Hi,
I just picked up an 86 E350, 6.9, with 181,000 on it.

It has been sitting for 2 years, and even with fresh fuel, and diesel kleen is still very difficult to start. (it has 2 new batteries too). It only gets about 9mg at present. When idling after warm, it is very smooth, but still smokes white/blue. Temperature is right in the middle, in the middle of C -H. Oil pressure is a little low, but I think is OK with the mileage.

What would you check first, the glow plugs, injectors?

ebay has injectors and glow plugs... do you have any other recommendations?

THanks,
Glen

 

Glow plug system is usually at fault for hard cold starts. If it starts good when warm and not cold check the glow plug system, search this form there are hundreds of post about it. Smoking during idle can be injectors or low compression.
You may have a 4:10 gear ratio or close to it. On the older trucks without overdrive 9 mpg is not uncommon.

 

Apacheglen,
Welcome to FTE and the IDI diesel forum.

For the hard starts cold, glow plugs or air intrusion.

For the blue smoke, clean or replace the CDR for your first step.

 

Don't be worried about the Temperature, my 87 E350 6.9 sits right in the middle of the gauge to. Good rare find, 86 E350 Diesel.

 

Well, thank you for the warm welcome.

How do you check the glow plugs, and how do you clean the CDR valve?

Also, how do you check the injectors?

New to diesel, but a long time aviation mech.

Thank you,
GLen

 

Remove the CDR (2 bolts) let it soak in Gasoline for 1-2 hours, ones in a while during the time take it out, shake it a bit and put it back in. Let dry before re-installing. Others will chime in to answer the ress.

 

The truck i just bought had the same problem it seemed to smoke all the time at idle and when you would drive it down the road you would loose the town behind you, well i put fresh fuel put a good cdr valve on it put 2 bottles of diesel clean in the tank changed all the fluids and the fuel filter and filled it back with atf, and i even put a brand new set of delphi BB code injectors in it, it still smoked so i figured i would just drive it and see what happens so i drove it off the mountian and turned around and come back up i had the hol mountain blocked off in blue smoke to were you couldnt even see, but as i got to the top the blue smoke went away and i got a nice haze of black smoke and she been running fine ever since

 

sorry for the naive question, but, what's the CDR valve?

 

it bolts to the back of the intake its a tuna can shaped thing

 

Heres a pic of the CDR:

 

For the glow plugs, take a test light and hook it to the positive battery post, unhook each connector on the glow plugs and touch the tester to the top of the plug. IF it lights the plug is good.

 

Hey guys. thanks for the responses,. all are helpful, some are hilarious. -

 

Whats hilairious?