Over the last few months I've noticed that, when it's cold, I got a fair amount of white smoke on startup. In the last two weeks, the truck has spent most of the time either running down the road or shut down in sunny southern CA, so starts were not a problem. Last weekend, I finally got a couple of days off at home... Imagine my surprise when the beast wouldn't start!!! After cycling the glow plugs several times (voltmeter drops below normal, WaitToStart light cycles, voltmeter comes back up after a couple minutes), I finally got it to light off and was greeted by a huge cloud of white stuff. For the next two days, I didn't stop the engine for more than four hours at a time. I knew it was time for a plug change. Turns out that I was starting with three plugs, all on one side.

In preparation for the task ahead of me, I purchased eight glow plugs (Autolite #1111), two replacement injector wiring harnesses (Ford F4TZ-9D930-K) and a valve cover gasket (Ford F4TZ-6584-A) (already replaced the harnesses & gasket on one side last summer). At $13 apiece, eight plugs adds up to a goodly chunk of change; I could've tested for failed plugs through the valve cover connectors, but given the age and usage, and the difficulty of R&R of the covers, I figured it was prudent to swap them all. Same logic applied to the harnesses.

Why the harnesses & gasket, you ask? Last spring, I had a misfire that no one could pinpoint the source of. A Ford garage in Rocklin CA ran diagnostics to the tune of $147 and said it found "an intermittent open circuit on #8 injector" and that, for a paltry $813, would fix it. I drove the truck home & replaced the harnesses on the driver's side; fixed it for $160 .

For those of you with '96 or older PSD's, the original harnesses are the most common source of misfires. Take off a valve cover & look at the connector on an injector; if it has plastic retaining clips, it's the old style. The new ones have a metal wire spring clip. You'll have to use the original gaskets that slide over the connectors (two per harness). The valve cover gaskets are reuseable, but since I already had 224k on the rig, and removing the valve covers is not a trivial task, I opted to replace them.

Replacing the glow plugs is not too difficult once the valve covers are off. You need a 10mm deep socket for your 3/8" drive ratchet. Don't try to use a 1/2" drive; the body of the socket will be too big to clear the injector wiring and the adjacent rocker arm. Once you've unscrewed the glow plug, use needle-nose pliers to pull it out. When you drop in the new plug, make sure you hit the right hole. Just above the glow plug hole is an oil return hole that drains into the cam valley; I darn near lost my first plug!!! Tighten about 1/4 turn past snug with the 3/8" ratchet, then torque to 14ft-lb. Note that you'll get a fair amount of oil draining into the cylinder when you pull each plug. As a precaution, I changed the plugs on one side, reassembled everything & fired the engine to clear the oil before changing the plugs on the other side. In retrospect, I doubt that it was necessary. The hardest part of the whole job is getting the valve covers off & on.

Monday starts a new week with a run to Bakersfield CA beginning at oh-dark-thirty. I fully expect a clean start. Being the chicken that I am, I'll be test-firing Sunday...

 

The first thing I would do is return the Autolite glow plugs. Reading on several sites including one that specializes in Ford diesels only there have been several reports of tips breaking off over the last four years I have been there with the expected catastrophic engine damage. Auto Zone sells the Ford Motorcraft made by Beru for under $10 each, in Ford part bags with the Ford part numbers on them.

I have both saved in MS Word if you would like them in that format. Shoot me an eMail through this site with GLOW PLUG RELAY in the subject line and let me know what eMail address you would like it sent to and I will reply with the attachments.

Dave / Believer45

 

I agree with Dave. If it ain't too late, return the Autolites and get Berus. You sound like you're approaching the project very methodically, and have an excellent plan. I'd hate to see you use the wrong parts and have a problem down the road.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear; this is an after-action report. The plugs are already in place. I'm saving the receipt in case problems arise, although my past experience with Autolite in gassers suggests that they won't.

 

I just went through the same exercise on my '95, and reading your discussion I started was very helpful. I decided to forego the wiring harnesses 'cause I only have 115K miles. When I took out the valve cover gaskets I found that three of the four connections to the glow plugs (the ones on the outside) on the two connectors at the front of the engine had melted into a mess. I had to remove the harnesses with the gasket and then break them off. Have you heard of this? Any idea what causes it? I'm wondering if it's related to the fact that they are below the engine cover? I also wonder why the connectors on the outside of the valve cover are in perfect condition...

Anyway it's off to the dealership to get more bits tomorrow. I hope thse little buggers aren't too expensive, the gaskets were $50 a piece at NAPA. I bought Bosch glow plugs for $13 a piece. I went to Autozone first. Al lthey had to offer was the Autolites, and they only had 6 in stock.

timo

 

Haven't heard of melting the connectors without damaging the gasket side too. It's possible that, since it's a high-current part, a poor connection caused a loss of voltage and a cooresponding rise in current, making more heat than the connector could handle. As for the harnesses, I lost my first one at about 150k. None of the others have failed, but I figured it was prudent to replace the old style with the new. FYI, the harnesses run about $47 each.

 

Yikes, $47!!! Dealer, right?

Do you know if NAPA sells them?

 

Anybody know how much they are at International for the "year of your truck" T444E?

 

When I called, NAPA didn't sell the gasket or the harness; said they were dealer items. Since the nearest CornBinder shop is 65 miles away, and the Ford dealer is 1 mile away, I didn't check.

 

I've been having the cold weather starting problems associated with glow plugs going out and relays failing. Living in one of the coldest places in the lower 48 and working above 10,000 ft all year round, I depend on my glow plugs to get me started all year. In the fall with the first cold days the truck tells me if something needs looking after with hard starts and lots of white smoke. The original glow plugs lasted about 90,000 mile and three relays. I replaced the with autolite plugs from NAPA because they were much less expensive than purchasing them from Ford. BIG MISTAKE! Now I am suffering the consiquences of this action. This fall with 126,000 miles now on the truck I am having bad starting problems. I tested the plugs, two were bad - I had two left from the originals so I put them back in. When I pulled the two, one looked fine the other was already in pieces! Seeing that these plugs were crap, I did some resurch on the internet and read more than one artical on problems with autolite plugs.. I decided to get motocraft beru parts from autozone (cheeper than the autolite plugs from NAPA!) and replace them all since I was still having starting problems. Well here is what I found...

Two plugs worked and looked normal. The two I had replaced already were fine. Got to the drivers (left) side of the motor and the first one broke in half pulling it out. As did the second one. Both I got a vise grip and a slide hammered on them and managed to pop them out. The sides of the glow plugs were all black and had swelled up in the cylinder head. The head had been burning in the block, not the cylinder! The third one snapped off compleatly in the head! I have tried to drill it out and use an easy out. No luck. I tried drilling it past the threads and using the running engine to blow it out. It has swelled at the base and is now a part of my head. I called for estimates to fix the problem... $1000+ on all estimates. The last one came out and seven have been replaced. At this point I can not spend that kind of money and be out of a truck while it is fixed so I am going to do the best to keep the truck goin on 7 plugs and keep them fress and ONLY USE MOTOCRAFT (BERU) GLOW PLUGS.

MY RECOMENDATION TO ANYONE USING AUTOLITE GLOW PLUGS IS TO REMOVE THEM FROM YOUR VEHICLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Hopefully this will save someone else from the nightmare I've been through this weekend!

 

Fridgeddiesel I have heard of people being able to remove the injector and punch the glow plug tip down into the cylinder and then work it out through the injector hole. I cannot personally verify that method, but I have read posts here on this web site stating that is what they did. Good luck to you.

 

Well I have 80000miles on my beast now, and no glow plug problems, but as the temp here never really gets below 60F (even at night) I don't envisage ever having to replace them...
My truck did come equipped with a block heater though (well, you never know...)