Been here a few times, y’all have helped a bunch but I’m back again. Got my truck from the shop a week ago and slowly but surely it’s been harder and harder to cold start. Yesterday it would only start with a quick sprits of ether and when I turned it off it started back up. Waited a couple hours and she wouldn’t crank over again without a sprits of ether and same thing. The ONLY thing I didn’t replace was the injection pump, I replaced all fuel lines, injectors, fuel pump e conversion, glow plugs. The glow plug relay was on back order so never installed that and frankly when I turn my key over before cranking I don’t even hear the glow plugs clicking or anything. What’s y’all’s thoughts on this? I replaced one battery and it’s cranking just fine. I’m trying my best to not keep spraying ether simply based off what I’ve read, I don’t want to ruin anything or make it so my engine will only start from ether.

 

I would guess the glow plugs are not working. Have a block heater that works? If so plug it in for a few hours and see how it starts. What year truck? Early 6.9 or later 7.3 helps to know which glow plug system. What brand glow plugs were installed? All fuel lines, hard lines to injectors too? You replaced all the fuel system items and yet you do not list a fuel filter! What do you have for test equipment?

 

Tis a 94 f250 7.3 idi turbo diesel, It does have a block heater at least there’s a plug hanging from the grill so I assume it’s there.

motorcraft glow plugs and as I mentioned I replaced the mechanical fuel pump with an electric fuel pump, fuel filter is brand new. Yes all hard lines to injectors every single fuel related part has pretty much been replaced except for glow plug relay and injector pump. It’s my first diesel so I’m still learning but from what I have gathered by researching, those are the only 2 things that SHOULD cause the issue BUT I am a noob. Can’t afford to take it back to the shop and spend 2k for a new injector pump and relay so figure I’d take a crack at it myself and hope for the best with y’all’s help and knowledge so to speak lol

 

if they were genuine motorcraft ZD29 glow plugs, the only thing it could be is the controller or relay.
problem is there are way too many chinesium counterfeit ZD-9 glow plugs out there.

 

Do some reading on this forum. There is more than enough information on how to check the glow plug system. Invest in the service manual for your truck if you really want to learn and work on it. Ford did a very good job providing the information and how to trouble shoot most every item on your truck. You can find them on EBay right at the moment I see the original paper version, a CD disk, and a thumb drive.

Plug in the block heater for a few hours and see how it starts. If it starts fine pretty well narrows it down to the glow plug system.

 

Starting with a spritz of ether is fine, just make sure you don't use glow plugs at the same time.

 

A bad relay would obviously cause problems with the glow plug system, soooo get that new relay installed. You can easily swap it yourself--just take a picture of the wiring before you disconnect anything.
When you turn the key to "Run" the volt meter should twitch from the electrical draw of the glow plugs, of course the volt meter has to be functional too. FWIW when temps are above 50F glow plugs are "almost" not needed. I have an IP and injectors with 136k on them and the engine will fire within 4 seconds of cranking with no GPs when the block coolant temp is at least 55F, and block coolant temp above 60F the engine fires in less than 2 seconds of cranking.

Here's the other question. Does your injection pump have a lot of miles on it? Generally speaking it is necessary to replace the injectors and IP at the same time because they tend to wear together. If you put fresh injectors on a worn pump that isn't putting out the pressure it should you can end up basically killing the IP. Just think of a worn out little muscle trying to lift a heavy load--not gonna' work for long.

 

Honestly I’m not too sure how many miles are on it the guy I bought it from claimed he had the injectors replaced a couple years ago but never mentioned IP. she’s currently sitting in the driveway with the block heater plugged in I’m going to give it another hour or 2 and try cranking it over to see what happens. It’s been around 40-55 degrees here the last few days but from what I’ve read you shouldn’t really need to cycle the glow plugs if it’s in the 50s like you said yours fires right up. It just sucks because it’s my dailey driver so when I get back to work I’ll be out there giving her a spritz of ether just to get it started lol.

 

try starting with just block heater and no ether. if it fires rite up you know the engine is healthy.
glow plugs turn off when block temp hits around 100-110 degrees.

 

No luck sadly, Wednesday I’ll pick up a new glow plug relay and go from there. Praying I don’t have to replace the injection pump but we’ll see. At some point going to have to get the block heater checked out, I tried following the outlet and it looks like it goes almost underneath the engine.

 

Block heater is above the starter. Ohm meter will tell you if it is open or good. You can usually hear the water start to sizzle after about 30 seconds of being plugged in if it is working.