DPF delete questions

9735 Views 9 Replies 4 Participants Last post by jmperlik, Feb 26, 2021

mcarlo86

Discussion Starter · Feb 25, 2021

Hi, I am considering buying a 2019 F150 XLT with a 3.0 with about 32,000 miles on it. I'm currently researching as much as I can about the 3.0 before I pull the trigger. One of my concerns is that I live about 3 miles from a small town and I do probably 50-70% of my driving in short distances (less than 10 miles one way) and I have been reading all the regen threads. My head is kind of spinning wondering if all this regen stuff is going to be a big headache for me? I work as a crop consultant in ND, so in the summer months I will be hauling around an atv in the back of the pickup and also do some pulling (JD 620 tractor, skid steer, 16' bumper hitch stock trailer w/sheep, etc). I currently have a 2010 F150 with the 5.4 3V that I have been very happy with except for the fuel economy. The 3.0 Powerstroke is really appealing to me for the much improved fuel economy and the towing-friendly torque. I would like to know what could be my options for deleting the DPF? Is it just getting a custom exhaust and tuner? Can we turn off the DPF (and EGR and DEF) with Forscan? I have a '04 F250 6.0 that I do my heavy towing with and am familiar with the simple deletes on those, but was curious how difficult/expensive it would be to delete the DPF in a 3.0? Any advice would be much appreciated as I am dealing on the pickup this week. Thanks.

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Laytunes

· #2 · Feb 25, 2021

mcarlo86 said:
Hi, I am considering buying a 2019 F150 XLT with a 3.0 with about 32,000 miles on it. I'm currently researching as much as I can about the 3.0 before I pull the trigger. One of my concerns is that I live about 3 miles from a small town and I do probably 50-70% of my driving in short distances (less than 10 miles one way) and I have been reading all the regen threads. My head is kind of spinning wondering if all this regen stuff is going to be a big headache for me? I work as a crop consultant in ND, so in the summer months I will be hauling around an atv in the back of the pickup and also do some pulling (JD 620 tractor, skid steer, 16' bumper hitch stock trailer w/sheep, etc). I currently have a 2010 F150 with the 5.4 3V that I have been very happy with except for the fuel economy. The 3.0 Powerstroke is really appealing to me for the much improved fuel economy and the towing-friendly torque. I would like to know what could be my options for deleting the DPF? Is it just getting a custom exhaust and tuner? Can we turn off the DPF (and EGR and DEF) with Forscan? I have a '04 F250 6.0 that I do my heavy towing with and am familiar with the simple deletes on those, but was curious how difficult/expensive it would be to delete the DPF in a 3.0? Any advice would be much appreciated as I am dealing on the pickup this week. Thanks.

I have researched this option a lot as I will likely be deleting once my warranty is up. That said it's not too bad tracking your exhaust filter status % on the screen, and then making sure that if one starts, you let it complete. In the end, you just want to make sure you don't get suck in the regen loop where you're not cleaning it out fully all the time (i'm sure you've seen the "stuck in regen" thread. Ford has even decided to hide this from the display as they don't consider it critical for drivers to know. Lots of us track this however just so that we're ensuring full regens are completed fairly regularly.

As for the delete process, the DPF is a physical filter, so you can't just turn it off with forscan, if you did, it would simply plug up, and your truck would slowly die. Good news is that it's fairly easy and cheap to delete. A single tune from a tuner with the gadget runs around 800 CAD, and an exhaust system runs from around 250 CAD to 500 CAD. That said, make sure you check your states emission laws and requirements and consider that in your decision, as well as your warranty. I have 57,000 km on my truck, and have had zero issues with the emissions system, no matter how hard i try and find a problem. So I think ford has figured this out pretty well now.

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Dunrollin

· #3 · Feb 25, 2021

Welcome @mcarlo86 great to have you join us. There is a lot of reading ahead for you should you want to research specific issues on our powerful diesels.

Laytunes is fortunate to be in Canada where deleting is legal in many areas. Since you seem to be in the US we can't advise you to break the EPA regulations. I may have missed it but in all the "guess what broke on my truck today" threads it seems there are few about pollution controls.

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mcarlo86

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 26, 2021

Thanks for the responses. I am thoroughly enjoying this forum and the wealth of knowledge here. I am from ND where we do not have any emissions testing, so I am not too concerned with the legality of deleting emissions equipment. Like I said earlier, I have a 2004 F250 6.0 diesel that has had the EGR deleted for reliability reasons. In reading all the threads about the DPF’s and regen stuff, it seems like a lot of hassle to manage it properly for people who don’t drive long distances periodically. I really think that the 3.0 Powerstroke is what I have been looking for in a work pickup. If deleting the DPF is an option to reduce headaches of managing the regen cycles and it doesn’t create other problems (mainly on the tuning side of things), that is what I am trying to figure out. Maybe the regen stuff won’t be that much of an issue, but I want to be sure before I commit to buying this pickup.

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Laytunes

· #5 · Feb 26, 2021

mcarlo86 said:
Thanks for the responses. I am thoroughly enjoying this forum and the wealth of knowledge here. I am from ND where we do not have any emissions testing, so I am not too concerned with the legality of deleting emissions equipment. Like I said earlier, I have a 2004 F250 6.0 diesel that has had the EGR deleted for reliability reasons. In reading all the threads about the DPF’s and regen stuff, it seems like a lot of hassle to manage it properly for people who don’t drive long distances periodically. I really think that the 3.0 Powerstroke is what I have been looking for in a work pickup. If deleting the DPF is an option to reduce headaches of managing the regen cycles and it doesn’t create other problems (mainly on the tuning side of things), that is what I am trying to figure out. Maybe the regen stuff won’t be that much of an issue, but I want to be sure before I commit to buying this pickup.

There's definitely options out there for you if you decide to go that route. I would try it out for a while stock and see how it goes. Forscan up the exhaust filter status, and see if your driving habits are an issue for it. If you find yourself constantly interrupting them (like 4 or 5 in a row), then I would maybe look into the delete option as that may be an issue for it over time. Also if you keep getting the "drive to clean" prompt in the dash, thats an indicator that the truck isn't being driven enough to clean it effectively. I for one have never had this warning pop up for me, but it will if it needs to.

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jmperlik

· #6 · Feb 26, 2021

@mcarlo - I'm a little late to this party, but I did notice these were your first posts, so let me welcome you to the forums!

Yes, proactively managing Active Regens is a bit of a hassle and what I consider the "dark & dirty" side F150 PSD ownership.

Being in NY, I can't help with your delete/tuning questions, but there are other forums members here that know. I would follow @Laytunes advice to see how bad regen cycles are before going the full delete route. Being located in ND, you do have the advantage of being in the heart of BioDiesel country where BioDiesel has been proven to help reduce regen cycles and improve MPGs.

Welcome aboard!

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mcarlo86

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 26, 2021

Thanks @jmperlik. I am grateful for finding this forum. I will look into biodiesel. I am pretty sure my local station doesn’t carry it, but I’m about an hour from a decent sized city and they may have it at one of the the truck stops.

I am planning to use ForScan to manage the regens and see how it goes. I am leery of deleting while still under warranty.

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jmperlik

· #8 · Feb 26, 2021

@mcarlo - you are right on BioDiesel availability in ND, as my memory failed me (again!)

From BioDiesel Retail Map website:

I remembered BioDiesel being clustered in the upper mid-west states, but the above map shows limited availability in ND & SD, but massive availability in Minnesota and what I think are Iowa and Illinois, if my grammar school geography doesn't fail me either...

If I remember correctly from reading up on BioDiesel, it doesn't travel well thru pipelines (attracts water?) and tends to be clustered very close to the BioDiesel source = I think you'll find this map correlates to where mid-western corn/soybeans are grown. I'm sure our resident BioDiesel expert @CYODESL will correct me on this if I am off-base....

I also agree with not deleting during warranty, which is 5yr/100K for our 3.0L PowerStroke Diesel engines...

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mcarlo86

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 26, 2021

@jmperlik
That map is interesting. The red dot in the north central part of ND is Minot, which is the nearest city to me (about an hour away). I’m guessing one of the Cenex stations probably has it.

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jmperlik

· #10 · Feb 26, 2021

If you need any help getting set up with FORScan, please see this sticky post that I authored:

START HERE: New FORScan User education

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions...

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