I recently purchased a 1996 F250 7.3 Powerstroke with 260k miles. The truck had not run in 3 years. I put replaced the battery, changed the fuel filter, did an oil change. It fired up and seemed to run smooth. It has a little blow bye out of the filler tube when warm.


At times there is no smoke from the exhaust, other times it smokes excessively. The truck needs valve cover gaskets and glow plugs and I had planned on checking the compression while I was at it.


Could the 3 yr old diesel in the tank cause some of the smoke? I'm sure with 260k its due at least for some injector o-rings?


Thanks
JR

 

Old diesel probably isn't good. I'd either drain the tank and refil or add a lubricity additive.

 

Old diesel will make it run a bit strange. It won't make it smoke blue, though. Blue is always oil. White or black can be fuel related.

White smoke when cold is usually bad glow plugs, but white smoke can also be caused by weak injectors and possibly by old fuel.

I wouldn't worry about it. Drive it and fill up periodically, that will dilute the old fuel with new.

 

I ran a car on ten year old diesel, don't worry about it.

 

Thanks everyone!