Hey all! Long time lurker first time poster.

Picked up a 94 7.3 IDI Factory turbo F250 (180,000 Miles) Friday night. The owner thought the transmission was toast. Turned out to just be the RPM sensor (lucky me) Anyway it has some other issues. Glow plugs were not working and the wait to start light would only stay on about 1 second when I bought the truck. It was very hard to start, ran like crap and bellowed out the smoke until it was warm. Well yesterday I put in a new set of Motorcraft glow plugs. Now the wait to start light functions as it should and the truck will fire right up. This DID help the smoking a great deal however it still does puff out quite a bit of smoke for awhile after it has been started. Also has a rough idle when cold. The idle does get better once the truck has been driven a couple miles. Once the truck is warm if you look really close with just the right lighting you can see just a hint of blue/white smoke, but nothing compared to start up. Start up Exhaust smell will burn your eyes too.

Here are my thoughts. Probably a leaking injector. However it could possibly be an ip or lift pump. The only thing that makes me think lift pump is the fact that the oil level is high. I scribed the stick and will keep an eye on it to see if it gets any higher (indicating the lift pump letting fuel into the crank case). However the previous owner did say that he just changed the oil in it about a week ago and he was a pretty young kid so its possible that it just got over filled. He also put a new fuel filter on at the same time. I plan on trying a filter full of diesel kleen and see what that does for me.

My question is this. What things can I try without just "throwing parts at it" I know a diesel shop here in town that I can get to check the injectors. I looked at the timing marks this morning and the ip is turned slightly to the drivers side. While looking at the timing marks I did notice there was a little fuel in the valley, so I dried that up to see if it returns or if its possibly from the filter replacement .

Any thoughs and info would be greatly appreciated.

 

The timing may be slightly retarded. With the engine off, loosen the 3 bolts that hold the Injector pump to the timing gear cover and turn the pump top towards the passenger side. Move the pump so the line on the pump moves about the width of a dime at a time. Then tighten the pump and see if it makes a difference. If it is the original pump, it is past due for a rebuild.

 

Just went out and adjusted the timing. I dimes worth lined the marks up. Took it for a ride seems to be running pretty good. Actually seems to have more power. Did NOT notice any rough idle. However the truck WAS already warm. I guess Ill put some diesel Kleen in her and let it sit over night and see how it does tomorrow.

BTW the ip and injectors all look to be original still (everything is still gray). So im sure both are over due for replacement. I have pyro and boost gauges on the way as well.

 

After adjusting the idle and letting some diesel kleen sit over night. She ran great this morning with no smoke and no rough idle. YAY! Thanks for the tip.