I have a 2000 f-250 7.3l diesel. I have 76,000 miles on the truck. When the engine warmer is plugged in it starts fine. When it has been run in the last 4 hrs., starts fine. When it is above 50 it will start with one to three attempts. Each time letting the glow plugs heat until the wait to start light goes off. If it is below fifty the number of attempts goes up as the tempature goes down. Always works when you plug it in. I haven't tried any repairs because I wasn't sure where to start. Is this a glow plug problem? How tuff of a job is it to replace glow plugs? I don't want to get into a trial and error thing with a shop. I have heard where owners take their trucks to an International Shop for Diesel repairs. Does this sound familiar? Any other ideas on fixing this problem.

 

I would guess that you have one of two problems. One is easy to test and the other will not. My first guess is you need glow plugs. I have 175000 miles on my 7.3 and have had to replace the glow plugs about every 60 to 70 thousand miles. You can test them with a multi-tester but that just because they check out to be working, doesn't show that they can be totally covered with carbon deposits. Once they are dirty the heat they produce can not get through the carbon that covers them. The other but less likley vermon would be an engine temp sensor that is telling the glow plug module that the enging is warm enough to go w/o glow plug heat.
Hope this helps,
IBILT@WANS>NET
92 F-350 4x4 7.3w/Banks Turbo

 

Ibiltiger, I see you have a Banks Turbo. I have no experience with them, and am wondering are they worth the investment? How much better than stock are they? Cost?, and would you do it over again if you had the choice?

Thanks,

 

I'll start with the glow plugs. Have you changed them before? How does it go on a 2000?

 

Johnp034,
I installed my Sidewinder this winter on my 92 F-350. It was a job, but if you have a good selection of tools and a weekend you have nothing to do with, it's the best thing you will ever do to your truck. I was BLOWN AWAY by the power the old gal could put out. My truck had 170000 miles on her when i put the Banks system on. There are a few rough spots in the installation but if you do decide to do it, contact me by e-mail again and I would be glad to give you my phone number and talk you through them. I put off doing it for a long time because of the cost and not knowing what the results per dollar invested would be. Let me tell all of you that are thinking of doing this to your truck, DO IT and DO IT N O W !!!!! You won't be dissapointed. My truck will excellerate faster now pulling a 5500lb trailer than it would empty before. 3rd gear used to be a real drag when pulling my trailer but now the truck don't care what gear you are in, just give her a little 6 to 11 lb boost and hang on!
Let me know if you do ian and how you feel about the results.
later,
ibiltiger
ibilt@wans.net

 

I have done them on my 92 and before I installed the turbo it wasn't bad. Now it's kinda a pain in the butt. If you do not do alot of wrenching take it in. If you do take it somewhere, I've found that small private large truck shops will give you a deal on this kind of job if you let them use it as filler work between major jobs in their shop.
peace,
ibiltiger

 

Looks like you guys are talking about 2 different 7.3's. The 92 7.3 with a banks turbo is easy to change glow plugs on. If you can change spark plugs you can change glow plugs. The Powerstroke is different (I think) I was lead to believe that the glow plugs are inside the valve covers and its a major pain to replace them. I only have 16,000 on my 2002 so I haven't cared enough to check it out. With only 76,000 on your truck I would take it to the dealer and have him tell you what's wrong, I would think it would be a warrentee issue. I did have a glow plug relay replaced last month in Hays, Kansas when I gelled up with a bad load of fuel. The dealer bent over backwards to cover me on warrentee.

 

Lets start with the most likely cause, 1 relay or all 8 glow plugs. Make sure the relay works first. You should have battery power at the blk/org wire(big). If your relay is working properly, when the key is first turned on the the other large post with the yellow and brown wires should also have battery power for up to 120 seconds, the other two smaller terminals are the power and ground to turn the relay "on". To test that, just take your testlight and hook the alligator clip to either of the small terminals and touch the test light to the other(small) terminal, the polarity is not important, if the computer calls for glow plug operation the test light will illuminate. If your testlight lights at the small terminals but not at the terminal with the yellow and brown wires the relay is faulty. If the test lamp fails to illuminate at the 2 small terminals the problem could be the engine oil temp sensor is telling the computer that glow plug operation is not necessary. There may be other concerns like faulty wiring or a computer problem but this is unusual. The glow plug relay is on top of the passenger side valve cover (the rear relay) To simply test your glow plugs... unplug the connector at each valve cover gasket ( yes the gasket also serves as the harness) there will be 9 pins in the connector end of the valve cover, you want to test the outer 2 pins @ each end ie: a b c d e f g h i , the pins with the a&b, h&i locations are the terminals for the glow plugs (cdefg are for the injectors) Once you have located the proper terminals take your testlight and connect the alligator clip to the posative battery post and touch the tip of the test light to the glow plug terminals. If the light illuminates the glow plugs are generally fine. For 1999 and earlier vehicles there are 2 connectors at each valve cover, although the way to test is the same the terminal location is different. Print this out and keep it , may come in handy some day!

 

psd tech & ibiltiger, I'm new to posting, but have been reading all the helpful posts and replies of guys like yourself for quite some time now. I apologize in advance for the length of this post!!! I have been experiencing a very similar set of "cold weather" circumstances with a 2000 7.3L PSD, that bradley described, but my problems don't stop there. After the truck starts, if allowed to warm up for at least 5 minutes it will usually run normally. However if this "warm up" time is ignored, shortly after beginning your trip (within 1/2 to 1 mile, and before reaching highway speed), the truck will stall, blue smoking profusely. Sometimes backing out of the throttle, lessens the degree of stalling until the truck begins to develop power and accelerate back to a normal operation. Other times however it will stall completely, leaving you sitting on the shoulder cranking until it finally starts, just to repeat the process over again. (continued on the next post.......)

 

(......continued from previous post)
Once you've "driven through" this stalling, you couldn't ask for more power or response.This problem escelated this morning to blue smoking and even stalling to a stop during the "warm up" time.
Could your glow plug diagnosis of the problem bradley has be a contributor to the problems I've described?
Any info you can offer would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!! THANKS

 

Bradley, you say it ALWAYS works when you plug it in. I'm agreeing with Ibiltiger about it possibly being the temp sensor related. Do our diesels have an oil temp or just engine temp? I'd replace the sensor which is affected by the block heater that you plug in. When you plug in the block heater, the sensor tells the ECU that it doesn't need to activate the glow plug relay? and when it's cold, the sensor is not functioning right to where it isn't telling the glow plug relay to heat the plugs up (when it really needs to). Then again, the relay might not be doing it's job to heat the plugs. I could be totally wrong about this, but it just makes sense to me. If you plan on doin' this yourself, start replacing the cheaper part that could be the culprit, then go from there (i.e. temp sensor, then GPRelay, then glow plugs,etc) Just my .02 cents

 

89springer, the glow plugs operate for up to 120 seconds and are not dependant on the wait to start light. Try letting the vehicle warm up past 2 minutes. White smoke is unburned fuel that could be due to cold combustion chambers, also will probably be associated with a misfiring engine. Blue smoke could be oil or fuel. Black smoke is overfueling.



Vindicator, the glow plug system uses two things to controll glow plugs. Engine oil temperature and Barometric pressure are the only two things the computer looks at to turn on glow plugs. Temps above 86 degree's F glow plugs do not come on at all. There is a linear graph of glow plug "on time" according to EOT, from 0 seconds to 120 seconds. The Baro sensor will make small adjustments to the "on time". The block heater heats the coolant that is located in the oil cooler @ the back left of the engine. Some heat is transfered to the oil. The wait to start lamp always illuminates for about 5-7 seconds, whether its 50 degrees or -10 degrees. I have addressed this issue in previous posts, I think the thread topic was"loaping idle".

Hope this helps you all ! God Bless Our Troops!

 

I don't mean to be a wise guy, but I see alot of new parts thrown on a vehicle in an attemp to fix a faulty electrical connection. Diagnose it and replace only the part that is faulty.

 

Could stand it any more took it to a dealership. Glow plug relay. It was like they had seen that one before. Even when I was picking up a part, the parts guy was like "Glow plug relay." There you go.

 

Brad, good to see that your concern is repaired.