So i will be driving my truck to school for senior year and it will sit outside in the winter for about 6 hours. Its a 1985 f350 crew cab DRW conversion 6.9l i believe its the 1985.5 because it was made in feb. or Jan. It has a block heater but shes up there in miles about 265k on trans and engine. Id hate to have to use ether to get the truck started. I was thinking of getting a proable battery generator thingy to plug the truck into while im in class so it stays nice and warm. Last thing i need is to kill the batterys and need a tow because it wouldnt start.

What do you guys think i should do for the winter? I use diesel kleen winter formula for the anti gel.

 

Double cycle on glow plugs and start shouldn't be an issue

 

i also forgot to mention she has a very slight air intrusion problem. it wont stall when you start it but she runs rough for about 10-15 seconds till the airs out.

 

How cold is it usually?

 

last year in north jersey it got into the teens at night so im guessing between 25-38 degress. thats without wind.

 

Gets into the teens here and we have no issues with this truck. Obviously make sure your starter, cables and batteries are ok and that your truck is keeping a charge without draining down.

Speaking from experience I would get that carrier electric pump. It makes starting so much easier for those of us with mostly sound fuel systems with a bit of air intrusion. What I actually thought were cold harder starts before actually went away with the electric pump. Now you just put the key in, wts for like 10 seconds to make sure its primed with fuel, and I hit the manual glowplug controller switch for a count of 8-10 and bam it starts up within 5 revolutions.

That is with an old starter that has been through hell as well, I plan on getting a gear reduction starter at some point.

The battery drain thing is what scares me. Our truck was cursed when we got it with all sorts of electrical hacks and there was a parasitic drain.

We also have marine terminals on our batteries, so unhooking the battery leads is very simple and something I have done once in a while since I never really trusted the old truck and old owner.

On mine I have never had to hit the glowplugs twice to get it to fire. I have got frustrated and done so before I got the electrical pump, just because I was fighting the fuel drainback after the truck was shutdown.


I have watched the same thing happen to my old vw jetta. I may not leak fuel on ground but just a tiny air leak and you can watch the clear lines and fuel run back to the tank, bubbles in injector line and at pump inlet. It can make that poor little car skip and buck when cold and it will smoke white for a minute as it clears itself out. Doesn't do that now since I replaced the injection pump, etc. but we are dealing with the same things on our trucks. Air is no good

 

simple answer is to fix the air intrusion problem.

 

SPOIL SPORT!!!

 

If you have a solid fuel system and 8 good, working glow plugs you do not need any other cold start aids.

I just recently went threw what you will be going threw. last winter i drove my truck to school. i did not know that i had 4 bad glow plugs. it was a pita to start after sitting in school for 6 hours and once it finally started i would fill the parking lot with white smoke. i got good injectors, IP, and plugs and it started great.

 

If you have good glow plugs and batteries, it should not need anything else to start. Fixing the return line leak will definitely help shorten cranking time. I am battling a air leak myself. I think mine is the fuel heater that I repaired. I'm just gonna RTV the stupid thing.

 

or JB weld it rather.
chances are it doesn't work anymore anyway?
if it works, you should be able to feel it get pretty warm.
they're too expensive to replace anyway imho.much better off wrapping the thing up with your coolant filter with high temp wrap,since you have one installed.
that will likely keep it warmer than that factory thing.
if you didn't have a coolant filter, titan makes a nice wrap type fuel/oil filter type heater, much cheaper and better solution.
out in Texas of course,i don't think you'll have much trouble without one anyway lol.

 

F250, Yeah I really don't think I need a fuel heater in 110F weather. It does get cold in the winter but not anything like it does in MA. No -15F for a week. Part of the time I lived up there, I was going to school and I had to ride my bike a few miles to school and it was like -10F. That sucked.

xltblt, I just saw this on craigslist:

Big Truck = Battery Booster

 

I don't want to go to far off topic.

I am going to assume senior year in high school?

If so enjoy every minute of it. it goes by so fast. i graduated from high school this past june. when we got out of school it seemed like the first day of senior year was just the other day. Finish out strong too. don't slack off the last month or so of school. don't be one of those kids that all they think about is all the grad parties. there was one kid in my class that did not graduate. he was saying all senior year, "man there are going to be so many grad parties this year". well unfortunatly that mentallity is the exact reason why he did not get to walk across the stage and get his diploma or have grad party.

good luck and gongrats on making it.