Well I've done pretty much everything I can to fix the hard starting issues. I'm still not happy with it, but I guess it's as good as it's gonna be. At 30 degrees, it took 5 tries and it reluctantly finally fired up. It smokes like crazy, I think blue but can't tell for sure because it's dark out. I planned on fueling up so I dumped a quart of atf and some Power Service in the tank. I made a couple stops and then took it on a 10-15 drive mostly country roads and highway. When I got home I noticed the smell of anti-freeze. I popped the hood, all around the radiator cap was wet as well as the drivers side of the engine compartment. I popped the cap on the overflow bottle and noticed it was bubbling heavily. I popped the radiator cap, it shot up with a lot of pressure. It was not bubbling like the overflow, the anti-freeze was not very hot. The engine temperature gauge (mechanical) read 170-180 degrees. At first I was thinking I had a compression leak into the cooling system. But with no bubbles in the radiator, maybe not? Also I failed to mention earlier I replaced the radiator. Any thoughts or opinions?

 

I wonder if the overflow bottle air vent got plugged somehow? When the antifreeze expands due to heat, it goes through the cap and into the overflow. If there was pressure building up in the overflow bottle, it might not be able to get out that way, and the cap opened enough to let it leak out.

You might try just opening the lid on the overflow bottle and running it that way for a heat cycle, see if that helps.

You may(also) have an issue with the radiator cap -- make sure the rubber gasket on the bottom is clean, and there's no crud anywhere on the seating surface or in the cap jamming it closed.

 

Have you replaced the return lines and caps?
Age of IP and injectors?
Age of batteries and starter?
8 motorcraft glowplugs?

 

I have a suspicion the cap may be defective even though it's new. I'm thinking I might put a 7lb cap on it. It seems like the cooling system is building up too much pressure. I put a return line kit in about 3 years ago. The IP has around 20-30k on the rebuild. The injectors (Delphi) have probably 30k on them. The batteries were replaced last year, still carry 12.6 volts. The starter was just rebuilt last month, all cables are in good shape; I also added extra ground cables. I replaced the GPs last night. I did a compression test recently, that checked out good as well.

 

Get the radiator completely full leave the radiator cap off then start it and see if bubbles come out the top of the radiator. If so head gasket issue if not keep looking

 

I did have the engine running with the cap off, no bubbles. I suppose I could hook up the pressure tester to verify. There was no overheating. I checked the oil, no anti-freeze mixing in.

 

I did have the engine running with the cap off, no bubbles. I suppose I could hook up the pressure tester to verify. There was no overheating. I checked the oil, no anti-freeze mixing in.

 

I think this is the issue, 5 tries is a lot of cranking for an otherwise healthy engine. Perhaps an electric fuel pump is in order.

 

Sorry I failed to mention, did the Facet Duralift 40285 conversion as well. Return lines are the only thing left, without getting back into the IP and injectors. Deleted the return line on the ff head and advanced the timing a pinch as well.

 

I ordered up a return line kit, gonna try that. Hopefully that fixes it, running out of possibilities.