Low boost pressure?

[James W]

Hello,

I've just bought a 2004 6.0 with 87k miles- 56k miles on a ford re-man engine after it hung an injector on the previous owner back in 06. It's a 1 owner truck that was owned by a 90 year old guy who passed away.

I've been working through the maintenance on this truck after doing some reading here, I've bought a edge cts, just finished installing a coolant filter and changing over to ELC, and new ford filters etc.

The truck runs nicely, fires up no problem, throws no codes etc but I've always thought it was a bit sluggish compared to other 6.0's I've driven, after installing the edge I noticed it won't boost over 12 psi, it blows black smoke when you're on it, I've read it should be building about 25psi?? I'm not really sure what I should be looking at? Boost leak? The edge is showing vgt% is changing from about 80-70% at idle to about 40% when accelerating. I can't recall what it showed at WOT.

Does the turbo need to come out and be cleaned?? Or is there something else I should be looking at before going that far into the truck. I did pull the EGR valve over the weekend to clean it, it was a bit sooty but not as bad as some photos I've seen on here. Would the truck throw any codes if the turbo vanes were stuck??

Thanks!

 

[bigbear5014]

Have you checked your setting on your tuner ? Was it running 25 psi prior to the tuner ? Those are all the things i can think of for right now. Also your vgt will also cause this as well

 

[James W]

I'm not running a tuner, the truck is all stock. I bought the cts insight just for monitoring.

 

[sootie]

check your fuel pressure. when is the last time it had air and fuel filters changed? likely stuck turbo vanes.

 

[James W]

Just an update on this problem. I pulled the turbo and cleaned it, it was a bit sooty and some surface rust but cleaned up no problem. I also did the vgt re-learn procedure after re-install and cleared the p1000 code.

While I was in there I also installed the blue spring mod. Truck runs the same as it did before Still blowing black when your accelerating and max boost is about still about 12 psi and really seems to struggle to pull itself past ~2500 rpm. I checked all the inter-cooler hoses for cracks and rips they all looked good and I cleaned all the mating surfaces before reinstalling. Where should I be looking next?

 

[Trqmnstr]

A ton of smoke to me says your not getting enough air. Turbo is clean so i would look for leaks in the piping. If that checks out i would look into the vgt itself. Something aint right with the turbo.

 

[James W]

A ton of smoke to me says your not getting enough air. Turbo is clean so i would look for leaks in the piping. If that checks out i would look into the vgt itself. Something aint right with the turbo.

That is my thought as well but still I'm stumped, Truck has new air filter (stock intake) and I have checked all the hoses for leaks on the intake side, all inter-cooler hoses have been cleaned and checked. Is there another way to check? Smoke test or something?

Should I be looking at the inter-cooler next for cracks on the ends, do these units get plugged?? I thought that was more of a concern with modded trucks.

VGT seems to be cycling on during driving, although only from about 70-40%. During the re-learn % values changed from about 15-70% on the edge. Are there other tests I can do related to the turbo. Again there are no codes being thrown. The turbo has a reman sticker on it so it only has done about 100km (~60k miles).

 

[TBagAMouseTrap]

I recently had an intercooler that leaked with similar results as yours. Couldn't find the leak until I pulled it out. I found about 1" of the seal on the drivers side tank pushed out.

 

[lowKuntryMilitia]

Have you checked the map sensor hose?


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[James W]

So I pressure tested the inter cooler and boots to 30 psi, no leaks. There was some oil pooling on the lower hose where it goes into the intercooler when i was double checking the boots. How much oil would be "normal"? zero?

I decided to recheck the egr, the gasket at the top had evidence of blowing soot and the o- rings were cracked, I replaced the gasket and o rings and no change. There was also a bit of dampness at the bottom of the intake that stuck to my finger when I was poking around in there. I wasn't too bad, but it was oily soot...

Also checked the MAP sensor hose, it was in good shape. I also blew out the little nipple but it didn't seem plugged.

I took the truck for a drive and nothing had changed in terms of performance, although it has started blowing a bit of blue smoke on start up and acceleration when cold (I'm in Canada so its about -15C here, 5F at the moment). Blue smoke at idle clears about a minute after starting and blue smoke when accelerating goes away when truck is fully warm (190F EOT/ECT) and is black again.

I think I'm just going to go ahead and do a EGR delete on this truck as it seems like I'll be doing it eventually anyways and it would put my mind at ease. The blue smoke on start up seems to indicate turbo seals?? Who is a good vendor for the turbo seal kits?

Thanks for the help!