I've been having a tough time starting my truck during the first start of the morning in temps 34-40. Romps, white smoke, etc. When I plug it in there are no issues.

This morning I decided to troubleshoot and found 7 glow plugs at 1.2 ohms and 1 read infinity (bad). GPR works fine.

Will one Glow plug make the difference?

Thanks

 

One glow plug by itself won't make a drastic difference, but it may be a contributing factor along with some other issues. How many miles on the truck and how often has the oil been changed?

You could try synthetic oil to see if your truck starts better cold then. Many people use synthetic in the winter for better starts, but 40 deg doesn't sound too cold to me.

 

That is what I figured but I wanted to ask the simple question first. I've been having other troubles with the truck regarding performance, you've read and responded to my other threads, but was just curious regarding glow plugs.

I have 3 very feint injectors (buzz test), different sides, uvch mod done, etc, so the cold start issue is the final straw and I am going to call Jim Rosewood for some rebuilds in the morning.

Thanks for confirming what I already thought; one bad glow plug by itself shouldn't have this affect.

Del

 

Good luck Brett i know what it feels like. One after another right... Good luck man!

 

I had three that were bad and I could tell but one shouldn't be too bad. Romps are more contributed to cold, heavy oil in the morning.

 

So if you can do a buzz test, can you also run a CCT or watch rotational velocity numbers?

Find yourself a 3.7 - 4.7 k ohm resistor. Unplug the EOT (engine oil temp) sensor and plug the resistor into the plug. That will fool the PCM and allow you to run a CCT on a cold engine. See if that will tell you which injectors are causing problems. Also check your rotational velocity numbers and not what they are.

Might as well test and post the results on the old injectors before you replace them. Might help someone else down the road who may not be so willing to get rebuilt injectors. I'm curious to see what the rotational velocity numbers show. I've seen guys test this by just pulling the valve covers and finding several injectors not spitting oil, but would be interested to see what numbers show up on a scanner.

 

my '99 has the #1 glow plug stuck in the head with the electrical connector broke off. hasn't worked for about 30,000 miles. the only cold problem is blue smoke (un burnt fuel ) first thing in the morning. high mileage injectors can cause a hard start when cold.

 

Mine was doing the same thing. I tested my GPRs seemed fine, when it actually had to perform, one wouldnt work causing a whole bank of cylinders to go out. Replaced it now she start like a champ. Anything below 50* it was a bear to start.

 

Just in case other folks were following this post or may come across it in the future when troubleshooting their rig I thought I'd post that I can put these issues to rest.

After talking with Clay (RiffRaff Diesel) we decided the next logical course of action would to replace the injectors. I purchased stock reman injectors since I'm not interested in all the other power mods and last week after also replacing my injector cups I got the injectors installed and she runs like a new rig. After sitting for 2 days in 20-30 degree weather it fired right up first thing in the morning, no plug-in required, and it ran great, plenty of power.

I wanted to again thank all the FTE folks for their input and Clay at RiffRaff; support after the sale in incredible and I will probably deal with him in the future if I need any other parts or mods.

Del

 

Swear i was reading my posts!! Same exact thing after new o rings and 4 reman injectors my ex is running good now, thanks to Clay

 

I've been having cold start issues too unless I plug it in. My one GPR is working fine. It was replaced last winter. I'm pulling 92 amps on the glow plugs. How do you check the individual glow plugs? I have 294K miles on original glow plugs and injectors.

 

Look on each valve cover and see the wire harness connector to each one. unplug each harness and notice the male end that goes into/under the valve cover...using a volt meter place black to ground and the first 2 terminals on each end are the gp connections..should set meter to ohm's and get your readings.....several writeups here with pics just use the search option
I forgot the exact ohm readings even though I just did mine about 3 months ago but I think they should read between 0.5 and 1.5 ohms for a good plug also not a bad time to do the .50 cent mod also also with lots of pics and simple to do....

btw... become a fte supporter and its worth its money for subscription in just one repair you can do yourself on your powerstroke!!! SOOOOO GLAD I DID!!!

MERRY XMAS!

 

I have 326k on original glow plugs and injectors. I checked the glow plugs and hav 2 bad ones on right bank. When its below 50 degrees it really runs rough for a few minutes. Sometimes it dies and has to be restarted 2 or 3 times unless I bring the idle up. If i plug it in for 3 or 4 hours it starts good.