Old timer told me my injector timing was off by 2 degrees and I spent the whole afternoon rechecking my work on a 6.0 Powerstroke

He showed me his timing light method vs my computer reading and now I always double check the harmonic balancer for slip before setting anything, anyone else find the computer lies sometimes?

3 comments

3 Comments

perez.willow9d ago

Did you try the white paint trick @piper_burns mentioned, that's the only way I caught mine slipping.

kai_butler831mo ago

Heard that before and here's the thing nobody talks about - on those 6.0s the computer is reading the crank sensor signal but if the balancer has slipped even a tiny bit the sensor sees the wrong tooth count. I've seen balancers that look fine sitting there but the outer ring has spun maybe 5 degrees and you'd never catch it without a timing light method like that old timer showed you. The computer will show you perfect timing numbers because it's trusting the signal it's getting from a part that's physically shifted. Had a buddy chasing a hot no-start for weeks and it was the balancer the whole time. Took an old school diesel guy with a light and some chalk marks to figure it out while the scanner said everything was spot on.

piper_burns29d ago

The 245k mile balancer on my 05 F250 did the exact same thing. Looked fine sitting there, but I put a timing light on it and the mark was jumping all over. Old timer at the shop told me to paint a white line on the balancer and another on the hub, then watch them with the light at idle. Soon as I revved it up I could see the outer ring walking about 4 degrees off the hub. Replaced it with a Fluidampr and the hot start issue went away completely. That stupid sensor tricked my scanner into showing perfect 2.5 degrees of timing. Wild how common that is on those trucks.