Ok guys I have a 96 F250 XL, 136,000. It been hard starting in blow 45 since I bought the truck in the end of decemeber last year. My Wait to start light was on for about 10 maybe 15 secs. Then Off, So I put a new Napa GP109 Glow plug relay in the truck then. That didn't seam to help it so I just pluged it in every night. I figured it was my glow plugs them selfs. So I order all new ones and had them for a while. With the cold coming again this year I descided this weekend was the time for new glow plugs! I pulled the vavle covers and put all the the new glow plugs in! They where easy to change. About 4 hours total with 2 giving me a little trouble. Also got the grage some what clean! Now I figured with them being new my wait to start light would be on longer! Not! Still 10 to 15 secs. I also bought new wires for inside the vavle covers but ford sold me the wrong ones but all my wire looked good with no burn plugs, wires ends. Mine have clips on the side and the new ones had a metal flip band. They will go back! I put a test light on my glow plug relay and it stay on for about a minute and a half. I'm going to do the LED light mod just got to figure out where to put it. So that was my saturday.

Now does anyone know why my lights only still on for 10 to 15 secs? I will see how she starts tomorrow it will be about 40 out so it should tell me if they are working or not. I don't have a fuel bowl heater right now! That going to be next weekends project to pull the bowl, replace the O rings and new peace for the heater. Little tab broke in old one! Thanks Neil for the new one!

Thanks guys!
Doug

 

The light is a dummy light. It doesn't show how long the GPR is sending power to the glow plugs. When you get that LED mod in, you will see what im talking about. Check back when you try with the new glow plugs. That should fix your issue.

 

The wait to start light is the minimum amount of time required before a starting attempt but the glowplugs can still stay on up to 2 minutes while the engine is running, on really cold days I'll even wait another 10 seconds after the "wait to start" light goes out and I find that helps.

As for the glow plug relay GPR109, I've gone through 3 of them in 4 years, they do work but I have had bad luck with them not lasting, I baught the proper one 2 weeks ago at double the price but if it lasts 2 years I'm ahead and I only put put 8000miles on my truck a year and thats highway miles, not shot trip frequent start ups.

If you got new glow plugs, new glow plug relay and batteries are in good order and from the sounds of it your glow plug systems is working fine, then you got other issues.

 

GPR 109 ,s from napa have a 1 year warranty ...

 

You can also tell how long the glow plugs are energised by looking at the volt meter. it jumps up when the glow plugs shut off.

 

Ok guys, It fired right up this morning. Left the key on about 1 mintue then started it. Still got a bluesh tint smoke but only a little. I think the new starter helped to.

Now with the LED light mod all I do is run my hot wire off my light to the side of the relay that has power when the glow plugs are on. Then I just ground the other side right? Going to get a led light tomorrow. Blue, red or green?

 

Yessir, and the blue smoke is probably from leaking orings.

 

I do burn a little oil in 5,000 miles maybe a qaurt. I'm going to stage 1's next year some time so that when I'll get new O rings. Now need to rebuild the fuel bowl to stop the very small leak I have. It small Dime size spot under the truck over the night!

 

Yes Sir, I bought everything from Radio Shack, Per the instruction - floating around here, I didn't save them - I placed a auto in-line fuse holder with a 1/2 Amp Slow-Blow fuse. Radio Shack has multiple colored LEDS..I used Amber to match the WTS lamp color. Pretty simple mod. Just find a Hole through the firewall...I found a ground wire just above the PCM area....

IDM, IDM, IDM...my bad! Letters are running together....

 

PCM? Don't remeber where that is. LOL

 

Pcm is directly behind your emergency brake, Which is what i usually use for grounding and I'm assuming he is too, Just undo one of the bolts and slip your eyelet over the stud, then bolt her back up.

 

And thats where I got mine and they all failed shortly after 1 year.

 

Also tired valve stem seals

 

Not sure what you mean there?

 

Valve stem seals can get hard and leak by, what happens is oil leaks past the valve stem seals once you shut the engine off. Next time you re-start the truck, you have that little bit of oil sitting on the valve that can be drawn in and burned creating blue smoke. I've had a few cars that were like that, gasser engines but I can't see why it would be any different on a diesil.