2002 3500 Duramax/Alison. While pulling the East bound grade on I-20 out of Shreveport, LA this morning, lost power, and "service engine soon light came on. just barely made it to top, and stopped at "Pilot" truck stop. We are towing about 15,000 5th wheel RV.

Engine starts normal. Will rev with no load. If we try to move, it will pull up to about 15 mph, and then just acts as if it won't rev any higher.

Ran it very low on fuel just a few miles before. Filled at "Flying J" in Greenwood LA, about 30 miles ago.

Also, I-20 is very rough road in this area, and truck and RV were bouncing hard pulling hill before light came on.

Our internet serice is very "IFFY", so if we are off line for awhile, that is why.

Thanks for any help.

Ken & Peggy Gasbarri

How old is your fuel filter?

Partsguy;

Don't know for sure, but probably has no more that 10,000 miles. I thought maybe the same thing. Suppose to be getting some road side assistance, but has yet to show up. Any chance it could be injectors, fuel pump? I can deal with those, but I sure hope it does not involve Turbo.

Thanks,

Ken & Peggy

The reason I ask is the low fuel...possible you picked up some trash in the tank thus plugging the filter....
Any chance you can find someone out there to read what your check engine light code is?

Change fuel filter first

starts, runs, but no power.

Sounds like a new advertising theme for Ford.

You might want to check out this thread, it just happened to me (same type of possible problem).

http://dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28826

Try accellerating really gently...as in try to get the truck to shift before 2000 RPM. Its probably a fuel rail pressure related code and the engine is capping max RPM at 2000. Happends to me when my truck throws a P1093. Wont let it rev higher than 2000 RPM. If im really careful with the pedal, i can coax it up to about 60 mph or so. But if I mash it, it wont even leave second gear.

---ben

My truck did the same as DurantotheMAx. It happened a few months ago when pulling a load. The dealer reset the code, changed the filter and it went away. Hope you get it worked out.

Gentlemen;

OK, thank you for all the responses, and an apology for the delay. We had marginal internet service at best, and for what ever reason, we just could not stay on line until we arrived here.

Anyway, we used "Good Sam Road Service" to find someone to come out and help. Things didn't start well, and after about 3 hours into the 90 minute response time, I finally spoke with Joe, of "Joe's Truck Repair". I described the problem, and this guy has no idea. He normally works on Semi-trucks, but thought he could help. I tried to beg off, but he insisted he could help. About 90 minutes later, he did show up with the new fuel filter, and spent about an hour installing it. I was a little worried when he showed up driving a little Ford Ranger, and it was difficult to tell if those were his tools in back, or was he on the way to the dump.

Our total cost was $125.00. $60.00 of that was cost of the fuel filter. I have no idea if that was a fair price or not. All things considered, it could have cost a lot more.

After he installed the filter, we towed the RV about 2 miles up a fairly steep grade to the nearby RV park. The truck worked great, and pulled hard through-out the rpm range. Later we dropped the RV and drove about 70 miles round trip into Shreveport, and again the truck performed well.

Today, we towed about 250 miles East on I-20, and all went well. I now feel that the problem has been fixed, and can start to breath again.

Once again, we do appreciate all of your input.

Ken & Peggy Gasbarri

ps) This is the third time I tried to post a response. Hopefully, we now have strong enough service to get it done.

Glad to hear your ok. OK, fule filter was waaaay to expensive.

I always cary a supply of fuel filters with me. Its good insurance. Also when you get a crapy load of fuel it may clog more than one on you. Stop by an auto part store and try and get a couple IMO and maybe a strap wrench so you can get her off if its tight and in a pinch. A pair of channel locks will get the plastic water drain out the bottom and a .25$ peice will open the bleeder. There is only one company that makes the filters for a duramax and they all get rebadged. So dont worry about what brand just get what ever is cheapest. I run frams actually( :eek: I know)

I'm also moving this to the lb7 forum now that you got this fixed. :)

Gentlemen.

I plan on picking up a filter or two, if only to quiet Peg. She insists we carry at least one, just in case it happens again. I guess she is right. I actually have more and better tools than the "fix-it" guy, and if we had a spare filter, I could have changed it myself quicker and cheaper.

by the way, what is an 11 second plow? We have a 9 second drag car, but I can't imagine getting something that big to do 11 seconds.

Ken & Peggy Gasbarri