Low power and black smoke on acceleration
 

Hello everyone,

I am having an issue that just started last week. When I push on the accelerator I get black smoke from the exhaust and low power. This happens at take off or if I am driving along and try to accelerate more. I especially notice it going up a hill since it starts dropping speed. I have a boost guage and the strange thing is it seems to be showing more PSI's than normal as I push on it...like jumps up to 20-25 psi when just giving it some gas. I can get the rpm's up around 3000 and boost stays the same but I barely gain any speed. I just took out the EGR valve and cleaned it and put new o-rings and a gasket on it. I also just changed the oil and filter today...used Motorcraft filter and Rotella T6 oil. After cleaning the valve I still have the same problem. It seems to be starting a little more rough now too? I have just replaced the FICM about 2 months ago and it's not the same starting issues as when that was going bad. Any ideas? I won't just start throwing money at it...oh and I have had a bad injector before and the symptoms were way different when it was the injector. Thanks in advance!

Here's something else I just noticed last night. It seems that my transmission temp is going up faster than it used to. This morning I started it up and the trans. temp started to rise after just a minute or so of warming up at idle...before even driving it. It hasn't gotten overly hot, just seems to be rising quickly? Does this even make any sense? :argh:

A father of 4 with little money to throw at this now!

My trans temp gauge always comes up before the oil temp does, always has, no worries there.

A couple things it could be. When it has low power and black smoke, is the boost normal at that point? It could just be the turbo sticking.

How many miles on this truck? How is it used? Tow ever? Does it sit a lot? Do you drive it like a grandma?

The quickest and easiest thing to check first is the EPB sensor. Look under the hood, drivers side exhaust manifold. Towards the front of the manifold you'll see a tube coming up out of the manifold and if you follow it up, the sensor is plugged in to the end of that. Remove the sensor itself and the tube, and clean both well. This is the EPB sensor/tube. EPB = exhaust back pressuer sensor. They get dirty from soot and what not and stop working right and will do similar issues to what you see. If you clean this and notice no change, yank the turbo and clean that. The EPB is far easier/quicker to do, so start there. Turbo write up here: DTS Articles - Turbocharger Reconditioning

Welcome to DB! :c:

Thanks for the welcome and response! I will pull the EBP sensor when I get home and check it out. I was planning on yanking the turbo out this weekend and giving it a once over. I just changed the oil as indicated in my first post and was also wondering if it would be worth my money to throw a couple of bottles of Rev-X in it at this time? I've heard good things about it even if just from a preventative standpoint. Thoughts?:humm:

It definitely wont hurt. A few of the guys are running the evergreen AR9100 stuff now too, supposed to be better than rev-x and less money. FRICTION MODIFIER

Just to eliminate it I pulled the EBP sensor last night and cleaned it and the tube real good. It seems a little better but still has the low power when getting on it. The main thing I notice is that my boost gauge is going up about twice as much as it did when it was running right. Like what I would normally expect to see the boost going up to 10psi I see it go up to 20psi with no power gain. I have noticed a little whistle I think...maybe a y-pipe?? Any more thoughts??? Thanks!

It's a PITA to get back in there, but a crack/leak in the up pipe will have soot where it shouldn't be. My friend's truck has that problem right now. We just haven't gotten a roundtuit to fix it.

When mine was cracked I noticed noise more than anything, but no power loss. When I did my EGR delete and didn't properly seat the up-pipe to the turbo (big leak) it was really noisy, had exhaust smell in the cab and ran about 5-8psi lower than normal, but power was still decent. I highly doubt that's it.

Any smoke coming out when any of this is happening?

I'm almost wondering if the HPOP is going out. Do you have any way to get this thing on a scanner to monitor some things while you drive it?

Another thing I just noticed is that my engine temp. is rising quickly. I don't drive very far to work and it is pretty warm by the time I get home...less than 2 miles. I don't seem to be losing any coolant though? Is there any way to test the oil cooler? Should I flush the coolant and start with fresh? :dang:

Best and easiest way to ensure the oil cooler is working properly is to monitor oil temp and coolant temp and see the spread between them. They say (general rule of thumb) anything greater than a 15* spread, it's clogging and needs replacement.

i have had the exact same problem since i got mine back in dec 2011 replaced a ton of parts hpop, icp, ipr, cleaned egr multiple times, shaffers oil, rev x, blue spring, cleaned ebp, bp intercooler boots, checked ficm which came out perfect, i could go on and not saying i thought all those things were the cause but thought it couldnt hurt after a few grand into it come to find out it was a crack in my y pipe so i bought that and tomorrow im getting on it among a ton of other parts ill be posting about it through out the event haha keep an eye out for my post around sun or mon and ill let you know if it fixed it :rocking:

I just bought an EGR delete/bypass kit yesterday. I figured if I was going to take out the turbo I might as well do this at the same time. While I've got it torn apart I was planning on checking the y-pipe to make sure it didn't have any cracks. Let us know how yours turns out. I am waiting on parts right now so it will be a few days before I start tearing sh*t down. I'm am positive now that my engine temp is getting hot quick...are you having that issue too?

I would recommend an oil cooler swap while you're in there. I wish I would have done it when I did my EGR cooler delete.

My temps would get higher than they should if I was sitting in California traffic for to long but that problem is because my fan cut my fan clutch cables

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While you are in there I'd replace the oil cooler reconditioned turbo check icp pig tail for oil and if you can afford it replace the hpop I was just in the engine valley in Jan and I wish I would of replaced all the parts I have to replace now because I personally dread diving that deep into this engine

I would do all of that as well, minus the HPOP. Mostly because I'm cheap and I hate replacing parts that aren't broke. In the case of all the other stuff, it should just be replaced regardless.

Oil cooler rebuild kit is like $250.

Well...thought I should listen to everyone on hear and order an oil cooler while I'm at it. It will be here this weekend. Is there anything else I should get before I start this adventure? Do I need intake gaskets? I was going to open up the turbo and clean it all up as well. Anything I will need for that...gaskets, etc...? I want to be as prepared as possible before I get started. Any other suggestions or advice to make this go as smooth as possible? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks for all of the help and advice so far! You guys are awesome!

yes you will need intake gaskets, I know there is one kit that even comes with the turbo mounting and seal kit, if your dealer doesn't have that one go ahead and get the turbo mounting kit, like $11, if you tear the gasket on top of turbo you will need it anyway.
Just keep in mind if this is the 03 in you sig. tat the 3rd bolt holding the turbo on is hard to get to, alot harder then the late 04 and up ones so when you put it all back together you might want to consider leaving that back bolt out like I did, it makes removing the turbo in future alot quicker and it doesn't hurt a thing by it not being in there.
I always recommend for us 03-early 04 guys to try and find a later intake, makes life alot easier when it's time to change out the ICP sensor, and if you cut the tab off where the EGR cooler bolts to the back of the intake then you can pull the intake without even removing the turbo with the newer intakes. Just a note I have seen a couple on ebay selling for $85 and there is one on there now that even comes with the elbo so you can get rid of that butterfly housing under the old elbow.

When you cleaned the EBP and tube, did you also clean the fitting on the exhaust manifold? Mine was completly plugged up and ended up using a drill press and bit to get it all out.

Well SH*T!!! I finished putting in the new oil cooler and EGR delete kit this weekend and was feeling all proud of myself. I got her fired up and running and flushed the coolant before installing the new ELC coolant and all was going good. No leaks, no whistles...I was like a kid with a new toy. Then I went and drove it and she ran like a raped ape! I was having fun until I pulled back in my driveway and shut her down. When I got out oil was leaking everywhere! There was a trail of oil leading up to my driveway all the way down the street. It has to be a high pressure oil leak because when it was just sitting there warming up nothing was leaking...right? The oil sprayed from underneath all the way back to the rear driveline and all over the differential. I have no friggin' idea where it is coming from! Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have any ideas of what the hell is causing this leak...and where I should start looking? I am at my wits end now! :argh:

Easiest way is to just clean it all up, and fire it back up and see if you can spot where it's coming from...

I found the leak. It is coming from where the oil filter housing mates to the oil cooler cover towards the front of the truck. Is there an o-ring that goes between those two parts? At least that is not a hard thing to remove (sigh of relief)! :tu:

Well I'm back for some more help! So here is all I have done so far: EGR delete, oil cooler replaced, coolant flush with new ELC fluid, oil changed with new Motorcraft filters and Rotella T6 5W-40 synthetic oil, 2 brand spankin' new batteries, turbo pulled apart and thoroughly cleaned, all new o-rings and seals on both the turbo, turbo drain, and the upper fuel/oil filter housing and fuel lines. After putting it all back together I put the EGR valve back in for the relearn process of the VGT turbo and followed the relearn instructions. The phuckin' thing is still doing the low power when I get on it, like above 10-15 psi of boost and spittin' some gray smoke while accelerating. It seems to get less power as it warms up too. If going up a hill or trying to pass, it will shift down and run at about 3000 rpm's feels like someone is pulling it from behind. It will literally only do like 30 MPH up a hill...and when I do have to go up a hill the transmission temp goes up to at least 160 degrees on my gauge???? I can't afford to take this thing to a mechanic but need to figure this out. It has no codes and runs great besides this no power on the upper end issue. I don't have any misses or starting problems and am not blowing any white smoke. The only other thing I have noticed a couple of times is that there is water that has dripped on the passenger side and appears to be condensation coming off of the air conditioning unit inside the engine compartment? The engine temp doesn't seem outrageous though...I love this truck and just want it back. I plan on keeping it forever and need to have it running right. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Does it do it all the time or only when it's cold or what?

I take it you don't have any way to monitor any engine functions? Scanner of any sort?

This is a tough one. At this point I would be doing an injector buzz test, a cylinder contribution test and monitoring ICP actual/ICP desired/IPR duty.