03 6.0 loses power and dies

Chopper · July 12, 2013

2003 F550 6.0 200,000 miles runs rough, loses power and dies hot. Starts right back up but still no power. P2290 low icp when dies. Been in the shop a couple weeks now. Couple other techs been working on it. They have put 3 or 4 injectors in it. Ipr, Icp and pigtail. Swapped Ficms. water pump fan clutch, Fuel filters and new spring in regulator. They also pulled the gearator and there was no scoring. And Im sure a few other things Im forgeting. Guess it had multiple problems. But the concern that it came in for is still there. I got to drive it once so far. It is a turd and seems to run rough/miss all the time. But after about 5 miles it will lose power and not rev up and eventully die. Will start up after afew secs and limp back to shop. Icp would drop to 300ish and back to 1500 and just keep bouncing all over. Ipr would go up. Ficm sycn and voltage is good. Fuel pressure about 60 and oil pressure 20 or so. and neither changes as it starts to lose power and die. Icp V was real erratic. Not really a sawtoothed pattern but more like barbed wire look to it?? I guess I get to work on it tommorrow. Im thinking the HPOP is weak and causing all the concern. It just acts different that most bad pumps Ive seen. Any tips on checking the pump. Tryed to find a screen shot of the ICP V on some good and bad pumps but I cant locate those. Thanks Aaron

Keith Browning · July 12, 2013

It actually sounds like the pump to me. Those old pumps can fail in two different ways and have some similar and some different symptoms.

Brad Clayton · July 12, 2013

Given the mileage and nature of the truck, I would say she has probably been worked hard all her life and most likely neglected as well. Even if the pump is the problem and "fixes" the truck, I would perform a crankcase pressure test and have a look at the turbo fins.

I have been down the road of putting nice new parts on top of a completely worn out (dusted) engine. It will cover your ass in the long run for sure.

ETS · July 17, 2013

Had one with plugged catalitic convertor causing very similar symptom.

If I remember backpressure sensor reading was really odd. Dropped exaust and catalist was rounded and rotating inside case. Caused intermittent concern.

Probably not the case here though. Unless RPM drop to idle is causing low pressure readings.

Chopper · July 25, 2013

Sorry, forgot to respond back to this post. Really didnt do much other than change oil to it. Oil was over full and seemed like fuel in it. The truck ran and idled like a champ after that. Was kinda surprized that haddened been done already...haha But anyway it may have a weak pump, but as far as I know it made it all the way to east coast with no troubles.