I just recently traded for a 1995 F350 7.3L with 259,000 miles on it.. I immediately noticed a problem when I would go up a steep hill and the check engine light would come on and it would lose power.. Shortly after that the check engine light turned off and the truck died on me.. I let it sit and cool off a little, then had to use a little starting fluid to get it back running again.. It has trouble starting when it's hot or cold, it'll just crank but won't fire at all.. I'm new to the diesel world so I'm clueless on what it could be.. Any help would be greatly appreciated !!! Thank you !!!

 

Check fuel pressure.the tap is on drivers side of fuel filter housing.it looks like a tire valve stem.need 20 cranking and 50 running.

Don't use starter fluid ever again.unless you want to blow junk up.

Get back after that

 

Could be a lot of things. I'd ask the guy you traded with what he did to it maintenance wise.

 

How recently did you trade? When was the last time the oil was changed? Is the oil full?

When it cranks and won't fire, are you getting any smoke out of the tail pipe?

 

Sounds like the tin nut on the IPR has come off, and when you go up a steep hill, the coil slides back on the stem causing it to die. Might have finally slide all the way off and causing it not to start. I have seen this happen a few times.

 

I traded on Monday.. The guy didn't have it long but he never changed the oil but it has enough oil, it has a oil leak and the guy would just add oil to it without changing the filter.. I plan on servicing it today.. And when it starts up I see some blackish/grayish colored smoke come out the tail pipe

 

Sounds like the PO (or perhaps several PO's back....) just kept topping up the oil, thinking that constitutes "changing" it. Bad idea with any engine, since it can't magically leak/burn only the oid oil, there's ALWAYS going to be some VERY old oil in the engine using that method. Goes doubly so with an engine that relies on consistent quality engine oil under pretty high hydraulic pressure to run.

F350-6's smoke question was about whether it smokes when it CRANKS, but does NOT start. (Or when it cranks before starting.) That bit of info helps to narrow down the no-start (or hard-start) possibilities.