Hi all, had a fun cold start issue this weekend - '02 Ex with 7.3. Went camping with the fam up around 8k feet elevation (not sure if that matters). Was raining a bit Friday night and temp overnight dropped to low 40's. Woke up Saturday and truck just would not start. Let the plugs cycle a few times and it would cough but never turn over. Glow plugs are less than a year old along with new wiring harnesses and all. Waited until mid afternoon when the temps hit 65 and she finally fired up and had no troubles the remainder of the day.

Woke up today (Sunday) after same conditions (Rain, high 30's) and she wouldn't turn over again. I even tried the Ether trick to no avail. She'd cough a little with the hit of Ether but never turn over. Waiting until the temps hit 60 and she still wouldn't turn. I even borrowed a generator and let it sit plugged in for an hour. Eventually had her towed all the way down the mountain - 77 miles to around 5.5k elevation. Got her off the truck and she actually fired right up. Lots of white smoke but didn't seem to labor at idle or under load. Any ideas?

I do have a TS Performance chip in her but it is set at the stock settings. No CEL and no codes were thrown, at least with the reader I had on hand. I'm certainly stumped but I have a lot to learn with the diesels.

 

By not turnover do you mean not start...but turning over? How fast is it turning over..often in colder temps you can find a weakness in the batteries.

 

Correct, it would not start, it would turn and it occasionally would sputter but would never completely fire. It didn't seem like the batteries were causing any lagging in the starter, I even had a jump from the campground hosts, but I'll definitely add checking the batteries to the list, maybe not enough cold cranking amps? Seems like that wouldn't be an issue once the temp hit above 60 though but electrical is not my forte...thanks for advice!

 

Did you replace the glow plugs with Motorcraft?