Inconsistent power output ideas

[franklin2]

Has anyone experienced their truck suddenly running better? I wasn't positive it was happening, till this last long trip I took to South Carolina. I loaded up/fueled up, and took off down I-81. It was pretty sluggish on power, but it never has been a race winner(89, no turbo, completely stock engine, 35's with 4.10's). It was pretty slow through the hills down around Blacksburg, but by the time we got into North Carolina, it had more power, and would pull any hill with ease.

This is not the first time this has happened. My truck sits around most of the time, with occasional short trips to the dump or to cut firewood. Once in awhile a friend will take it on a long trip to haul something, and I notice when I get it back it runs better right after the trip.

From doing some reading,, I am going to guess I have something sticking in the injection pump, something like a advance mechanism or something? Could it be a gummed up injector or two? It runs pretty good most of the time, sometimes with a slight lope at idle, sometimes really smooth. The lope is very slight, not noticeable unless you drove it before to compare.

Does anyone else notice their trucks power output varying sometimes? Is some of this fuel conditioner stuff a permanent repair or just temporary?

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

This is getting weird.

i was going to post the exact same thing a little while ago.

normally my truck is average. today, it ran like a ***** ape. the throttle response was much better, you could tell it was pulling strong in the hills as well. lost no speed at all on the hills. i have a whopping 5 psi max boost right know but it seemed to pick up boost easier. normally under civilized acceleration i would only get 2.5-3 psi today i could easily get up to 4-5 psi with the same throttle input.

I have no idea what happened but i like.

 

[wmoguy]

around this time of year here, you get stations that have already converted to Winter fuel and those still selling Summer blend. I just got off a tank of winter blend and loaded up a tank of summer fuel from another station today. The results are a surprisingly better running IDI. Maybe you've got the same thing going on?

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

i have a mobile station right down the street from my house that i normally get fuel from. after i did my cooling system my truck seemed to be a bit of a dog. i stopped at a sunoco station by school and wow. i noticed a diff in throttle response right away. i have been using the sunoco since. (about a month now)

 

[D.A.V_Oil_Brnr]

~shrug~

Don't know what to say on that. I know that my truck seems to have a bit of a tick now that the bio has been flushed out. On a positive note, getting rid of that biodiesel that was put into the truck (100% mixture), made the truck stop smoking. That bio made the truck a hay burner. But now, it doesn't smoke at all and it has a bit more power as well. Other than that, I am rather clueless

 

[dieselgiant]

I know what your talking about. Runs awesome and spunky, shut it down, then runs kinda groggy after sitting for a few hours. Mine does it worse when its time to change the fuel filters and I fill my filter with ATF or Howes fuel treatment.

 

[FordGuy100]

These trucks really start feeling good after a couple hundred miles of driving. Everything is warmed up...temps have leveled off. There is a big difference between an engine that just got to operating temp, and one thats been there for a couple hours.

When I drove from Oregon to Texas I noticed this. On my drive from Hesperia, Ca to Tyler, Tx, I only shut down for fuel, and never stopped other than that. That truck hummed along and felt like it had never felt before.

 

[icanfixall]

These engines are made to work and do it al day long. If they are run softly around town they will build up oil varnish on the rings and cylinders. They need to be heated up enough to burn off this oil varnish. Never baby these engines after a rebuild. Put them to work earning their way. A new OTR diesel is never babyed. They get put right to work. They may not be loaded fully but they are hauling the freight to pay their way. I too have felt this "power feeling". I wonder if its just me and my butt -o -meter dyno teling me things are differant. The engine does run up thru the rpm range quicker and the idle is so much smoother too... I really do wonder whats gong on too...

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

even though these trucks don't have computers telling it how much fuel it needs i think they still have a mind of their own when it come to some things.