Hey fellers, I have a 1988 f350, with a 7.3 idi, but I heard that there was a glowplug relay under the dash, I didn't believe it, but AutoZone had one, its a little black plastic one, where is it located

 

Glow plug relay is behind air filter mounted on the rear of the intake. Looks like a fender mounted statter solenoid

 

The only black box under the dash, would be the chime or buzzer. Anything to do with the glow plugs is all in the engine bay.

 

Okay, but I don't know what's going on then, replaced controller, glow plugs, fuel pump, filter, and the injection pump, have one messed up boot, but I can still hear it cycling, I've read the damn read first section many times, still having starting issue in the am

 

What kind of plugs are you putting in? Use ONLY Motorcraft Beru ZD9 plugs.

What are your symtoms? It could have air intrusion also, that's usually caused by leaking return lines between the injectors, air leaks in, and fuel returns to the tank, and you gotta crank crank and crank to get it going again.



Inspect all your lines for fuel leaks, but not always will they leak fuel.

 

It cranks over, sometimes it will spudder then fire, but the only leak that im aware of is on top of the water seperator, I guess where the fuel heater is, it kind of flows out, but I did use duralast plugs. Is there like a small o ring in there?

 

I think there is indeed an O-ring in there, and that could be your problem.

 

Ok, one last thing, my truck came with a mount that doesn't have that stuff on there, would you recommend putting that back on?

 

For the water separator mount that is

 

if your not running a water separator then your injectors or ip could have excessive ware.water + high pressure fuel system = bad things.

there isn't much to ensure a good cold starting idi diesel.
(in order of importance imho.)
1.good compression.
2.a good starting system.batteries,cables,starter.everything clean and turning over strong and fast.
3.good fuel system (including ip/injectors) with no air nor fuel leaks.-a topped up fuel filter in the am.
4.glow plug system working 100%. approx 8-15 sec glow plug time on motorcraft only plugs.
5. power to the FSS.

it's simply a matter of testing each system.once fresh,she'll cold start without requiring an extension cord down to 0 easier than a gas engine will.i didn't give up until i got those results.was soooooooo worth the effort.

 

Well, my water Sep. Has I guess what's supposed to be a fuel heater, or maybe the water in fuel light wires on top, but its leaking pretty bad now, but I have a regular moutnt for the filter without the wires, it was about 31 deg. This morning and wasn't to terrible