This is for my 00 F350 in my sig below. When my truck is not warmed up to operating temperature and I start it, the engine light stays on but goes off within a mile of driving. There are no codes being set. I have noticed a little higher idle than normal when driving until the engine gets up to operating temperature. I have also noticed that the truck doesn't bust off to start aggressively...meaning it rolls into a start instead of starting with an explosion so to speak. I just cleaned the back pressure sensor and tube after noticing the jet engine sound not coming in when colder and thought that would clear things up. I pulled the battery cables to see if it would reset the engine light, but natha. The batteries are in good operating order and are 1,000 cca along with the high torque starter.

 

You have, from what I have read had your truck for a long time (since 2001?). So you know that the 7.3 will act differently on any given day. By saying 'no codes', you must have a good device that will read your codes. Cold weather starting and warming up throws in a bunch of variables. Fuel, filters, oil, glow plugs, Battery voltage, etc.
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Me, myself and I would start with the plug in voltage meter to put in the cig/power port. You said, batteries good... have you put a load test on them? you said that the starter is high torque (I have one), are the electrical connections at the starter good? one time I had to remove the starter and clean all cables as they were turning green and loosing connectivity.

With the volt meter plugged into the power port, this will tell you.

1) before turning key to 'wait to start', it will show you where your batts are at.... 12.4volts???
2) when turning key to 'wait to start' voltage will falls to around 11 volts as glow plugs come on. below that you should wonder about your batts.
3) when turning on the key to start, the voltage should not really fall below 10.5 volts. that voltages is needed to start truck. (batts again, or starter lug down)
4) When truck is started, the voltage will remain at around 11+ voltage until the glow plugs go off.
5) When the glow plugs go off the voltage will slowly go up to the output of the Alternator. Which should be around 13.5 v.

my guess, your 'check engine' light may be low voltage to the system until the glow plugs go off, one or two minutes after the glow plugs came on.

the suggestions will give you a place to start looking.

 

I have replaced the glow plug relay last week, given it was the original...the truck has 183,000 miles on the clock. I will get the volt meter out and check some things. However, over the years I have tuned an ear to these 7.3L diesels rolling over at start up and know when the batteries are getting weak relative to a lower cranking rpm. This engine is rolling over fast but it seems to just start when cold, I say cold but here in H-town it's more like the 40* temperature. I am used to them busting off with an aggressive explosion, and idling up to that jet engine sound. This one is also throwing more white smoke on cold startup which has me puzzled. The engine light seems to come on when cold start, then go off after a short time not setting any codes. If I drive it to the store and come out it will start with that aggressive explosion and there will be no engine light.

I have something similar going on with the Excursion for the last couple of years. The engine light stays on continuously and has set codes for glow plugs but starts fine with that aggressive explosion cold. If I drive it to get up to operating temperature, I can clear the codes and the engine light will not come back on until it sits and cools down. I have read that this could be the glow plug module and/or connector, but that thing is a bugger to get off...I have tried. This truck has 225,000 miles on the clock. I may have to get another module and the connector like I just had to do with my F350 for the blower fan speed resistor.

 

It would be good to see some data from torque/forscan/AE or equivalent, given your symptoms. With that mileage too, it would be good to see if everything is nominal with ICP, etc.

Your glowplugs might be tired - that voltmeter Les recommended is helpful to see if most/all are on, before you decide to ohm them out. With that white smoke on cold start, weak glowplugs might be a factor.

I'll mention I changed my GPR at about 165K, and the replacement went bad in a few weeks. I went with the Stancor upgrade as a result. A quick multimeter reading across the big terminals of your new relay when the glow plugs cycle will tell you if it's good (should be near zero volts). The cig lighter meter will tell you much as well.

 

The plug in voltage meter will tell you when your Glow Plugs come on and how much voltage is pulled down and when the Glow plug relay goes off. Would you think that some of your Glow Plugs may be bad? hence, white smoke from unburnt fuel and starts fine when engine is warm. Buying a new Glow Plug Relay does not mean that it is working correctly. I have 200,000 miles and bought one relay one time and it 'stuck' within 3 months. .... no glow plugs

 

I have looked at the forscan scenario but not the others you mentioned. The forscan has two directions...one free and the other paid for. I seem to recall also needing a wireless module that plugs into the computer port below the steering wheel on the right where I also plug my tuner in. Can you give me some recommendations and/or pros/cons of the ones you mentioned...and maybe some clearer direction of operational use? This may be a good time for this given I could utilize it on either truck...

 

I want to point out also that one bad/going bad battery will pull the other one down.
A battery Load Tester can be bought for around 35.00.
Earlier this month I was getting my camper ready for the season...
Back small slide went in and out fine.
Big slide would not move.
Charged battery. Held 12.4 volts.
Used a bubble tester on each cell... one cell completely dead.
Put the Battery Load Tester on the battery.... turned on and bang.... flight lined RED...
New battery.. all good.
Can you bubble test and Load Test your batteries individually?

 

I would think if I had some bad glow plugs the computer would throw an engine light continuously...like what's happening with the Excursion.

I am thinking my original glow plug relay was still good and may verify now with volt meter. The one I bought to replace it was a $22 unit from the local parts store and I didn't like the fact that because of the location of the terminals and securing mounts, the wire attachments hooked up at a rotated 90* location.

 

Yes I can have them tested but this has been going on since last year...2017...when it started to get cold. The engine light then would not come on during the summer of 2018, then started back again when it cooled off again this last fall. Because of this I would think if it was a battery, it would have gone south since. I get about 5 years...got almost 10 with the first set...out of these batteries and they are 1,000 cca units. I clean the battery terminals and check water in the cells once or twice a year given these diesels like to glaze the battery terminal lugs fairly quickly.

 

There was a discussion about glow plugs a few years ago. It was suggested when going to the local parts store to ask by the 'part number' and not the year of the truck... I believe that the part number was something like GP109. I went to NaPa and asked for the part by the part number and was given the correct part, glow plug relay. It has a 3year, 36000 mile warrenty.

 

You must mean the GPR109...this one is also rotated like the one I purchased from Advanced Auto, which is the GPR7. It has a lifetime warranty so my only complaint is the rotation...but the correct GPR110 unit from Napa is clocked correctly and much more $$$.

 

Yes, GPR 109

I would surely think if your check engine light comes on, then a code should be thrown?

 

You say there are no codes... if you have only "looked at the forscan scenario" and not the other options, I'm curious to know what you have used to see that there are no codes?

The free (for PC) ForScan (FS) license will be adequate for your needs. Though not as versatile, I would recommend a USB (cabled) OBDII adapter to a PC laptop as they are not generally finnicky with connecting absent a vehicle-side issue. Some BlueTooth units (for use with Android devices) have issues connecting to whatever device you're going to use, and when that happens, frustration is multiplied. If you're going to use an iOS device, you need the wifi unit - I have zero experience with ForScan on either flavor of phones or tablets, but I use TorquePro (TP) with a BlueTooth OBDII adapter on an Android tablet and stereo head unit with few issues.

ForScan is more versatile, at least in the PC version, than TorquePro is on Android... but TP is better looking and maybe a bit easier to navigate, IMHO. To me, they fulfill two separate roles - TP is an ever-present electronic dash monitoring vitals, while FS is a diagnostic/test tool. TP can pull up and clear codes and thus is great in a pinch, but for real troubleshooting, I prefer FS. That's just me.

 

Thanks for the information! I am wanting to utilize it off my Galaxy S8+ android phone if possible and not my laptop...but can do if need to. I am currently looking at and clearing set codes with my Superchips 1705 programmer.

 

Let me point you to this [LINK} with info on how to use Forscan and Torque. @Tugly has this link and several others in his signature that are helpful with these aging trucks.

I've only used AE and it's been a few years, so I'll defer further help on these apps to folks on this forum who use them regularly. Info on wireless OBD2 adapters [LINK]. It depends on your phone/laptop and app which works best. For android phones, I've read good things on the BAFX and OBDLink MX adapters. I'm experimenting with Torque on my Yukon using the bluetooth version of BAFX, since I'm using my android based Samsung phone. Whatever adapter you choose, make sure clearly states it supports J1850 PWM, the OBD2 protocol your truck uses.