fields_mj
Full Access Member
I half hate to even bring up this topic because I’m afraid of what the answer might be, but it’s getting to the point that I can’t really ignore it any longer.
Over the course of the last year, I’ve noticed that I’ve been loosing power out on the highway. The problem started last fall, and I thought that I had found the problem when I changed the fuel filter. I had lost LOTS of power at that point, but when I changed the filter, it all came back. The family camps in the summer about once a month. Typically we camp within an hour or two of home. The camper weighs 5K dry, and this spring I noticed that I wasn’t able to pull the camper up the hills as well as I had last year. The last trip took us through some of the more hilly parts of Indiana (yeah, we do have some decent hills in the southern part) and I had to be running almost 70 at the bottom of any hill in order to maintain any kind of speed going up. A few times I had to stop for a light, or to let someone turn right at the bottom of the hill, and 35mph in 3rd gear was about the best I could do on the way up. On a couple of the hills, that’s not actually that bad. On others, I’ve been able to continue accelerating in 4th gear in the past, but not this time. I now drive across these hills and the way too and from work, and I’ve noticed that the truck is starting to struggle going up them in 5th. 2 months ago I was able to accelerate all the way up the hills. I wasn’t accelerating quickly, but I was picking up speed none the less without having to drop a gear. The exhaust is putting out black smoke (not lots of it) when I go up the hills. I would say the amount of smoke is typical to where I have the throttle, but I’m just not getting as much power out of it as I was before. Like I’m not getting a complete burn, or there’s a lack of oxygen reaching the cylinder. I put a new air filter on a few weeks ago, but that hasn’t really made a difference. Didn’t figure it would, but it was 5 years old so it didn’t hurt anything. I’ve also noticed that the engine sometimes starts to stumble somewhere between 2600 and 3000 rpm. I don’t generally run it this high, but now that I’m playing around with it trying to diagnose a problem, I’m running it through the paces and this is one of the things that I noticed. Doesn’t happen all the time, but it does some time.
My thoughts at this point are that it could be one or more of the injectors, or it could be a valve that’s not sealing very well. I would think that if it were a valve, the engine would sound a LOT different and the truck would be stumbling all over itself a lot more often. Other than the occasional hiccup on the high end of the curve, the engine sounds okay to me. Both going down the road, and revving it in the drive way.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks,
Mark
Over the course of the last year, I’ve noticed that I’ve been loosing power out on the highway. The problem started last fall, and I thought that I had found the problem when I changed the fuel filter. I had lost LOTS of power at that point, but when I changed the filter, it all came back. The family camps in the summer about once a month. Typically we camp within an hour or two of home. The camper weighs 5K dry, and this spring I noticed that I wasn’t able to pull the camper up the hills as well as I had last year. The last trip took us through some of the more hilly parts of Indiana (yeah, we do have some decent hills in the southern part) and I had to be running almost 70 at the bottom of any hill in order to maintain any kind of speed going up. A few times I had to stop for a light, or to let someone turn right at the bottom of the hill, and 35mph in 3rd gear was about the best I could do on the way up. On a couple of the hills, that’s not actually that bad. On others, I’ve been able to continue accelerating in 4th gear in the past, but not this time. I now drive across these hills and the way too and from work, and I’ve noticed that the truck is starting to struggle going up them in 5th. 2 months ago I was able to accelerate all the way up the hills. I wasn’t accelerating quickly, but I was picking up speed none the less without having to drop a gear. The exhaust is putting out black smoke (not lots of it) when I go up the hills. I would say the amount of smoke is typical to where I have the throttle, but I’m just not getting as much power out of it as I was before. Like I’m not getting a complete burn, or there’s a lack of oxygen reaching the cylinder. I put a new air filter on a few weeks ago, but that hasn’t really made a difference. Didn’t figure it would, but it was 5 years old so it didn’t hurt anything. I’ve also noticed that the engine sometimes starts to stumble somewhere between 2600 and 3000 rpm. I don’t generally run it this high, but now that I’m playing around with it trying to diagnose a problem, I’m running it through the paces and this is one of the things that I noticed. Doesn’t happen all the time, but it does some time.
My thoughts at this point are that it could be one or more of the injectors, or it could be a valve that’s not sealing very well. I would think that if it were a valve, the engine would sound a LOT different and the truck would be stumbling all over itself a lot more often. Other than the occasional hiccup on the high end of the curve, the engine sounds okay to me. Both going down the road, and revving it in the drive way.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks,
Mark
I've avoided getting any timing tools for the truck for multiple reasons. They are relatively expensive compaired to the number of times that I'm likely to use them, timing tools for this engine have become difficult to find, different makes operate on different principals and have different specs which aren't very clear. After reading Mel's tech artical on the correct process for removing and checking the injectors, I think I'm going to be better off taking the truck to a shop that can do the work. I'm comfortable with the process, but the lack of timing tools, and having to do everything on my own in the drive way has me leaning away from the project at this point. I will read it over again this weekend with the hood up and breather off and make a better decision.
