All of a sudden the 6.0 won't go till warmed up to normal temp. Any Clues as to Why?

[socalocman03]

So my morning ritual has always included a good 5 to 10 min warm up for the 6.0 prior to hitting the highway which up till the past few days has been plenty enough for the truck to be happy when putting it in gear, throttle response as to be expected until fully warmed up but certainly no spitting, sputtering and bucking like it's displaying now in the morning even after a good 5 - 10 min high idle warm up.

Another thing I noticed is that the batteries are cranking the 6.0 fast and hard, it fires up immediately but upon first starting (5 to 10 sec) it sort of acts like it's not going to keep running, gurgling sort of sound as if the cylinders have fluid in them or something and you can tell the cylinders have JUST enough to keep firing, not sure how to explain this, I guess one could equate it to a gas engine that's timing is off.

The HPOP was replaced @ around 30k under warranty and not even sure if that could be a possible reason for the truck acting this way? Still has the stock oil cooler and egr system in tack. No clue as to the EGT/EOT delta's since I have no aftermarket gauges just the factory idiot gauges which I understand to be worthless in preventing engine damage if relied upon. EGR Valve is pulled and cleaned on a regular basis since the truck does a considerable amount of idling. Conditions inside the intake seem to be getting a bit more moist as time goes on but not to the point of being wet as in seeing water rolling around in the intake but moist as in not powdery dry. Not thinking the intake was ever powdery dry, has always been a little moist. Normal? IDK? Coolant level has dropped and been replenished at a rate of maybe a Gallon of coolant over the past 20k to 30k mi, again not sure if is the norm? I do know over the first 30k I put on the truck I added No coolant since it was always at the min/max mark on the bottle which incidentally was replaced by me last month (almost $100 and doesn't come with a new cap, what a joke!) due to the tank having a nice crack in it and burping fluid all over the engine compartment.

Any thoughts, ideas or experiences in regards to this matter please feel free to share them with a newbie.

[domesticdiesel]

Give me call stop by the shop or e-mail me. I would be more than happy to offer some free advise and or diagnosics for ya.

[seth06f250]

im wondering what you found out with your truck. in the past 3 weeks mine has become hard to get started in the morning.. i went from no problems starting to the truck having to be cranked many many times. it starts and runs for about 2 sec and shuts off again. then i start the process over again untill the engine gets to above 90 degreese, then the truck may stay running but it is lopeing and puking out tons of black exhaust. once it gets over 100 degreese it all levels out and seems to run fine. the other day however once it did stay running it sounded like it was missing on a few cylindars untill it was warmed up.
also i have replaced the one of the batteries in it this past week, since i have killed it with all the cranking lately. once i did that i took it to get the alt checked out since my guages said it only had 13vdc and never would get any higher. turned out my alt was bad..... well i replaced that and now the guy checked it out again and it is still not charging........ he said something about a safety measure that they put in, a fuesable liink, that could be blown and prevent charging. has anyone else heard of this.

[socalocman03]

Have you pulled and cleaned the EGR Valve? I had a similar experience a few months back, not the exact symptoms you've explained but pretty close. I pulled my EGR Valve and it had a fair amount of Coke deposits but the real issue was a chunk of hard coke, a rock or ??? had lodged itself in between the valve and the body of the EGR Valve which was forcing the valve to partially open which created many of the symptoms your having. A huge plume of thick black smoke upon pressing the accelerator along with bucking, kicking and just plain old not wanting to move until the turbo would spool up then it was like absolutely nothing was wrong with the dang thing, that is of course until the next Red Light at which point the scenario would replay itself. I went and picked up a couple EGR Gasket Kits from the Stealer ship, Cleaned the EGR Valve, removed the rock which had wedged the valve open and "Bobs your uncle" ran like champ up till this new issue that's reared its ugly head.

Quick note on Batteries.........You should always replace batteries as a matched set as in Identical Batteries when dealing with dual battery set ups like our 6.0's even if one Battery tests good, chuck it and replace them both. Reason being is that you want the batteries to work in unison sharing the load demand placed on them especially when cranking the engine over and the batteries are being Taxed Hard. Replacing one gives you one new battery full of life and one that is old and not so much. This places a greater demand on the new battery having to compensate for the old ones lack of being able to carry it's share of the load which in turn will eat up that new battery in short order. Good news is at this point you'd more than likely have two batteries that test bad so you'd of course replace both and you'd be good to go. Bad news is you've purchased one more battery than you needed to. Lesson learned.....:)

[seth06f250]

repair shop just called ..... it was the FICM

[socalocman03]

Good and Bad News.......Found Problem (good news) it's the FICM (Bad News) unless of course ya still under warranty in which case Good Good News.....

[seth06f250]

yea not under warenty got 108000 on mine so its $1200 bux for a new one and that includes labor too.

[SteveBricks]

Ed Stefan is the man to talk to...highly recommended and it'll save you a ton of money over a new unit:

FICM Repair.com - Your Source for FICM Repair

[Newman]

BPD also rebuild FICMs

[seth06f250]

i will keep that in mind for next time