Hey,
Any ideas on this one?

89 E350 with 7.3L. Twice now (but about a month apart) the engine has started when I turn the key but pretty quickly dies (seconds). Then I can't get it started. Come back an hour later and after some cranking it will fire up and drive just fine.

About 6 months ago I replaced the easy to get to glow plugs because it was getting harder to start (all but two). That seemed to fix the starting problem. But it doesn't start all that great now again. It's not terrible but it takes a little cranking.

Thanks!

Lary

 

sounds like you have a fuel draining back problem. Check the return line system looking for wet or dampness around the tees or at the lift pump for dampness at the weep hole. Kits are available at injection shops to fix the problem. Try parking with front end low and see if it helps.

 

I am currently fighting the exact same problem you are, except for two things; 1) mine is a '91, 2) Mine got worse to the point where now the truck will not start at all.

If you look at past threads on this forum you'll see similar problems which indicate either a fuel drain back problem as bilder12 already indicated, or an air leak problem (the two are likely related).

I traced my lines and don't see any signs of leakage on the fuel supply side. I do have a couple of injectors that have moisture around them, so its possible that I have a leak on the fuel retun lines that is introducing air. However, my problem started happening very fast (last thursday was the first time this happened, truck disabled by tuesday night) and is intermittent (truck started and ran fine friday-monday and even tuesday morning). Air leaks should be more consistent then mine is. Therefore I suspect the injector pump. Inside the injector pump are several things that could cause this (shut off soleniod, IP itself leaking and introducing air itself, insuficient fuel delivery to the injectors, etc.). Because they are cheaper fixes, at the recommendation of my mechanic, I replaced the fuel filter (~$40) and the fuel lifter pump (~$20), but those didn't fix it. I'll be installing both a fuel return kit (~$80) and a rebuilt injector pump (~$450) next and I'll keep you posted.

 

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Update on mine - I cajoled and promised and prayed and cranked a lot after work today cause I really didn't want to keep working on the truck in a parking lot 45 miles from home, and it started! :-) Now I could surmise that either the lift pump or the filter had some air leak and my problem is solves, ir I could go ahead and replace the injector pump and all the return lines anyway. Which I likely will do since this truck has to make a 2200 mile trip into Baja Mexico next week and I really don't want any question marks before I leave. Since my problem was intermittant, the fact that it started tonight isn't a huge vote of confidence that its fixed.