I'm getting plenty cranking out of the engine but the only way I can get it to start is by using just a little bit of ether (absolutely hate using the stuff but the situation doesn't give me a choice). After that it runs pretty decent and will start after that but unless I do it that way I can't get it to run. I know I have plenty of fuel and it's not due to cold temperatures, I have block heater plugged in and it is about 65-80 outside. I did find a bad ICP and replaced it with new oem and still can't find the issue. HEEELLLLPPP haha

 

Hiya! Welcome to FTE! Grab a cold one and surf around.

Please post up what year etc so we know what particular dragon we are fighting.

First, ether is a serious no-no on these engines. Like *boom* now I need a $10k rebuild no-no.

Does it show a CEL? You'll need something a little special to read those codes.

Are you saying once it starts it runs fine forever?

At those temps block heater and glow plugs don't make any difference so we can ignore those possibilities.

My first guess is bad fuel pump, especially since you did not mention any CEL. Open the yellow fuel drain valve on the back of the fuel bowl, key it over to run but do not start. You should hear the fuel pump under the drivers' door run for 20 seconds and then find a big puddle of fuel on your driveway behind the right front wheel. If not, bad pump most likely.

If you do have a CEL, pull the wire off the back of the fuel bowl and replace the blown fuse. Which fuse depends on what year but I think #30 is most common. Same fuse powers the PCM so it won't run if blown. Do not replace wire to fuel bowl. If the fuel bowl heater is shorted the fuse will simply blow again.

 

Thanks for the welcome! Yeah like I said it was a circumstance where I didn't have much of a choice and ether was my last resort. The truck is a 99 F350 super duty, sorry forgot to mention that but wasn't sure it made any difference from 99-03 so just posted in in the 99-03 forum.

Now down to brass tacks, it doesn't show a CEL and I checked resistance off the injector harness and it ran more or less of an average of 3 give or take .5 so that shouldn't be the issue. I did check for the number 30 fuse and also the lift pump and pulled the ICP valve to give it a quick test and it actuated on a 12 volt power supply.

I'm going to eliminate those as the issue but look more into the IDM or PCM as the source because this ones got me stumped other than that. I'm more familiar with the IDI's but have yet to dig into a HUEI until now. Anyway if you could think of anything else that would be appreciated and thanks for the info so far. Have a great weekend

 

Since its a 99 the tach should move during cranking, if it doesn't the CPS probably went bad

 

Ya that is still cranking but I just tried something for ****s and giggles for fun and it ended up working. Truck is an old fleet vehicle and I pulled the HPOP and flushed the whole motor of oil and purged 6 gallons of oil through it and gave it a new filter and oil and it starts like new. I already changed the oil once just because it didn't make sense that it would start and run (granted it ran a little sluggish) but nonetheless still ran pretty decent so that should rule out bad IDM or PCM.

Basically just ran through some 15-40 with a couple quarts of atf to clean her up a little then ran through a couple more gallons of 15-40 and then drained and put another new filter and oil in. Thanks for the help fellas sorry that it was something so ridiculous but Ford isn't one of my strong points, I just generally work on commercial mercedes diesels in snowcats so the help is much appreciated.

 

Glad you found a fix! Your alternative diesel background was instrumental. Why ATF? I'm guessing that purge of oil and the ATF cleaned up a sticking IPR. If so that's very interesting.

What, exactly, oil did you use? Often tired old injectors respond to synthetic in cold weather. I'm still using Delo, which is dino, but I'm in the very moderate SF Bay Area environment.