Hello, I am a dad of a son with a 1997 F-250hd, 351w( Windsor), single cab automatic with overdrive lockout on collum shifter,
He recently called, stating that he had a tune up done as a local garage, he stated that he replaced the battery as well
now he notices that when he starts the truck that it acts as if it wants to die in the first few seconds of the starting process, he has to rev the engine to allow it to complete the starting process, then it idles fine , wasn't doing this till he had the tune up done along with diagnosis of the problems with the truck which are a few most major LOL as always. Now he thinks that if he replaces the distributor that was not replaced in the tune up, that will solve the starting issue.
being the person that I am, I give advice biased on the relevant information provided to me at the time, then I second guess my answer so my suggestion was he was possibly correct, then went into a deep dive of the parts the starting process and well upset both of us and the called ended in both of us being upset and frustrated enough where I joined this forum to discuss the problems he has with his vehicle.
Any suggestions as to what maybe causing the issue would be greatly appreciated and will gladly pass it on to my son.

p.s. my suggestios were as follows
1: weak starter (ruled out as engine starts)
2: ( self thought rotor button) never suggested
3: argument about why I even questioned starter, then on to coil? does a 97 have a coil? ( Do not ask a ? to your mechanically challenged son and expect an answer that makes any sense.)
4: more argument ( mind still racing thru starting process,) carb acts as if it wants to die, getting enough air?? ( see explanation above)
5: more argument, (thought goes off, carb cleaner into throttle body to clean the low idle jets?) call ends

 

Moved to this forum.

 

no carb, it is fuel injected.
my thought is a wire was not reconnected when the battery was changed, or something was not done correctly during the tuneup.

 

Welcome to FTE

Tell us if you know, what parts were replaced for the "tune up"
I ask because plugs, cap & rotor (button), maybe plug wires, air, breather & fuel filters and PCVvalve are replaced most of the time.
Timing and idle speed is checked and set if needed.
The local garage should have given you paper with the list of parts used and the price of each.

Should note that today's parts can be bad out of the box and be a cause of what is happening.
I have never seen a coil go bad unless a plug or wire was bad and spark went from coil tower to the neg. stud on the coil as it was easier for spark to go that route.

Because you paid money to have the truck fixed, dont know what it was doing before this?
I would take it back to the garage and have them look at it.

But if you want to dig into this pull codes from the computer to see what it is has to tell you.
Dave ----