More HELP--She's barely running

[Fire1]

I am in dire need of help. My wife took the truck today and calls me later telling me it is running very rough and has no power. So I head to meet her and when I get there it will barely idle with a very heavy LOPE and will not rev at all. So I check all fluids and decide to change the Fuel Filter since I have one. I do that and procede to SOAK the engine w/ Fuel because the cap was not tight enough. Fix that and she runs. Drive her home seems to run fine MAYBE a little less power, but hard to tell. I get home and get out the Simple Green to remove the Fuel and to further investigate my now disapppeared oil leak mentioned in another thread. I degrease and rinse the engine and then I try to start her up. She will brely run at all. At this point now I have to floor the pedal while cranking and she BILLOWS black smoke while revving for a few seconds and then clears but runs like crap, barely idling and obviously not hitting on all cylinders in my guess. At around 2000 RPM she'll run somewhat smooth but still misses. Idle is horrible. Any ideas?? Sorry for the long post just trying to hit all the details.

 

[95_stroker]

Sounds very typical of an under valve cover wiring harness failure.

 

[Dieselmeister]

I used to wash my motor every other month. Then one time it did just what yours is doing. It took forever for it to fire and then when it did it was running real rough. I let it sit for a couple of days and it was back to normal. I don't know what It was that got wet but the truck would barely run.

It looks like you had rain a couple of days ago... Have you checked your PCM and IPR for moisture? It seems your year of truck had a problem with leaking when it rained or was washed and it would get wet and not run right or certain things wouldn't work right... like lights or wipers and such.

Pull the harness' off and check for moisture underneath..

 

[95_stroker]

DM,

Speaking of moisture infiltrating components, he may want to check the IDM as well.

 

[Fire1]

Well I disconnected the batteries for about 20 min and went back out it she started up a little rough but began smoothing out. I drove it and she hiccuped a couple of time but ran pretty much norm now. I am guessing water just got somewhere it should not have. I am happy. So now to find the oil leak again.

 

[CPUNeck]

I am in dire need of help. My wife took the truck today and calls me later telling me it is running very rough and has no power. So I head to meet her and when I get there it will barely idle with a very heavy LOPE and will not rev at all. So I check all fluids and decide to change the Fuel Filter since I have one. I do that and procede to SOAK the engine w/ Fuel because the cap was not tight enough. Fix that and she runs. Drive her home seems to run fine MAYBE a little less power, but hard to tell. I get home and get out the Simple Green to remove the Fuel and to further investigate my now disapppeared oil leak mentioned in another thread. I degrease and rinse the engine and then I try to start her up. She will brely run at all. At this point now I have to floor the pedal while cranking and she BILLOWS black smoke while revving for a few seconds and then clears but runs like crap, barely idling and obviously not hitting on all cylinders in my guess. At around 2000 RPM she'll run somewhat smooth but still misses. Idle is horrible. Any ideas?? Sorry for the long post just trying to hit all the details.

Well looks like the solution could be right around the bend. Now I believe it's important to know whether it was "smoking bad" when you rescued your wife or "not". If your UVC starts misbehaving your injectors don't fire, causing a lope but much more noticable after the T/C locks up! But no smoke to speak of. Now I left my drain open on the fuel filter housing once and started driving up my driveway. (It's kinda long, I live in the woods) Started out fine, but 700-1000' later this was a bucking bronco! I mean the truck was literaly rocking 1" or more side to side from the lope, and the smoke made my return trip almost impossiable. I thought I'd completely blown my turbo bearings! Now I figured it out pretty quick, but the truck ran like SH!* for 10 miles or more, gradualy getting better as I drove. Moral is AIR can really make your truck long for Zantac Takes time for the air to purge on that deadhead fuel config. If you can get it running and it sounds like it has leveled off (even if it's still bad) I'd try to put 5-8mi on it and see. after the first couple you'll notice if it is air and it begins to purge.

Perhaps an inspection of the fuel filter housing is in order. I'd check the lid for cracks and the housing. I would also work the drain valve a couple three times to ensure nothing is bound down where the O-rings are.

 

[Fire1]

Well it is running "normally" now. Drove it to work this AM w/o problem. I figure water caused my problem, still do not know what caused the issue with my wife. I changed the Fuel Filter when I rescued the wife and it then ran fine, but the filter was clean. The filter change I think was more coincidence than an actual fix. I am boggled.

 

[Dieselmeister]

I would tend to lean towards water somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. I have since went back and saw that you had an oil leak that you were hunting down and have been cleaning the motor frequently to try and find where it's coming from.

 

[Fire1]

I think you are probably right. I am not going to do any more cleaning of the engine for a while.