So I bought this truck in May, absolutely love it. However, i just found something that is an absolute requirement to fix.

I spent from Friday to Sunday camping in my truck skiing. The termperatures were, between 0 and 30 degrees most of the weekend. I am running the appropriate amount of power service to prevent jelling.

Saturday morning, it was 3 degress. Give the glow plugs two cycles, using the led, try to start on the third. DP tuner in stock. It took one hour of cranking the engine to get it to finally turn over and run. I am pretty sure i hit the absolute limit of battery power vs. amount of cranking it took to get her started. TONS of smoke.

So I ski'd all day Saturday, and did not start the truck, just slept in it till Sunday, ski'd all day Sunday and figured it would be warm enough at 35 degrees to not be a problem. Well, first thing i notice is that the glowplug LED is not coming on. I won't elaborate the long string of cuss words that erupted from my mouth at that point. I try to start it anyway, because I have no other choice on Sunday afternoon at 5 pm, 200 miles away from my house. After a few cranks, the led came on, and i cranked for about 15 to 20 minutes before she fired over.

Got home last night, and tried the led again and its not lighting. Now I need to check for a loose cable obviously, but could an hour of cycling the plugs kill the GPR like that? I remember there is a much stronger one, and now i am interested in hearing more about it. Its a stancor right?

The buddy that was with me was like oh yea my cummins would be blowing hot air by now, which pissed me off, but he had the thing in Laramie and started it at -37 not plugged in without a problem. So part of me is thinking... engine swap... but I love my 7.3 and there has to be a way to make it viable in Colorado temps.

So I know my fuel wasn't jelled, and I know that Diesels run off air, heat, and fuel. Air was cold, fuel was fine, so that leaves fuel delivery, and a lack of heat. Our engines use oil to deliver fuel correct?

Right now, I am running 15w40 Rotell T oil.
I am getting ready to switch to 5w40 Synthetic, but I am not sure which brand. Any suggestions? This should help right?

My buddy mentioned this system from Wabasto, that a friend of his had on his powerstroke. Keeps the coolant warm, so that cold starts aren't as destructive. Webasto - Parking Heaters for Automobiles thoughts?

I have the FRX and HPX, but have not installed them. Do you think they would help or hurt the situation?

Then there is a beefier GPR, and a Beefier starter? I have read a lot about both of those. Thoughts?

Does anyone who has there truck out away from civilization have their truck in sub freezing temps consistently have any suggestions where I don't have to be thinking about whether or not its going to start every time its cold and not plugged in?

Suggestions?


Oh yea, early 1999 f250, JW trans, DP tuner, ISSPRO Guages, Glow plug LED from RiffRaff. 6637 filter, Straight piped stock exhaust.

 

Guzzle has an outstanding article on how to swap out to the Stancor GPR:
Welcome to guzzle's Stancor GPR replacement Mod Web Page

i'd switch over oil to full syn. it really helps in the cold, i've noticed that 15w40 is very thick when cold and hard on the engine and oil pump.
i have installed a HPX and noticed that the PSD ran better, "quieted" down the PSD a bit and ran smoother, if that makes any sense.

also, might want to OHM your glow plugs and see if they're the issue. might as well check out the UVC harness while there too.

i'd recommend when you had the valve covers off to check/re-torque the rocker arm studs, but i cant find the link to the torque specs.

 

I have to use full syn oil in mine to avoid the romps on cold starts. It really does help it start alot. I had the Napa 109 GPR in my truck and it did fial from time to time so I went with the stancor. No troubles cold starting since.

 

Great!

On the oil, I have asked a ton of people this question and gotten just as many answers. JW said it wouln't be a problem, so thats the one I was going to go with, but I am not fully confident. Will switching to full syn with almost 293,000 on the clock cause a problem?

 

No, it was believed to long ago because of the amount of detergent that syn had, it was also said that the syn would clean the debries away, cause leaks, but then cause gaskets to re swell, re sealing the what ever the leak...

I believe you will be fine, but that you no start may have been caused by a bad or real soon to be bad relay. A LED is a lot easier to ligh then a glow plug, so if your contact is wearing away, you may still light hte LED, but not be getting much to the glow plugs.

Do you have an amp meter?

 

Will not cause a problem at all, go for it! Mine has never been started in as cold temps as yours but it did get in the 20's before and she fired right up like no tomm. You just have to make sure everything is up to working order properly. Also, turn the key to on position and let it be. Do not cycle once the wait to start light goes off. The glow plugs stay on for up to two minuets once the light goes out depending on temps outside.

 

That makes sense. I may just buy the Stancor today. If its that much of an imporvement its worth the $44 i'd say.

I do.


when I said cycle I meant after the glow plug led went out. So about 4 minutes of glow plug before starting, then tried about half way through the LED the rest of the time.

 

With that many miles on it could me a bunch of things. Did you ever replace the GPR? Did you ever replace the glow plug's? After that amount of cranking can't belive you starter is working did you ever replace it or the batt's? 5w-40 will help some but I don't think that is your problem!

 

Hook the amp meter up to the side you LED is connected, look for 120 amp draw. If it is higher, then most likely you have a bad contact, (check voltage, it should drop bad) IF significantly lower, then we might be missing a couple of GP's.

 

I would say your glow plugs are done. I would recommend spending the $90 to replace them and do the GPR while you are at it.

Apparently I am the only guy on the forums that has never touched my gpr or glow plugs in 303k miles

Good luck!

 

I'm in a similar boat as the OP.......running the same 15W-40 Rotella and not starting today.......with temps at 24F this morning. Awesome........

 

The good news, this is not uncommon, and we can walk you right through almost everything to check..

The First thing to check when it gets colder is your connections at the batteries, clean them, coat them with some nolax ( can be found at Home Depot )

Then from there we normally check the Resistance of the glow plugs

then we check the GPR contact,

 

First, just because it's lighting the LED doesn't mean the GPR is getting a good contact across the relay. They tend to arc and get burned spots in them that prevents a good connection, and the older they are the worse it gets. The fact that yours was going intermittent is a bad sign.

I'd say check your glow plugs, but if it's more than 5 years old replace the relay. Changing to 5w-40 will help a lot too. My pickup will reliably start a -20* as long as everything is working as it should.

 

I recommend replacing the glow plugs, the relay and consider bridging the intake air heater relay so that it comes on when the glow plugs are activated.

 

Given the fact that your truck looks very stock under the hood, I'd imagine that your still on the factory set of GP's. Relays are very easy to swap out and I would recommend the Stancor hands down. But, I had three bad glowplugs as well and the Stancor relay can only do so much with 5 good plugs. I also have switched to 5w-40 oil and that does help as well.

Dan, FYI he's an early bird truck so no AIH.