Ford diesel guys -- anyone dealt with frequent regens?

I have a 2010 F350 6.4L with 100,000 miles that I only use to pull my 16,000lb fifth wheel here in the mountains of Colorado (i.e. my truck works hard). Things were great for the first couple years, but ever since this spring I'm getting regens every 50 miles or so (used to be every ~150 miles).

My truck is all stock, and the only thing I did before this towing season started was an oil change and fuel filter change (I do them at 5000 miles and 10000 miles respectively). This time around I did use a different oil than the MotorCraft I usually use. I think it was Rotella, but could have been some other name-brand.

Anyway, my local diesel shop doesn't see any issues. They say the sensors all read normal, no codes, etc. I'm actually thinking one or more sensors actually ARE bad, even if they're showing in spec on the IDS. I know that can happen with the DPF pressure sensor.

I'm also wondering if somehow the oil I used is more "sooty" than the MotorCraft and filling up the filter more quickly. I'm going to change the oil back to MotorCraft and see if it helps.

Oh, and I can’t do a delete.

Bottom line -- anyone had a similar issue?

 

Trade it in for a ram with a cummins.

 

Dpf almost clogged?

 

Why can't you do a delete?

 

Low ash oils work
Might have some leaky injectors / bad spray patterns too....they are 100k miles old

 

It's down 300 cc

 

Potentially, given I'm at 100,000 miles. Trying / hoping to find that it's something else before dropping $2000 on a new DPF.

 

Your best bet is to delete the egr coolers and the dpf system. Unless you have an extended warranty, your out anyway. The truck with run better and much more power. You won’t be disappointed. At our shop we do it all the time not one complaint.
If you don’t want to delete there are companies that will swap out yours with a clean dpf.

 

Certain parts of Colorado require diesel emissions testing every other year. A DPF delete would fail the visual check before you even make it onto the dyno for the exhaust sniffer!

 

Sounds expensive!

 

More and likely it is your D.P.F. At 100,00 miles if you do a lot of stop and go driving that will have an effect. Also the oil you use will have a big effect on it.

We are seeing semi's not getting 100,000 miles before they are full of ash and need replaced.

 

Did the diesel shop do a forced regen? I think I would start there as a baseline and go from there.

 

I never do stop and go, but I do tow heavy in the mountains so the engine is likely producing a lot of soot. However, it only recently started regen'ing more often.

Would you say it's totally reasonable to have to change the DPF at 100k miles?

 

They did, as well as resetting the computer and determining that all the readings looked normal. I would think a full DPF would show up on the diagnostic system in some data point...

 

There should be a differential pressure sensor on the DPF. If too much moisture gets inside of it, it will read pressure incorrectly and make the ecm think there’s a high pressure drop across the dpf. Then it will start a regen to correct this.

Over fueling (leaking injector), burning oil, or burning coolant (leaking EGR cooler) could also cause the dpf to plug up.

The oil you run won’t effect how clean the engine runs unless you’re burning a lot of it. Then you have another problem.

 

Soot is generated by a “rich” mixture. I lnow, i know....where you have more hydrocarbons than you can burn in a given combustion event. This can come from overfueling (worn injectors) or an excess egr/freah air ratio. A possibility if your not compensating for altitude too. Running hard and keeping the egt’s up is a good thing.

The DPF should have a differential pressur. sensor. That measures inlet and out let pressure to calculate soot load. The hoses to these sensors are know to get soot pluged, kinked, rotten and fool the sensor.

 

Right, it's not that complicated of a system at that point. Fords ran the same thing on their gas engines for the EGR to make sure it was actually opening. It would measure a pressure drop on the specially designed EGR tube. Its basically the same exact setup. We replaced those sensors quite often, so it would be no surprise if the sensor were to blame itself, or a cracked, rotten hose.

 

Yep, I'm honing in on the DPF pressure sensor being the culprit. Just not sure if it's the hose/bracket assembly, or the probe itself that goes into the DPF. Think I should do both, or just the hose/bracket piece (see attached)?

 

That sensor looks like it only measures outlet pressure. Does your truck have a SCR system?

 

Yup, that a single pressure sensor. Not a differential.

Another posibility, have you been off road / dirt roads or very dusty conditions?
These sensors have an atmospheric refferance port that can get full of crap and skew values.