Rough running with updated FICM - Page 2

eabrust · #1 Wed, September 2nd, 2009, 07:16 PM

Thanks for the reply Jeremy,

I did give it another try tonight. Today I didn't drive the truck at all to work, so when I got home, it was at ambient temp (~76*F according to the trucks thermometer when I started it). I swapped the FICM without having started the truck at all today. I looked at every pin in all connectors to ensure none are bent or tweaked, and made sure I got the distinct click from every one of the three connectors as they went in. Fired the truck up and it had the distinct lope in the idle. I just backed down the driveway and then drove forward again and parked. Still loping away and can smell extra strong fuel smell in the exhaust. I have a hard time believing that the FICM can't drive the injectors on a day when the truck is sitting at a temp of 76F, and it still has to heat up to run right?!

Shut it off, swapped back to the original FICM w/ Ford program in it, and it starts up idling nice and smooth.

So I guess I'm down to either having a faulty FICM w/ a good updated program on it, or the FICM is good and the program isn't quite playing well with my truck.

Not quite sure how to sort that out. I don't have a scanner that can read the FICM voltages to tell if it is dying (anyone anywhere near Rockford IL that could scan it for those PIDs?). I have a hard time believing that shipping it back and forth for programming would kill it, as it is designed to survive being bolted to the top of an engine for its entire life, and I couldn't find any sort of electrical fault indication internally (but not to say it couldn't be faulted or on its way out).

NHRA6002, are you also swapping between a spare FICM and an original, or did you send your original and you only have one your working with? I guess I'm trying to gauge how well you know the condition of the FICM you sent for programming, since I only ran my FICM for a week before sending it in. Can you expand on your situation, your symptoms, and from what version FICM program you made a jump from?

Thanks all for the help.
Eric Brust

NHRA6002 · #2 Thu, September 3rd, 2009, 01:05 AM

I had a new FICM installed under warranty at the beginning of the year, so it had what ever the latest fords program installed at the dealer. Bill reprogrammed mine in person when he was at Dynomite Diesel in Monroe WA a couple months ago. Same symptoms as you but no loping at idle, definate fealing that at least one injector not firing,sluggish,poor shifting,no power untill ECT reached about 130'F then all seamed OK.
I don't know what the software version was that was in it, Bill might remember.

***88Racing*** · #3 Thu, September 3rd, 2009, 07:45 AM

Seems like you guys are having issues beyond my knowledge of diesels. I will post a note for Bill to address this.

Lars

npccpartsman · #4 Fri, September 11th, 2009, 08:59 AM

I had my FICM done by Eric at ID since he does my SCT tuning as well and it's exactly as you describe until it warms up. My FICM is a "new" reman from Ford and isn't but a month old, in fact hasn't even run half a tank of fuel yet. I haven't spoken to him about it because it's got "moderate" tuning in it because of my larger injectors. I was told that the hotter FICM files could have some cold start issues. I'm going to send him an email and see if he has a tune adjustment to fix it. I'll check back if anything changes. Thanks for the FICM instructions. It's at least something to be able to check next time mine starts to go south......if there is a next time.