ive got an 06 250 im working on it has no mods except for egr block off and oil cooler recently replaced, its got about 150k on it. 2 days ago the owner started it up took off to work he made it about 3 miles before the truck started running bad then within about a mile it was skippng so bad it shut off and wouldnt restart. he waited about 30 mins then retried started up with long crankand ran rough barely made it back home. towed to me, checked codes has a p115a which i think is reduced power due to poor running. i started it up ran good for a few minutes maybe 5 at idle, then slowly began skipping on a cylinder, and within 3minutes was skipping on 3 cylinders and shut off. my first thought was it an injector hold down loose pushing compression into fuel cavity starving abank of cylinders for fuel, but it has a p0263 p0266 p0269, which what im reading is cylinders 123. i dont really see 3 injectors going bad over night that run good on cold startup then just stop. i havent checked ficm voltages yet but am going to. also plan on checking harness. just wondering if anybody out there has had the same experience i have, but i dont forsee 3 injectors in his near future. any help would be greatly appreciated. also it does push coolant when loaded or run hard, suspect head gaskets and stretched bolts, but not sure if its related

 

P115A -

TSB
05-26-25 MISFIRE, LACK OF POWER, BUCK/JERK, EXCESSIVE SMOKE, CRANK/NO START - 6.0L ENGINE - DIAGNOSTICS FOR FUEL SYSTEM - SERVICE TIPS

Publication Date: December 23, 2005

FORD: 2003-2005 Excursion
2003-2006 F-Super Duty
2004-2006 E-Series, F-650, F-750



This article supersedes TSB 04-23-3 to update the vehiclemodel years and Service Procedure.

ISSUE:
Some 6.0L vehicles may exhibit a misfire, lack of power, buck/jerk, excessive smoke or crank/no start. There are several potential causes for these symptoms.

ACTION:
If normal diagnostics lead to an injector concern, use the following diagnostics to confirm the cause of injector failure and/or to rule out other conditions which may cause the same symptoms as a failed injector.

NOTE: IF DIAGNOSING A LACK OF POWER CONDITION, BE AWARE 2005 MODEL YEAR VEHICLES HAVE A "FORCED LIMITED POWER" STRATEGY WHICH LIMITS INJECTION CONTROL PRESSURE (ICP) WHEN THE FUEL LEVEL IN THE TANK GETS VERY LOW (WELL AFTER THE LOW FUEL LIGHT COMES ON). WHEN THIS OCCURS, DTC P115A WILL BE STORED IN THE POWERT

P0263 cylinder 1 contribution/balance fault
P0266 cylinder 2 contribution/balance fault
P0269 cylinder 3 contribution/balance fault

I would check the FICM, but it's odd, typically when a FICM fails you'll get most of the cylinders on one bank. You've got 2 on one bank and 1 on the other. They're also all in the front which is odd, typically if it was a fuel pressure issue the ones in the back would go first (farthest away from the fuel pump).

I would still start with the FICM.

The coolant pushing is not related. Does he still have the cooler in there or is it completely gone. EGR delete means a few different things depending who you're talking to. Probably bad headgaskets though.

What kind of oil/oil filter does he run? When's the last time the oil/filter was changed? Fuel filters? What kind and when's the last time they were changed.

Does it restart easier when it's cold? Then die out and hard to start when it's warmed up? Might be a high pressure oil leak as well. The injector codes just might be a byproduct of that.

What are you reading codes with? Do you have the ability to get a scanner on it and datalog?

 

ok so i got home today went to go work on it, now it wont start at all doesnt even attempt, it may hitone every now and then. scantool genisis evo, still fingering it out, egr cooler i blocked of with 2 freeze plugs welded in the cooler, and factory valve. we had came to the conclusion of gaskets after he swore he never used a tuner then said well i did once, but only after i put coolers in. also motorcraft filter and cap with rotella 15w40 after he wanted to put a motorcraft in a napa cap and i found out the hard way after the oil drains outta the resevoir she wont start and that was 4,000 miles ago and it still looks clean. i also put a new set of fuel filters and spring in at that time. it also has 6.4L banjo bolts for better flow, he just wanted them. yesterday it would startup and run for 3 min then progressively get worseuntil it died, today it wont even start with no new codes. and low side pump is flowing fuel. i was gong to check ficm but i have no second set of hands today. but from what ive seen, which by no means is a lot, usually if the ficm is causing injector issues it also throws voltage codes not just balance. ive had injectors hang open at let compression in forcing fuel outta the head causing it to starve, but this one is having issues with 2 banks, and they are dead skips. but now it wont start at all so i dont forsee it being 3 injectors causing it run so bad it wont start. gonna check ficm but i feel pretty good thats what the prob is

 

If you're on a cell phone sorry, but this is tough to read man, lots of thoughts in one big sentence here makes it hard for me to decipher what is going on but I'll try....

Truck doesn't start... when you're cranking it over is there ANY smoke coming out the exhaust? The answer to this will tell us which direction to head. IF there is smoke, what color is it?

He never used a tuner, but then admitted he did after he... "put coolers in" What does that mean? What tuner did he use? I've blown my headgaskets about 3x now and NEVER ONCE had the truck NOT start. The only time it didn't start was because coolant filled a cylinder and it "hydrolocked" while it was off. Couldn't spin it over filled with coolant.

FWIW, the FICM can die or start dying and you wont have any codes, including no injector codes. My guess is if you keep cranking it without it starting it will probably throw the crankshaft position sensor and camshaft position sensor. If it does, just ignore those, they're there falsely. I'm leaning towards FICM, espeically if you tell me you're not getting any smoke out the exhaust when cranking.

These injectors are nothing like what you're used to working on I'm guessing. They don't really "hang open" and if they do get "stuck" you wont be getting fuel flowing backwards, it has no where to go. That's the beauty of HEUI VS a commonrail. Commonrail injector hangs open and you take a cylinder out and melt a piston. HEUI injector sets up or stops working and it just doesn't run on that cylinder, it wont keep pumping fuel into the engine.

Check to see if there is smoke, let us know. If there isn't, test the FICM and let us know what you find.

 

ok sorry when im thinking and typing there are no periods in my thoughts therefor i dont type them. In reference to coolers i put the egr cooler and oil coolers in it bc it was throwing egr codes loosing coolant but when pulling would push coolant out of the degauss bottle. i asked him multiple times had he ran a tuner, bc if so he prob blew gaskets and egr cooler would be the least of his worries. afterward thinking since the cooler was cracked, we had fixed coolant pushing issue, but when driven hard it was still pushing coolant, he admitted he had used a tuner and he indeed has blown gaskets. but that is not my starting problem. to refresh thursday dropped off truck I fired up ran a lil rough but smoothed out after 30 secs, 3 min into running it started skipping on one cylinder and with 3 additional minutes it was skipping on 3 cylinders and then died and wouldnt restart. friday tried starting multiple times no go. charged batteries for 2 hours on a good charger. sat no start still no smoke. could hear lift pump but removed fel filter on engine to find no fuel. not sure if this is normal, so got my assistant to crank engine while looking in bowl. no fuel it was kinda spitting like the tank was empty, figured maybe the sending unit says it has more fuel than it actually does. pour in 5 gallons of diesel then retested. fuel sprayed in bowl like crazy. assumed it was a bad sending unit. used paper clip to test gauge. with no paper clip gauge reads full with paper clip shorting the wires reads empty proving the gauge and wires were ok, when hooked up to the tank sending unit was reading 3/4 of a tank. figured the tank was empty and gauge reading high. i removed tank to check fuel level. it was nearly full. now why would it have no fuel in bowl, and no fuel flow with key on or while starting. then when i added fuel it started right up and ran great. i checked the pickup there were no cracks to cause air suction. and have driven 37 miles with no hiccups and the owner couldnt make it 2 miles before it would die. im wondering if i have a pump issue thats intermittant. i have checked the ficm and at no point does it go below 46.3 volts. filters changed last 3k by myself by the way.