2006 F350 with a 2004 1/2 engine smoking

lmorris · April 10, 2013

At operating temps, when accellerating it belches out some whitish/blueish/grayish smoke, no stumble, then clears up and is fine till it idles again. Cold start it is a little rough but clears up right away. Has after market intake and exhaust. Now here is the kicker. The engine is of the 2004 1/2 variety. ICP in the head with the old style HPOP. Did some parts checking and the injectors for this engine are the 4c3z's. It's the old style HPOP I am concerned about. 7 of the 8 injectors look fairly new, but power balance is a little wavy but no percieved engine miss is evident. Customer bought used and is trying to find out when or where the engine was done. He is from the USA and has an aftermarket warranty. All testing has passed, except oil cooler performance has not been done yet. The turbo, EGR cooler, EGR valve are all new as well. We had the cac apart to check for oil and its good. We replaced the oil rail stand pipes and fuel line check valves to get rid of some erratic fuel pressure and slight roughness of idle. Engine is smooth running and has lots of power. Hotline was no help on the calibration issue of having the wrong engine in thew truck. PCM matches the model year.

Aaron · April 10, 2013

Wondering, if the EGR cooler was changed, was the oil cooler changed as well? Maybe if not, it's gobbled the new cooler already?

The only truck I've ever had exhibit this concern was a leaky EGR cooler.

Just throwing stuff out there.

Posted Image

Steve Mutter · April 10, 2013

I know you said the turbo is new, but I would just still have a look at the exhaust side of the turbo just to make sure the new one is not leaking a small amount of oil.

lmorris · April 10, 2013

We are thinking it might possibly be the EGR cooler. It was changed, but the oil cooler does not look like it has been changed. We have checked the exhaust and it is dry. The customer is now checking CARFAX to see if he can find some info on the engine being replaced. We were going to loosen the exhaust manifolds to try to narrow down the smoke source. It's all on hold now till we get some idea about the engine.

lmorris · April 11, 2013

Pretty sure it's not the egr cooler. Leak tested it screaming hot and no leaks. Oil cooler didn't get past 9F. I did however notice an odd noise from the engine. Relative compression puts 7 down 1%. power balance has #7 at plus 10%. Cut #7 and the noise goes away. Gonna do a manual compression on this pig and maybe throw #7 an injector depending. Dealing with an out of country warranty company is tricky though.

GregH · April 12, 2013

Not a cam lobe.... Not bad enough to thump yet?

Aaron · April 12, 2013

Ah HA!

The plot thickens.

Keep us posted!

mchan68 · April 12, 2013

Pretty sure it's not the egr cooler. Leak tested it screaming hot and no leaks. Oil cooler didn't get past 9F. I did however notice an odd noise from the engine. Relative compression puts 7 down 1%. power balance has #7 at plus 10%. Cut #7 and the noise goes away. Gonna do a manual compression on this pig and maybe throw #7 an injector depending. Dealing with an out of country warranty company is tricky though.

Got one right now in my bay (one of my bays) with the cab raised and engine out on a stand getting a new cam and lifters. Also an out of country warranty. Hmmmmmm.

lmorris · April 12, 2013

Compression is 310 across the board. which is good in these parts. His warranty is letting us put in the 2 injectors. I have heard failing lifters and cams and this is not that type of noise. It's more of a fuel knock. It's even worse on a cold start. Fingers crossed.

Now all I get is blue, and it smells like oil. GRRR.. Posted Image

Shop foreman has told me to stop working on it for now. Time to move on, his warranty company is about ready to stop paying.

Update: Our roaming hotline helper was in for another vehicle we are having issues with, it's a head scratcher that one, I picked his brains on this. The 2004 HPOP is not compatible with the 2006 calibration and will throw the injection pressure out.

Current bill has been paid and truck is gone. Posted Image

Alex Bruene · April 19, 2013

Got one right now in my bay (one of my bays) with the cab raised and engine out on a stand getting a new cam and lifters.

How often or how many of you guys do this repair? We will NOT do it. If a lifter wipes out the cam, the minimum we will do is replace the short-block.

Jeff Clyde · April 19, 2013

Agreed. Too much possibility of metal visiting other parts of engine causing future/immediate damage. Too much of a liability in my opinion.

lmorris · April 22, 2013

I have done one 6L camshaft. Caught it before it got to bad. No bearing damage, or other signs of metal in engine.

lmorris · May 1, 2013

Due to his warranty no longer paying, we stopped trying to fix it. He has now taken it to another dealership in Edmonton. We know this because they just called us wondering what was up with this thing. Lets see how far they get with it.