Another gem in the shop this week.....

[cleatus12r]

Early 99 Powerstroke. Regular cab dually with a 6-speed. Customer says that it starts fine in the mornings but if you take off and drive it immediately or before the temperature gauge goes above the first line, it will lose power and die. Restarts take some coaxing.

Well, a good technician always tries to duplicate the concern. Well, yep, it did it. I got 1/4 mile down the road the following morning and sure as heck, it starts sputtering and losing power until the pedal is dead and I coast to a stop. Cranks fine and eventually starts after about 10 seconds. It's missing and carrying-on for a few seconds and after about 10 seconds runs fine again. I turned around and headed back to the shop.

The following morning, I checked the oil level before I started it: there was nothing on the dipstick. I hooked up the scanner knowing at this point what was going on. Sure as the sun rises, same thing. This time, the scanner caught the ICP dropping to nothing and the IPR going full tilt.

I just find it hard to imagine being able to run a truck for 10,000 miles on an oil change, never checking it, and only doing something about it once you get so frustrated with the truck stalling every time you drive it........The engine had only 5 quarts of oil in the pan. 15 quarts of oil later and purging all of the air from the high pressure oil cavities in the head and it's back in business.

Oh, and since it's an E99 with a broken tab on the air box, the compressor wheel is nearly gone and it turns over REALLY fast while cranking. To make matters worse, the guy uses the truck for his fencing company so it LIVES on dirt roads and cow trails. The intake tube was lined with DIRT...not dust...DIRT. SAWEEEEET!