

 

Hey for the future any ball park
price idea of doing a ficm? (as i just noticed
your only over in ny) I just got a
New one installed and flashed at ford
Dealer , sure hit the pocket with a final
bill Total of $1800

 

WHAT!!!! 1800 dollars for 1hr of work? im in the wrong business....
I can get a FICM for 585 new in the box, have the old one out new one in 15mins the longest part is programming it. half hour 45 mins. depending on whether the internet cooperates or not...

Beings up in canada i would not be surprised if you had a heater element in the HMFCM (or fuel pump) we had one in our shop that was an 07 and had a heating element in it.

See if it has a brown connector at the back of the fuel pump if your laying on the ground looking up, look at the drain, then look up and to the left of it. If theres a brown connector you have a heating element.

 

That's $1800 canadian, but I'm sure it's still completely outrageous. My guess is they got you a whole new FICM too, instead of the half shell. I'll send you a PM, but it would be less than 1/10th of what you paid... No reprogramming needed since it's just a repair to an already programmed FICM.