Yes, great to see the use of dust caps to protect the vulnerable areas of the engine compartment while doing maintenance. But, I just love your work! And I get accused of, and I begin to think maybe I am at times, **** when it comes to fixing things back better than new. Wife all the time jabbing me saying I spend to much time fixing things. I can't put anything dirty back together. I have to clean it at least. And usually wind up painting up everything. I would go broke if I did any kind of maintenance for a living.

But really, I like your attention to detail and the true craftmanship in your work. Definitely showed how to properly note, check for, and repair and improve critical components and related parts that even some of the best in the business would over look.

I like the photos, I'm not good with or haven't taken the time to learn how to put the photos and captions together in a post like you do. Not that I couldn't learn it, but man where do you find the time??

I can see and follow what you did in the photos. However, probably because of what I'm used to using, a wring diagram or schematic of this would be a great reference document to compliment this excellent piece of work. (Hint...Hint!) Then one would be able to just look at one page or picture and see how all the components are laid out and connected together. I don't know and can't explain it, but I can look at a wiring diagram and visualize how system components work together and how they are connected together.

Anyway, thanks so much for the time you invested in such a great write up to share with us on the forum!

Blue

 

@F0rdc0wb0y Where did you get your ferrite chokes from?

 

Since F0rdC0wb0y has completed his journey to installing a reliable and properly functioning alternator, I hope he does not mind me posting some somewhat off topic information in this thread...

Y2KW57 brings up some valid concerns and thoughts, as he has been known to do. I bought my QuickStart alternator (after thinking the Leece Neville was $1000) in September of 2017 and installed it in October of 2017. Shortly after Y2KW57 created the thread below in December of 2017.

High Amp Alternator... meet glow plugs. Hope you guys can get along.

Since that thread and the concerns for the alternator vs. glow plugs battle was brought to my attention, I have made a couple of changes. When I installed an upgraded turbo I tested the GP's with a multimeter at the UVCH. I had 3 test bad out of the 8 and I decided to replace all 8. In addition, the previous owner of the truck had a Dorman UVCH installed on the driver side, but the passenger side looked OEM. So, I installed 2 new gaskets and UVCH's that were both OEM. The GP's were ZD-11 Beru.

As I finished the turbo install and buttoned the truck up, I also set forth to install a glow plug relay LED. I loosely followed this thread, but made my own changes as I saw fit.

Since installing the GPR LED, Beru ZD-11 GP's and a 160A QuickStart alternator, I made some changes to how I start the truck. Granted I live in GA and like F0rdC0wb0y our winters are mild. I know what cold is and I choose not to live there any longer. Also, the truck rarely gets driven in the winter time. I would say it does about 200 miles total between December 1st and February 15th. The GP's will still be commanded on though, even in the summer time because the GP's being commanded on is based on oil temperature.

Since the EOT is below 131* when the first start of the day happens, the GP's will lite for a short period of time, even in the summer time.

Taken from the Ford Service Manual pinpoint test KC: Glow Plug System.



Since installing the GPR LED and 160A alternator, I now wait until the GP's are no longer commanded on before turning the key from "on" to "start". This not only allows the GP's to run their full cycle of heating, it helps negate the risk of over powering the GP's with the higher than expecting voltage now being put out by the QuickStart alternator. Since I started doing this, I have not noticed any ill effects or hard starting from the engine. Other than installing a ground wire cutoff switch for the GPR, this is the best way I know of how to mitigate the over powering of the GP's.

This is not a perfect solution, but it works for me and might be an option for someone else if they decide to go the high output alternator route.

 

Some cheapies I found on amazon. Think these are the ones...

 

Not at all. The more info the better.

 

Adding Sous's suggestion to let the glowplugs complete their cycle before starting the engine, this is a good list of mitigations.

@Y2KW57 what is your preferred method of glow plug longevity?

@F0rdc0wb0y could you post of pic of your glow plug switch install? I was going to add the GPR LED, but the switch would be useful to me as well. I'm often in the truck cycling the key to explore some behavior with Forscan, and would like to avoid the additional battery drain when the glowplugs are not needed.

 

Here ya go. It's very crude. Does the job though. Its just big loop. Tied a yellow wire onto the ground wire for the GPR. That yellow wires goes to one leg of the switch in the cab. Then comes out the other leg of the switch and back to the GPR.

Edit: It will throw soft code P0380 with this "mod" just fyi

 

All of the methods have merits and draw backs.

Presumably, the most elegant and seamless solution is with tuning. It is all automatic, nothing to remember, nothing to forget. But I know of only one tuner who has demonstrated the capability, competence, understanding, mindset, and willingness to make the adjustment. Other tuners may or may not have all of those qualities.

If, as a recently discussed (in another thread) example, an E99 owner has a tuner who neglects to disclose that the 99.5 up tunes they sell are not quite right for an E99, and thus the owner walks away from that tuner, now the owner has to ask a new tuner all over again, and wonder if the new tuner figure it out, after going over the same explanation all over again that he struggled through with the previous tuner. Then, even if the new tuner, figures the glow plug control cut off out, and even if the new tuner offers a tune for the correct DPC-4xx box, but due to inexperience tuning, the new tuner fails to get the truck running right, the owner is now faced with dropping the new tuner in favor of a canned tune from the PHP library, and then the owner is back to square one again... no special tune instruction for the glow plugs.

And then, some folks in certain states who are subject to annual or biennial vehicle inspections are disallowed from having a chip, and may or may not want to go through the hassle of installing and removing all evidence of a chip.

The Sous solution of just waiting out the entire 2 minutes for the glow plugs to complete their cycle is not without it's drawbacks either.

The engine oil temperature (and baro sensor) controls the factory calibrated glow plug on time. If the engine is off, the oil temperature will not rise, and therefore keeping the key on without starting the engine guarantees that the glow plugs will run their full look up table cycle time for each and every engine start where the engine oil is less than 131°F. This could mean that an effort to limit the glow plugs from high voltage exposure from a high amp alternator is somewhat undone by exposing the glow plugs to longer burn times by forcing them to run the entire duration of cycle time, even where the engine oil might otherwise rise quickly enough to automatically shut the glow plugs off after only 30 seconds, instead of 120 seconds.

An example might be starting the day cold, key on, not starting until glow plugs time out in 2 minutes. Short trip to church for Sunday service. Engine doesn't fully warm up before arriving at the nearby church. Had to bring the truck to haul some donations, and there is a picnic planned for the lovely late fall afternoon. The preacher was a bit long winded this Sunday, so the service was long, and the truck cooled to ambient, which is say 65°F. Since this is less than 131°F, there is another full look up table of glow plug ontime before starting in the parking lot at church, and now it is off to Walmart to get supplies for the picnic that afternoon. Walmart isn't far away, but it turns out everyone and his brother is also at Walmart, because the news said that Covid is kicking up again and supplies might be short over the winter. That isn't about to derail plans for the picnic today, so the decision is made to add a bottle of Patience to the cart and wait in the long lines to check out.

Noonday ambient temps have now climbed to 70°F, and while the wait in Walmart was abominably long, the truck has been driven on two short trips now, and the residual heat retained in the block is higher than ambient, at about 90°F... still less than 131°F, which means another full look up table of glow plug ontime, without benefit of the oil temperature quickly rising again after engine start, which would automatically curtail glow plug on time. The original plans were to head right over to the park where the picnic takes place, but the wait in Walmart was so long, nature called. That call was put on hold while waiting in line, but once back in the truck, the call alert changed to urgent. A decision was made to go back home to use cudie safe and Covid free facilities, before going to the park.

Quick trip home, engine shut off. In to the house everyone goes, to answer the back log of urgent nature calls. Then another call comes in, this time on the land line. It's Mother. She wants to know what time should she expect the family... and now it must be explained to her, for the seventh time this week, that today is the church picnic day, like we talked about, and no we are not coming over today, like we already explained yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and yesterday we brought you the pre prepared dinner for today.. all you have to do is heat it in the microwave just like last year, remember? "But you never come and see me. I'm your mother, you would think that I'd be important to you" which is the opening volley to an emotional crisis that cannot be ignored, and while the cellphones in the house are dispatched by other family members to inform other members of the parish that the picnic supplies are procured, but might be a little late, play frisbee or something, we'll be there... the crises counseling continues. For an hour.

Mother finally cools down. So did the truck. Another full look up table of glow plug ontime, even though the EOT would otherwise rise quickly again if combustion were to be taking place after only waiting 10 or 15 seconds prior to start.

The point of the fictional tangent is to illustrate that life happens. We sometimes don't have time to wait to start. We sometimes leave the key on so long that the fuel pressure supplied from the electric fuel pump has dissipated during our prolonged wait for the glow plugs to complete their cycle, that we have to start the cycle all over again to trigger the fuel pump to restore fuel pressure to the supply rail. This isn't, nor cannot be, a full inventory of situations that can make waiting for the entire duration of glow plug on time before starting not necessarily ideal in certain situations, that are not always predictable.

An interrupt switch between the PCM and the glow plugs can be inadvertently forgotten.

We can find draw backs to every mitigation. But having an awareness of the issue is the most important mitigation, and that awareness empowers the owner to choose from any number of the listed mitigations, and the chosen method might be different each time, or different depending on the present circumstance.

So I guess this is a very long way of answering that I do not find one method to be significantly preferable over another method to the point of recommending a particular method to the exclusion of other methods.

 

F0rdc0wb0y, I like the 90 degree OBD plug. I have one on my Amazon wish list that BWST recommended to me that his son uses. I plan to purchase one when I purchase the Android head unit and a second scan tool.

Y2KW57, I suppose my method is somewhat beneficial to my use of the truck. When it is started, it is rarely shutdown before the oil temperature is up to or well past 131*. We don't use our truck for errands or as a daily driver, even when traveling cross country. It is a tow pig or a haul lumber/firewood pig. The trip to town is at least 15 minutes at 55 MPH and when I start it in the morning to tow the camper it gets plenty of a workout before the next shutdown. Granted, my use for our truck is not like everyone else and I can agree that my method of reducing the over powering of the GP's is not for everyone. For people like me that rarely use their truck for short trips, then I feel this is a good method which requires no modification to the GP system or PCM.

Speaking of the PCM, perhaps if/when some of the FTE'rs get into the Minotaur software a bit more, we can figure that puzzle piece out. Maybe, maybe not...

If I were to use the truck on a daily basis, I would probably go the F0rdc0wb0y route and install a switch in the ground circuit. Several FTE'rs have done this due to the PCM not commanding the ground on the GPR. I would probably use a momentary switch this way removing the risk of leaving the GP's on for extended periods of time. I use a large momentary switch for my auxiliary fuel tank pump in order to pump fuel into the OEM tank from the bed. This works very well and I use it for about 5 minutes at a time as I am rolling down the highway. Some people like automatic filling options, I wanted 100% control of the fuel flow from one tank to the other. I like the momentary switch route for the GP's, but probably will not adopt that unless the truck is the only vehicle we have.

I see my fuel pressure gauge at eye level every time I turn the key to on. As the fuel pump times out and I continue to wait for the glow plugs to go off, I see the fuel pressure drop. I have never once had to turn the key to off and then back to on in order to bring the fuel pressure back up. If I had to guess, I would say the fuel pressure hovers around 20 - 25 PSI, but cannot be certain. Either way, I have never recycled the key to off, then back on in order to reset the time on the fuel pump. The truck starts right up each time I turn the key from on to start after letting the GPR LED go out.

As you eluded to, there is no sure way to mitigate the risk. Having good GP's and awareness of the risk is about all we can do.

 

Thank you sir!!

 

Here's my PCM RCU0, stock calibration GPs On Time at Low Altitude

For reference purposes only..
Not trying to really pinpoint anything..



Just another crappy photo


On time starts from 30c EOT with 7 seconds
Full 120seconds at 0c EOT

 

Hmm. I think I'm going to have to do the same. There is, after all, no reason save for emissions to have the glow plugs in the first place even in NJ winters and the batteries will certainly be happier. I'll have to think about the best way to do this.

@Sous , thanks for mentioning the LED, I'll try to figure out how to replicate that. I already went overboard with an 'antitheft' circuit, since I never close the truck by choice.

@Y2KW57 , may I ask which trucks have a GPCM? You mentioned that not all of the trucks have them [self-edit: from the wiring diagrams it would seem that CA trucks had them while 49-state (?) ones did not, at least for MY00?]

Solid install BTW. I have opinions(TM) on wiring but I'll try not to raise another fuss

 

You opened the door. We heard the music playing. You might as well tell us the song.

 

@Y2KW57 bear with me, it'll take some time to make a reasoned and complete post.

The short version, for now: loops are not your friends, even on cars (in other environments it becomes of capital importance to avoid them). Also, it's pretty difficult to effectively use batteries in parallel and the stock system is undeniably bad at doing it.

As a first indication, considering how our trucks (and, well, most cars) use power, the primary indication is: I would run a fat wire - and by fat I mean something like 3/0 or 4/0 AWG, the alternator is 200+amps and we do have two batteries - from DS battery + to PS battery + to the starter lug. Then I'd run DS - to PS - to wherever the ground strap for the engine is, engineside. Note that the negative runs to the batteries in REVERSE order. It would be nice if the distances on these wires were as short as possible BUT equal, especially in the run between batteries.
I would then run ONE wire from alternator B+ to the same starter lug (stacking ring terminals).
I would then run the wire to the GEM/fusebox from a third ring terminal on that same starter lug, though I will admit, I have not looked in detail at how the stock system gets power to the rest of the truck, but if the starter wiring is anything to go by, there is material room for improvement, though the stock truck doesn't really have to worry about big loads save for the starter (which is NOT great) and the air heater / glow plugs, which again, are not great. It's all well and good until you find yourself having to start the truck at 0F with tired batteries. Then millivolts start to count in a hurry.
Same size as the battery cables for both of these, for obvious reasons.
I would then run ONE ground strap from where the battery negative was put on the engine to wherever Ford determines the ground strap should be on the body. Still same size.
We have thus accomplished the 'best possible' connection between the batteries and the engine block and the starter. This insures that the batteries do their most important job, which is to power the starter when the alternator isn't producing power, as well as possible. One could make the case that putting the negative-to-body-and-frame and negative-from-battery on one of the starter-to-body bolts would be a better idea, but given the amount of steel in the engine block and the desireability of NOT having the starter bolts take a hike, this is of limited use (yes, you could run a stud, run a nut for the starter and then a second nut for the wires, but you really won't gain much starterside).
Connecting the alternator wire to the same post as the wire to the fusebox (and thus to 'services' so to speak) insures that when the engine is running the shortest possible path exists from generation to loads: in this state, all the batteries are there for is voltage stabilisation, after all - and charging them won't take a large number of amps.
A few further considerations:
- It would be really nice to have a high amp fuse connected between the PS batt + and the wire that goes to the starter lug, so that shorts past that in case of a crash carry less risk of blowing up the batteries. OTOH, given battery positioning and the fact that there is no good way of putting a fuse in between the batteries, this piece of paranoia is left for the reader to evaluate.
- It becomes obviously essential to guarantee that the ring terminal connections and the connections at the alternator bolts / starter bolts etc are as low impedance as possible. That's what conductive paste *between the surfaces* is for, once the bolts are tightened a coating with liquid tape is a brilliant idea and a hard cap on every positive connection a given.
- Good ring terminal practices are obviously required: tinned copper is your friend, so is a real hexagonal crimper. No, they are not cheap sadly. Remember the adhesive lined sleeve as per the pictures above. There used to be an excellent article on this which showed that a proper ring terminal / crimped wire connection is cold fused - you can cut them apart and the copper will have flowed together.
- As has been pointed out, good wire jackets are your friends, though that can make buying the right material complicated. There exist very nice tinned copper cables with 200C+ ratings but they're probably overkill and frighteningly expensive. There should be no reason for any cable to even THINK about temperatures in excess of 90C and additional jackets can prevent accidental contact damage, as has been well represented above. Remembering of course that additional jackets plus several watts per foot equal careful calculations and judicious use of an IR thermometer / thermal camera.
- Finally, if you do happen to have a 15k pound winch in the front of the truck (or any equivalent load, maybe a 3kW HF transmitter...), stack its wires on the starter lug and on the engine block ground, remembering to put a high amp fuse there and to use STUPENDOUSLY fat wires for all the above connections and to the winch, running a 4.5-5.0HP electric motor at full power through a 4/0 is already an exercise in getting things toasty in a short period of time, even at 0.05 mOhm/ft you're dissipating 4.58W/ft at the 300ish amps continuous it'll draw (which could well be 350 and thus almost 1.5x the dissipation) and at the 0.124 of 1 wire you'll be dealing with 11-12 W/ft and 37mV/ft. I mention this because I was curious and I looked at a few units. The wires provided made me sincerely hope that runtime at full load is only expected for VERY short periods of time. As in 5-10 seconds every 5 minutes.

Note, this is a quick post which would probably benefit from a significant amount of further investigation. Also note that while there's a piece of paper on my wall that says that I lied to a few professors well enough, I do not design power systems for a living, I just choose to live with them, from time to time, in an environment where service stations and AAA are not an option, running out of power even less so, so my approach is heavily skewed towards not having surprises even in 'reasonably worse case' scenarios.

 

The leece neville has been performing flawlessly.

I am having issues though with Quickstart in regards to the refund for the faulty alternator. They received the faulty alternator on 11/1/20. I called once and got the the proverbial "oh yeah, we're working on it". I just fired off a strongly worded email. We shall see....