My wife has been telling me our '01 E-350 (Econoline) with 7.3 is taking several attempts to start in the mornings, like it's not even trying to fire. It will crank like wild but no fire and then it will fire usually and sometimes run a little rough but no always.

Tonight she called me from across town and it won't start at all, cranks like wild but won't start, chug or anything.

The WTS light is working fine, the truck runs great and idles smooth all other times, just been giving grief when starting in the mornings (warm outside 70 degree plus ambient temp). I haven't had the truck do it to me but she has explained it well enough.

I do get a SES light for overboost when I run it hard (PHP tuned) but it always goes away and hasn't caused any issues. Could this be the ICP acting like this? If so, is it true that I can just unplug it and the truck will start by using default pressure?

Any ideas before I go over there and monkey with this thing?

Thanks!

 

Unplug the chip then try. Next, check ipr tin nut make sure its tight

 

ON the chip part, just unplug the selector or unhook it from the PCM? The PCM on this is a complete nightmare to get to. I will check that tin nut as well

 

From pcm....

 

I knew that, I just didn't want to believe it...

 

Unplugged the icp, still no start. Verified rpm is there with scan tool still no start... ????

 

The ipr bud, not ICP. It's located at bottom of hpop

 

Three things required to start one of these- RPM, oil, and fuel.
You have RPM.
Is the oil full and of decent cleanliness?
Is the fuel pump working?

If you have a decent scanner, I would recommend checking injector control pressure, and cam/crank sync. You need 500psi to enable injectors.

Unplugging the ICP sensor defaults to 2500psi, enabling injectors. If it still won't start, though, there either is less than 300-350psi oil pressure or a lack of fuel.

 

My scanner isn't smart enough to check actual pressure, fuel pump is coming on. Rpms get up to 300ish on my scanner while cranking(it's cranking fast). Oil is full and decent shape. Disconnected the icp to get the pcm to default and still no start

 

Have rpm, have oil, fuel pump comes on. Still no start

 

I just threw in my new spare camshaft position sensor and no change.. Laying out here in the rain is so amusing. This thing has me stumped... Not getting any fuel out the exhaust so I'm thinking for whatever for forsaken reason the injectors simply aren't firing. I swapped the IDM relay with another unnecessary one and no change after that either.. Damn!

 

Gotcha, sorry I was all tangled up in the truck and read your reply wrong. I'll have to wait for daylight to investigate that beast, she's HARD to see on this darn Van.

Noticed something weird when I had the key on and was running the scan tool.. After about a minute of the key being on I hear a couple relays click on and off under the dash then the WTS light cycles a couple of times too... Never seen that on my 7.3's before but who knows??

 

Do you hear the fuel pump turn on after turning the key and before starting? Not sure if the vans have the same fuel pump as the SD, but it is an idea.

 

Yes sir I do hear it, I crawled under it and i can hear it come on.

This sounds stupid but I'm almost wondering if it isn't the GPR... In the heat of the moment I may have dove too far into the no start issue. I have the doghouse off and I can't hear it click on. I'm gonna test it after work today. I would think it would start without it once it was warmed up right?? The engine was warm and it didn't even try to start. Anyone have a warm engine not start with a bad GPR?

 

As far as I know the truck should start down to 40-50 degrees without the glow plugs. Don't quote me on that. It's got to be something else.