I'm new to diesels, but I'm a fair wrench turner. I have a 95 F350 with a 7.3L PowerStroke engine. When I got the truck it had a bad flywheel (Dual-Mass) which I've changed out. When I ran the truck on my scanner (Snap On) it showed a bad exhaust backpressure sensor. I've changed that out and now the scans show all systems pass. The problem I have is that it's hard to start, idles like it's missing on several cylinders and blows whitish smoke from the exhaust. When driven at speed, it seems to run OK but it still blows whitish smoke although it's hard to feel a miss. I drained and cleaned the fuel system and added new fuel and filters but the problem persists. I may be wrong, but I'm thinking this is a timing issue. How do you check and set the timing on one of these beasts?

 

Your timing is ok. If it was too advanced the diesel knock would be very loud. If too retarded it would be gutless. I know I have experimented with VW diesels over the years.
Smoke in the exhaust: sounds like injector o-rings getting ready to fail and/or failing turbo.

 

Are the O-Rings hard to change, or need special tools to do? I'm just a poor boy and don't want to spend $$$$ on repairs I can do myself. As I've said, I'm a good wrench and quick study but know next to nothing about working on diesels. I'm pretty good with late model fuel injected gas engines and computer controls are no mystery to me so I'm hoping that with this background that this is something I can do myself, or am I dreaming???

 

if its a powerstroke(no injection pump), you can't adjust the timing, if it was missing, you'd KNOW it, mine did it on one cylinder and i thought it was going to blow up, i think maybe put like a quart or so of Lucas fuel treatment in each tank and run the hell out of it... i put 2 quarts in each tank of my 95 powerstroke when i got some bad fuel one time and it runs good after that, lucas says a quart is good for 100 gals. but if you read it says something like "too much wont hurt" or something, so i bought a gallon and dumped it in it worked tho

 

i heard something about putting a resistor inline to the oil temp sending unit to play with timing, but i wouldnt try it

 

Deisel innovations has a good writeup on how to do it. It's not hard on the brain, kind of like changing giant spark plugs. Just make sure that you get all the oil and fuel out of the cylinders that fell in when you pull the injectors or you will hydrolock the motor when you attempt to start it again.

 

If you are having a hard time starting cold I would look into changing the glow plug relay. If it has the small oval shaped relay it may be the original style and prone to having a short lifespan. The relay is located just toward the passengers side of the fuel filter bowl. You said that you changed the exhaust back pressure sensor. You may have to remove the tube that it was attached to, all the way back to the exhaust manifold, and clean it out. I have heard of some guys using a chunk of wire rope on an electric drill to snake it out (after it is removed from the truck). Fills up with black gunk. The most important thing to mention is the oil. Because the oil in the powerstroke is responsible for operating the injectors at relatively high pressures you need to make sure that it is of the proper API service rating (cg-4, ch-4 or better) and that it is changed often enough. These trucks always seem to run better after an oil and filter change. Anyways, a few things to look at.

Good Luck! Kelly

 

Yes, what Azu607 said.

 

i just rememberes this, a ford mechanic once told me that there could be a leak on one of the o-rings in the oil pressure part of the injection system and when you let it sit, it gets air in the OIL lines, and he also said that air in the oil lines is worse than air in the fuel system, but he said it is harder to start when it is hot than when it is cold, its all slowly soming back to me, now that i think about it he said only when its hot, it may not have anything to do with your roblem.. just some ideas,i think these o-rings are hard to change, i wouldnt try it, run some of that lucas fuel treatment, sometimes that works, put oil stabilizer in it too, like 2 quarts in the engine