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Mystery Problem

4K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  imelmo 
#1 ·
I was on my way to the track earlier today. I had checked all my fluid levels and everything was fine, truck was running great. Got on the highway and about 10 minutes into the trip the truck died. Wasn't instant, just gradually petered out basically. This happened twice before. Once, it just started to die and then was fine. Then about a week later it actually dies, I pulled over, and it cranked right back up. Everything was fine. Then today (about a week later again) it died and wouldn't crank back up for a while. Then it would crank and run for a little bit and die again. Now it runs for a max of about 5 minutes. If you let it sit for a while it'll crank back up.

Checked the fuel filter and it was clean, fuel bowl was full, oil level fine, trans level fine. Only thing that had been changed before this started was the ficm. Someone modded it for me to turn up the voltage on it (experimental). It worked fine at first other than running a little rough in the mornings. Didn't add any power or anything though. I double checked the connections on it again to make sure it wasn't loose and they were fine. Hooked the SCT to it and no codes found.

Only thing I can think of is something electronic is getting hot or there's a loose connection somewhere. I let the truck idle for about 20 minutes the last time I cranked it and it eventually died again, so I'm leaning toward something getting hot, maybe from the extra voltage. Not sure why it would take so long for that to start happening though.

My other ficm is at Innovative right now being tuned so I guess I'll see what happens when I get it back. :p

Anybody have any other ideas in the mean time?
 
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#4 ·
I had the same problem w/ my work truck and it turn out to be EGR system. Than 6 months later it happened again and a $1000 LATER I had to replace the entire EGR system.
 
#13 ·
Well I have that covered if it is. Got the full egr delete ordered from FirstCoastDieselPerformance. It should be here this week.


anyone close have an FICM you can swap to see if it's the problem?
I should have my other one back from Innovative this week. I'm gonna email 'em and see if they can rush it a bit.


interesting thought...i have a friend that has had tons of trouble with hpop's in his 03...

he originally had a problem when he first put on the SCT...it would break up in the higher rpm range...new hpop and the problem was solved

then the truck stopped running on him...similar to what you had...he ended up replacing 3 hpops on the truck...finally the truck quit altogether and he found metal shavings in the motor...

i sincerely hope this isnt your problem lol...but it probably is something electrical...

just giving you a worse case scenario to lose sleep over haha
Well I haven't noticed any shavings on the dipstick and the truck runs perfect, until it dies of course.


There is 2 things come to mind. 1 Is either your ipr Has done went out the door or 2 You are getting combustion gas in the fuel system and when it dies the psi bleeds off and allowing you to restart after while for a little bit.
I would think the ipr would throw a code wouldn't it? How do you get combustion gas in the fuel system?
 
#9 ·
interesting thought...i have a friend that has had tons of trouble with hpop's in his 03...

he originally had a problem when he first put on the SCT...it would break up in the higher rpm range...new hpop and the problem was solved

then the truck stopped running on him...similar to what you had...he ended up replacing 3 hpops on the truck...finally the truck quit altogether and he found metal shavings in the motor...

i sincerely hope this isnt your problem lol...but it probably is something electrical...

just giving you a worse case scenario to lose sleep over haha
 
#10 ·
There is 2 things come to mind. 1 Is either your ipr Has done went out the door or 2 You are getting combustion gas in the fuel system and when it dies the psi bleeds off and allowing you to restart after while for a little bit.
 
#14 ·
Most of the time it will set a icp or ipr codes, but not every time. How to check combustion in fuel system 2 ways. one run it untill it stall then quickly remove the fuel filter cap on the motor and sometimes you can hear air escape out. The other way is to remove both fuel lines on the fuel bowl coming from the cylinder heads and zip tie a rubber glove finger or balloon on both lines and with the key off turn enigne over with starter wire on pass side fenderwell and watch for the balloon to pulse with every engine cycle. Now that you located which head is leaking you can either replace all 4 of those injectors or you can remove one glow plug at a time and retest until it quits pulsing. What happens is the injector in sticking internal, and the reason for saying about replacing all 4 injectors is because i have seen where it has dry fired that hole bank and it shortens the injector life span. with pic are need just ask.
 
#15 ·
Well, changed out the ficm with my Innovative ficm and that seems to have fixed it. Let it idle for around and hour and a half and then drove it about 15 miles with no issues. I'm going to the track tomorrow so I'll report back with any changes the Innovative ficm made. :D
 
#17 ·
Lol, well I don't see that happening. I'd be pretty friggin' happy to see a 2 tenth drop though. 13.2's on fuel with just tuning, intake, exhaust? :poke: :rockwoot: :D
 
#23 ·
It's tuned, but not anything experimental as far as I know. :D
 
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