same problem as previous thread. truck starts, runs real rough and blows white smoke. in the past, draining the water separator seemed to clean it up. dropped the tank, no water, problem went away for about a month. it's back again. no water in fuel drained from water trap. no water light, no check engine light, fuel from a very busy station. my buddy suggested changing the cam position sensor, gonna do that and pull the fuel filter tonight. de-gas bottle has been at a constant level, oil level hasn't changed, rough idle goes away by the time I get to the end of my block, then the truck runs fine. stop and turn the truck off, starts off with a rough idle and white smoke out of the pipe for a minute, and then clears up. This morning the truck started, idled horribly for about 5 seconds, then died before I could even get the key turned off. Really need yalls help. losing money with my daily driver out of action. and hunting season is coming up fast.

 

Does the exhaust smell like raw fuel?

 

no, not excessively at least.

 

If it isn't steam from water, about the only other option is fuel. Have you done a cooling system pressure test? What about a compression test?

 

Is it white? or blueish white? An engine with poor compression will act like that, but usually doesn't clear up all that much. I'm assuming its warm enough there that you shouldn't really have to rely on your glow plugs right now. You said "rough idle goes away by the time I get to the end of my block, then the truck runs fine. stop and turn the truck off, starts off with a rough idle and white smoke out of the pipe for a minute, and then clears up." Is that still cold or at running temps? I am thinking injectors are slobbering fuel, but let's rule out the cheap and easy first. If its blueish white, its probably cold, unburnt diesel. If its white, than its water. How does the coolant look in the degas bottle after sitting over night, and is your degas bottle blackish like there is soot in there?

 

so last night my buddy got to the house before I did and had the truck running. the smoke is mostly white. when it had problems the other day it was at running temp. we had just got back from Albuquerque which is a 3 hour drive. talking with a cousin that has a 95 7.3 and a 99 7.3, the symptoms match up exactly with his experience when his trucks have thrown CP sensors. read the codes and it had 2, one for EBPV circuit voltage low, one for intake air temp circuit voltage high. I have the new CP sensor and I'm going to change it at lunch today. that was the plan last night but it started raining so that changed things pretty quick. hoping to get the 7.3 adaptor for a compression gauge that my boss has, but my snap-on dealer won't be here till Monday. coolant system was pressure tested about a week after I got the truck, everything was alright. what are the benefits of gutting the EBPV?

 

quick update, truck has been running great the last 2 days. I really really don't like intermittent problems haha I have the CPS in the truck so if it gives me any more trouble i'll change that out real quick and see what that does to help.

 

so the truck quit on me again this morning and wouldn't start at all. got back from work and it'll start but runs pretty bad and blows alot of white smoke. cam sensor has been changed. a buddy suggested disabling he ebpv by unplugging it. another suggested checking the connectors going into the valve covers for the injector harness. still struggling on this one.

 

The valve cover gaskets and wiring to the injectors sound like a good place to start. If nothing else it's free to check and let's make sure you don't have an electrical issue up top causing you problems. If bad it can take out half your cylinders and cause some really rough running. An intermittent short can do just what you describe. Here's a link a similar issue and it's easy to check.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...and-uvchs.html

and another to some of Tugly's trouble trouble shooting

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-material.html

another link

 

a buddy also told me about some little wedges that ford sent out that to under the connectors going into the valve covers. you have any experience on those??

 

i've not heard of those 'wedges' yet… even on here. the one i know of is the $.50 mod, but thats for the harness connection UNDER your valve cover… i will say though, i was tinkering on my motor last week and i bumped the harness that plugs into the passenger side valve cover and the damn thing literally fell right off the connector… so i'd just say make sure you'e got a solid, clean connection (to include no wire damage immediately near said connector)

 

Like bdpotts said the clips that Ford now offers go under the vlv covers. They do the same thing as the quarters do that the tech shows in the attached video.

 

connectors are tight. EBPV unplugged gives same result. smoke is still there while it cranks. what would a bad hpop cause?? It hurts to even ask that question but i'm getting desperate. thinking of sending it to a local wrench to see what the compressions are like? still hasn't thrown a single code. i took my chip out to see if that helped anything but no dice. same problems

 

An idling truck usually sits right in the neighborhood of 500 psi ICP, which is the pressure the PCM needs to see for the truck to start in the first place. If you have 500 or so psi at idle, and you still have smoke, I'd have to say it isn't being caused by the HPOP/low ICP. If the truck was falling on its face under throttle and the ICP was tanking, then I might lean toward the HPOP if fuel pressure, injector o-rings, HPO hoses, etc. were all good. Do you have AE/Torque Pro/other scan tool you can hook up and monitor live data? Have you checked fuel pressure or run a compression test?

 

no I just have a simple code reader that a friend lent me. he says it'll do some things like buzz tests and things like that but I'm not familiar with how to do them. trying to get ahold of a powerstroke adapter for a compression gauge and a set of gauges to plumb in and check the fuel pressure. it's running now. at least for a while. the buddy that lent me the code reader is a diesel mechanic and has quite a bit of experience with the 7.3 from when he worked at international so I'm hoping he can give me some insight too. found some stuff in the fuel filter bowl that i'll try to get up on this thread to see if anybody knows what it could be.