Hello Folks....I need some trouble shooting assistance. Back ground first. E99, 350, 4x4, ZF6, CC, LB with Cap. Only vehicle for me & the Mrs., which we tow behind our home, we full time rv and the 350 is our rolling toll box, grocery getter, bugout ride and what ever else we need it to be. We both love this truck!!
Truck has been in our possession for 3 years now with very little input over all in that time. I recently pulled all injectors to replace O rings as we had a 250 mile trek which required nearly three gallons of oil over the course of those miles. I also replaced GP while in there, also discovered a non OEM UVCH, but was not prepared at the time to address so will eventually replace with OEM.

Current symptom: Will fire up as usual but only run for 2 seconds. Subsequent attempts to start require extended turnover but she eventually fires up and never another issue throughout the day. But next morning same thing. We are currently in the FL Panhandle, so weather and GP's should not be a factor. I believe its a fuel delivery issue. No smoke at all while extended turn over takes place. Fresh fuel bowl filter and fresh pre pump filter. Fresh oil change since issue began with no impact.

From some thread reads and videos viewed, I'm feeling like it could be a million different things!! I need help in not wasting my time nor throwing parts at the problem.
I've have not been in the fuel tank and do not know it's history. My fuel indicator has always been slow to read and at times will never reflect actual fuel level, I monitor every tank by miles. New Bosch pump placed a few 1000 miles back. New IPR place placed at same time ( was chasing a different fuel problem at the time, turned out to be pump).

Any thoughts, wisdom , guidance would be greatly appreciated!!! TIA
Jon

 

If you have a block heater plug it in about two hours prior to starting the first time in the morning. What you are saying is that during the day it starts fine may be the injectors getting tired issue.
Other likely problems..... Oil being low, oil being old, oil wrong viscosity, adding oil additives, incorrect oil all together.
If the engine starts with the heater you may consider switching to 5w-40 or similar as the lighter viscosity seems to help tired injectors with the first start.

Other item...
Read the codes. Even without the check engine light you may have codes. I recommend FORScan Lite and the recommended OBD II adapter. Cheep and easy to use and almost as powerful as going to the Stealership. Do not rely on the parts stores as they do not read our 7.3's properly.

 

Thanks Jimmy for your thoughts. I have plugged it in for several hours with no impact. As mentioned before, fresh oil, 5w-40 no additives. I do have the OBD reader but have never had success in getting it to read....I will spend some time with that. Thanks again for your input!

 

Most parts store code readers will not work with our trucks. What we will really need to help you diagnose your hard start issue is a data log of several PID's to narrow down the issue that you're seeing when in a no start condition.

Since you report periods where it starts and runs normally, and that you have no smoke when cranking (no fueling) during a no start, it could be very likely an oil-side (ICP, IPR, HPOP, LPOP) problem ... but would need data collected to verify.

What most users on here use is an app called FORScan which can be loaded on your phone, or laptop, and connected to your truck using an OBDII adapter, the gold standard is the OBDLink MX+ which retails for about $100...though there are cheaper options such as the BAFX and Veepeak models which other users have had success with as well. If ordering a less expensive module you'll want to verify compatibility with your phone, several inexpensive ones do not work with bluetooth on apple devices, I have recently switched to the Veepeak OBDCheck BLE which has worked well with my iPhone XS, and 2020 iPad using bluetooth which I find much more convenient for data-logging while driving compared to my old wifi only module.

Edit: In the short term, Let it sit over night and check the oil level in the HPOP, it should be completely full...one possible explanation could be that some oil is draining out

 

Three gallons of oil leads me to injector o-rings. How many miles on it?

 

OP said he recently did o-rings after that symptom.

 

Rebuild your fuel pressure regulator.

 

Block heater will do nothing for you. Don't need to plug it in.

If there is moisture in the CPU connections, you will have trouble starting/running. Take off/ unplug and clean CPU and connections and add water proof grease.

Look around your HPOP connections for leaking oil. The oil may not spray out when running, but you may still have leaks do to weak seals in the connections. You seem to have lost oil pressure when starting the first time (pressure had bled out) and then pressure builds up to open the injectors. I rebuilt my HPOP connections with new orings from https://www.dieselorings.com/

 

Thank you fellas for the comments and insight! I do appreciate. I have owned OBDLink EX for some time now but never took the time to figure it out. I just now was successful in reading my truck with Forscan. Only code was 6036 or something close to that, the code that says your battery is weak. I imagine it read this because days ago I removed all cables and cleaned. Cleared code and it did not return. I'm going to spend some time in the tech files and begin to understand how to utilize forscan.
A little more background, this is a Jasper long block with approximately 35000 miles on it. the valley has always been spotless and today it continues to be except for spilt fuel from changing filter, forgot to drain. So to directly address Les's suggestion, there is no obvious sign of oil leak. Having said that, it is possible the HPOP is tired. When I pulled all the injectors it became obvious that components were pulled from one block and thrown onto this one. No effort was made to update. Every one of the purple rings was worn and I find it difficult to imagine that happened in 35K miles?? Anyway, it is an Adrenaline HPOP that very well could be tired. I'm hoping my issue is found by Bitterroot! Any recommendations for sourcing those regulator rebuild parts? Would NAPA have them? Also, anything in Forscan that can confirm this is the issue? Thanks again!

 

you won’t get any fuel side data from the PCM through FORScan, adding a fuel pressure gauge to the inspection port on the fuel bowl is the way to read pressure.

Set up forscan to look at ICP and IPR duty cycle while cranking. That will give an idea on if the HPOP is building the required pressure to fuel the injectors.

 

You should get your batteries load tested. If the voltage falls below 10.5v, it will be very hard to start. You may ask, 'how could it fall so far to 10.5v'? Starting at 12.5v, When you turn the key to 'wait to start', the glow plugs will come on and your voltage will drop to 11.5v or lower.... then engage the starter and the voltage could easily drop below 10.5v if you have a bad battery.

Get one of these and it will tell you what is going on with your starting system and alternator out put.

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Have you looked in the HPOP reservoir in the morning to see if it drained down during the night?
edit" Josh suggested this in post #4, it's a real possibility and very easy to check

 

Only FoMoCo FPR rebuild. Dieselorings.com or your local Ford dealer.

 

OK, first time so I'm not sure what I'm doing here, nor do I yet understand what I'm looking for???
Les, you may be on to something....I put a meter on the bats while my wife cranked it over. i think it came very close to 10.5, I'll do again a pay better attention. Side note on GP. I tried to set Forscan to monitor GP and if I did it correctly, it never showed any percentage?? I have not inspected HPOP in AM. This could be a false assumption, but I figured if there was no oil observed outside, I should be good on that account? Thanks again you guys for each of your inputs and time...really appreciate!

 

Voltage does fall below 11 while cranking but it's in the middle of what sounds like a strong crank, and continues to eventually fire.
And back to loss of oil in HPOP, where would the oil go? Could this be a problem without an actual visible leak?