Hey all,

I have been trying to help a friend out with a no start issue on his CCLB 2001 SD F350. He just bought the truck explicitly for towing a 40’ goose-neck. The truck has around 260k, auto, and very minimal blowby for the miles on it. He got it home and it sat briefly, and now it will not fire. I am quite familiar with 7.3s, but this one has me a bit confused as well. Here is what has been done.

• He replaced both batteries with fresh ones, old ones weren't all too impressive
• Replaced the fuel filter
• Oil is full in the pan and HPOP, HPOP stays full, dummy gauge on dash will pressurize…
• New Motorcraft CPS(actually we have been through a few with fingers crossed)
• Verified fuel will fill the bowl once drained
• Verified RPM by scan gauge and dash gauge flutter during cranking
• Verified a healthy icp of around 700 psi during cranking
• Verified the tin nut is nice and snug
• Tank of good diesel
• Maxi Fuse is not blown and have a normal WTS light
• Verified all the plugs are good on the VC harnesses
• No codes stored?????
• No chip that we know of…

I’m sort of at a loss now with it. We have plugged it in at night just to see if that will assist with a cold start issue or worn poppet valves on the injectors, but still nada. It’s been near 50 when he has been cranking so I could care less about the glow plugs right now. We can go ahead and ohm the glow plugs and test the relay but with the temperatures where they are, I’d think we are in the clear, especially after plugging it in. Temps did get down to -10 to -15 a couple weeks ago, but I am sure if the fuel was a summer blend it has un-gelled by now had a few days well into the 50’s since. Mid teens to twenties at night recently, but will be in the upper 30 at night for the rest of the week and near 65 on Friday.

So we are still trying to figure why we can’t even get a sputter out of, may even hit it with a shot of ether. We do not have AE, however I will be picking it up within a month or so. With not a single fault code stored, I would doubt it’s the IDM. I guess our only test left is a buzz test but all 8 solenoid packs don’t fail on a whim.

To be honest it sounds like a fuel issue to me, or an electrical break in communication between the PCM and injectors, but I am not counting out poppet valves, and I know we both don't want to consider that.... What all do you think? What’s next? It would be nice to at least hear it cough….

 

Crap this should be in the 99+ SD section... someone want to move it..so used to posting in the OBS section

 

I just had a no start issue, and it's not cold here at all. After checking a bunch of things, it ended up being the IPR harness, diesel and engine oil ate the insulation away at the plug and it shorted out. I used the injector plug from an old UVCH and replaced it. Truck started right up! Just another place to check.

Rusty

 

It may not be a bad idea to put your idm in his truck just to rule it out. Or vise versa. His idm in your truck.

 

Good to know we will take a look!

That's the plan if we cant get it figured out within the week. One question are SD and OBS IDMs interchangeable due to the split and single shot injectors? Is that only specific to the PCM and does not effect the IDM??

 

The pcm tells the idm what to do. The Idm doesn't care what kind of injectors, splits or singles. The only difference is the sd idm is 110 or 120 volt

 

Understood. Thank you.

 

Well we are at an IDM or fuel pump, he is picking up fittings to test pressure during cranking at one of the quick connect points. Bowl fills but I am not seeing any white smoke, will try my IDM this weekend.

 

All right guys. I need a bit more help. Finally had a chance to get up and take a look at it with him this past weekend. Right off the bat the batteries were fairly dead, Swapped out with a fresh set and put a pair of cables on it to get a solid charge.

We replaced the Idm with the one out of my truck. Verified good fuel pressure, had an RPM and were generating white smoke. Truck did not even sputter.

One thing i picked up that I thought was quite weird was his ICP was reading 24xxpsi during cranking between 30-35DC.. on his scan gauge. What would cause this?

 

Think I'd be looking at the ipr.

 

New motorcraft, I'll see if it has a pinched o ring when he installed it...

 

IPR was fine. We found out the pigtails were severely damaged once pulling back the tape. Replaced all the pigtails, and the problem persists. Popping the VCs and hope to find fried UVCHs. I assume the high pressure is due to injectors not opening and the pump pumping against a closed system? Or am I high as a kite?

 

Hpop mechanical issue? Sounds like youve covered your electrical "what ifs"...
Have you checked for codes after this last go-round?

 

I did not check his codes. He just called and his wife surprised him for Christmas and had it towed to a shop. Unfortunately I do not think they know what the heck they are doing though. Told him the idm and ECU were bad... I said they are full of it. There wouldn't be any unburnt diesel smoke if that were the case, there would be no read out of any parameters, no WTS, etc.... Am I wrong? I wish I could help him more but we are quite aways apart. I think next trip I will have AE and bring it up....

 

Aw man that sucks!!! My worst nightmare; taking my truck to a "shop".... Well in her defence its the thought that counts but i hope you said "dont let them touch anything"!! Kinda sucks now, your stuck in the middle... Sometimes people just arent "car people"...
BTW, and a little off the subject do you race? My first "vehicle" was a bike and ive been riding for the last 22 years... Im a Duc man myself... Course, ive gotta have a superbike in the collection...