Well gents its been awhile but I figured id stop in on the forum(s) and seek some advice. Work has been stupid busy with the dang inauguration and state of the union coming up, plus near future training ops so I haven't had time to do crap!

I have several issues still with the new-used motor installed and its killing me. Right now the truck is at a very good 7.3 mechanics house, and he's doing some diagnosing for me.

2000 F250 155k on motor, Rosewood 160/100% single shots less than 1100miles on them, No Limits Tuning on a ts6 pos.

Issue #1: Hard, very hard cold start. Plugging it in isn't an option, and im almost positive the gp relay is toast but ill find out this week when he calls. That's not the only underlying issue I think though. Its taking 3-4, 10-15second cranking sessions to get this thing to fire in 30* temps. Oil pressure doesn't come up on the first or even second cranking session, which leads me to believe I have HPO leaking down somewhere.

Issue #2: When this thing does finally fire, LOOK OUT! She lets out a blue/white smoke bomb like no-other. Picture the mushroom cloud of an atom bomb coming out of my tail pipe, then has a steady haze until warm. It is also surging 50-100 rpm differences at cold idle, even on high idle tune and doesn't smooth out until warm. AE shows the ICP pressure fluctuating don't recall the numbers but I believe it was 100 or so PSI. I haven't thrown my knew ICP sensor in yet, but the one in it is who knows how old. Also some people think tuning may be a key factor at play here, but ill pull the chip and check it out (don't know how stock pcm will run the single shots).

Issue #3: Not sure if its an issue, I haven't been around single shot injectors in a lonnnnng time, but should it be SUBSTANTIALLY louder than the splits? I mean this thing rumbles now.

Issue #4: Not really an issue just a question, I have about 1" of oil on top of my de-gas bottle. The level hasn't increased any, do you guys think it could have gotten mixed up between me swapping all the old parts off my old motor onto this motor?

Im thinking all this is a result from glowplugs not doing there job, thus having the cold *** 15-40 molasses moving very slowly until things come up to temp a little bit, I sure hope its that easy.

Once the truck is warm I have no issues, just trying to avoid "having" to drive it till I have this 100% sorted out.

Right now I want to do brand new UVCH's (current ones have some miles on them just a peace of mind thing), GPR, I think its original, and swap in that new ICP sensor. When I get the truck back ill remember to check the reservoir to see if oil is leaking back down.

 

Your truck will run single shots with no tuning. It won't idol smooth but it should run ok off idol. Try pulling the chip to see if it solves anything. If you are going to change your uvch's I would also install new "FORD" glow plugs. Don't use Autolite! Also replace your relay with a gpr 109 from Napa it's the cheapest option, the mounting bracket is clocked wrong but for half the price you can make it work. I would start with the above. It's always a good thing to have your glowplug system in top condition.

 

You are so overfueled. Check your GPR, get your UVCH installed, and find out if that oil keeps coming at your degas bottle. If this were my truck, I'd tackle the easy-to-test-and-fix problems, then sort out what's left.

 

Can you elaborate a bit on this particular comment please?
1"of oil in the degas bottle is a bit of an issue IMO....

 

Get that hard start issue fixed, and I bet a LOT of that initial smoke will go away too. What is happening is your injectors are flooding the cylinders with fuel to start, and ignition isnt happening. When it finally does ignite, there is too much fuel to burn and POOF! Smoke.

 

I'm with you here. Bad cup or head gasket is going to flush the punchbowl at this dog party.

 

Oil in coolant is oil cooler. Fuel is an injector cup (sleeve) cracked or not properly retained. I mistook fuel for oil, but once someone straitened me out, I felt stupid to confuse the two. Oil will be very separate, not mixed at all. Black layer on top like what you say. Fuel will turn milky and leave just a thin film or residue on top.

Yes, I guess it may be oil that made its way to the coolant system during the swap, but 1" is quite a bit to just be residual. If you haven't done the oil cooler, that's where I'd look.

And like the others, I'm betting on glow plugs/GPR being the cold start issue, and check the reservoir like you said before cranking next time to see if its draining down. I've had issues with GPR before that would drain the batteries before cranking and that was upper 20s.

 

Oops... I'm glad somebody is here to catch me when I slip.

 

as far as oil in the degass bottle..It could be from where the motor was put together..I had about 1/2" of oil..Take and pince the hose from the bottom of the bottle to the radiator,remove the degass bottle and clean with soap and water..I used Dawn to get the oil out..Then keep an eye on to be sure..

 

Yeah i spend most of my time looking for people to post something up that's wrong so I can correct it

No seriously, I just know cause of my recent cup replacements and I did a LOT of research in the process. The only way that I could tell that oil could get to the coolant from a bad cup would be to mix with fuel first. It's not impossible, but much more likely the oil cooler.

 

Yeah, me and a few others who looked at the amount (an inch might be an exaggeration because I have a brand new clear de-gas bottle) and they said if my cooler needed new rings, that it would continue to increase the amount in the de-gas bottle. Im pretty certain it was just from me being sloppy and tired when swapping everything over (the oil coolers had to be swapped) and it got a little mixed up, ill pull the bottle off and clean it out real good before I go tearing into the cooler.

The mechanic is working on the hard start and he also agrees that its GPR/GP related and thus the cylinders are flooding with fuel and causing the initial smoke bomb, because after that its normal cold 7.3/stage1 smoke.

Upon getting that sorted out I think the chip is going back to NLT to get some tweaking, i'm not bashing them, and it may have been because jim burned the tunes for me, but I definitely am not satisfied with the tunes. UVCH's and all new GP's are going to be a for sure thing, then after that ill chase the rest of these ghost's down. Not even close to giving up though

 

I had issues with Stinky that made many look to blame the tunes... but as each mechanical issue was cleared up, the tune questions diminished.

 

I recently put in new Glow Plugs on my truck. It was very hard starting, similar to yours. It would puke major smoke until it got warm, UNLESS I had it plugged in first. Turns out, I had 3 bad glow plugs, but swapped in all new anyways. That completely cured all starting issues I had, including the smoke at startup. I just replaced my GPR in the fall, so that wasn't my prob....it was all the glow plugs!

The 1 inch of oil in the Degas bottle sounds like a bigger problem...

 

semper fi!

 

Edit: Scratch that