1996 7.3 dies while driving, restarts after 15 minutes, then runs great – Any ideas?
 

My father has a 1996 F350 with the PowerStroke 7.3 diesel engine. He’s owned it since new, and it’s been a fantastic truck, but it’s developed a serious issue. So far he hasn’t been able to find the cause or reproduce the issue. He's very mechanically inclined, so hopefully this is something he can fix himself.

The first indication there was a problem happened first about a month ago. He let it warm up like always and got about 10 minutes down the road when the CEL flashed and the throttle cut out. The truck shook, the RPM’s dropped to idle, and with no power the truck just rolled, but didn’t die. This all happened very quickly, lasting about a second or two. By the time he could safely look down, the RPM’s come back, everything returned to normal, and the truck wouldn’t act up for the rest of the day. This happened several times throughout the month, driving the truck once every couple of days.

The issue has now gotten worse. He’ll be driving down the freeway at 60mph and engine will die, as if someone turned the key. All accessories remain working as normal when this has happened, and it’s happened twice now. Both times he shifted to neutral and was able to roll to the side of the road, at which time he’d try to restart the truck. It would crank like normal, but it wouldn’t start until it sat for 10-15 minutes. After it was running again, it would run normal for the rest of the day. He said the CEL didn’t come on before it died.

He hasn’t had the codes pulled yet. He lives about 20 miles from town, and he’s nervous to drive it. If a code was stored, would the CEL stay on (it’s off)? Do any of the larger auto parts stores loan/rent code readers?

Anyone have any ideas what the cause of this might be, or how he should proceed?

Thanks in advance!

Cam and/or crank sensor would be my guess. I believe its a common issue with the 7.3's. There is a segment about it in the newest DieselPower magazine that I was reading.

Auto stores will do free code checks sometimes. You'll be needing a OBD1 reader.

Thanks! I told him this, and he said he just put one in Friday, but hasn't driven it much yet. Fingers crossed!