GPR relay replacement: Remove engine cover. Right (passenger) side of engine behind HPOP reservoir is the GPR (looks like a starter solenoid. Disconnect BOTH negative battery cables. Disconnect the wires from the terminals on the GPR, remove old GPR from mount. Install new GPR on mount, reconnect the wires to the terminals on the new GPR. Reconnect BOTH negative battery cables. Replace engine cover. Done.

 

To check your block heater: with an ohm meter, make sure you have continuity between the plugs on your block heater, if not, bad block heater, replace it.

To check your glow plugs and/or UVC (Under Valve Cover) wiring: Disconnect your valve cover connectors. There are five pins inside, 1-2-3-4-5. Pins # 1 & # 5 are for the glow plugs. Pin # 3 is common (ground). Ohm from one of the glow plug pins to an engine ground and then to the common pin. Ohms should be 3 - 5 ohms, (7 max). If the engine ground and common pin ohms have a large variance, this could mean that the UVC (Under Valve Cover) wiring has problems.

As for the oil, 15W40 is recommended for normal climates, 10W30 for temperatures below 20 degrees fahranheit.

Low coolant will not effect starting.

If it is spinning over fast, your batteries should be good. But remember "new" does not mean "good". It takes alot of amps "NOT VOLTS" to start our trucks.

 

I hope so too,
one thing I wanted to say was as you are backing the plug out, if you start to feel some binding, screw it in and then work it back out until you hit minding then back in again, don't just muscle it the whole way unless it is free, kind of like tapping new threads if you have ever done that.
good luck
Bryan

 

is it possible to "flood" a diesel as you would with a hard starting gas engine?

this is my first winter with a 1996 PSD. i'm experiencing these problems and will go through everything suggested in this thread.

 

You should never apply any throttle when starting a PSD. It is an electronic throttle system and the computer is applying the appropriate start fuel, if it will not start applying throttle will not help and may make things worse. Describe your problems and we should be able to help you in the right direction...keep us posted.

 

ok, this morning here is the plan of attack i used after reading through this thread and others:

1) jump in truck and immediately start cranking motor to see if rpm's were registering on tach. they were, about 200 rpm, so that checks out.

2) put test light on GPR and turn on key. test light came on, thus GPR is working. i left the key in the "on" position for over 1 minute and test light stayed on. then i began to crank the motor and it would not start.

3) unplug sensor on front of driver side cylinder head which sticks out at 45 degree angle and points toward center of motor. this sensor has 3 wires running to it. i read that this is called the ICP sensor. jumped in truck cranked the motor, and it started!!!

4) turn of truck after it ran for 2-3 seconds, got out, plug ICP back in, try to start, and truck would not start.

5) unplug ICP again, crank motor, and it starts right up. let it run for a minute, plug ICP back in while truck is running, and it continues to run just fine.

so..... it looks like this ICP is my problem. tommorow morning i'll leave it plugged in, leave the key in the "on" position for a minute to let the glow plugs warm up, than start cranking. if no go, then sensor gets unplugged, and if it starts then i need a new ICP.

i don't even know what ICP stands for let alone what it does. i just remember reading in an earlier thread to do this test. so can anyone tell me what an ICP is and where do i get a new one. do i have to go to a ford dealer for this? whats is gonna cost me?

thanks to all who have listed procedures to identify the source of cold starting problems.

 

ICP (Injection Control Pressure), it measures the oil pressure in the high pressure oil rails (in the head) that supply oil to the injectors to fire them.

If the ICP is not reading at least 500 psi it will not signal the PCM to fire the injectors.

With the ICP unplugged, the PCM goes into a default mode (believing the sensor is bad) and fires the injectors anyway so that you can continue to drive until it can be fixed.

Ebay is ussually the cheapest place to get an ICP.

 

ok, makes sense. but what if i really have less then 500psi in the rails and the ICP is actually good? how do i determine the pressure in the rails and if in fact it is low, how do i fix that?

 

Whats the deal with Autolite glow plugs?
I had my plugs replaced a couple of months ago and the new ones were Autolite?
My block heater doesn't work and I'm getting gray smoke on startup????

 

Just to let you all know - the GPR-109 at NAPA is now $29.95 less 7% for AAA discount. It still works like a champ. I love you guys. I was about to replace my glow plugs until I read the post. Saved me ~$100 and hours of time.

Anybody want to trade a PSD for World Series tickets? What about my wife?

Just kidding - about the truck! GO ROCKIES!

 

First off thanks guys for all the info there is some really good stuff in there and i'm going to try some of that out.

Second GO ROCKIES is right i'm from colorado and man its about time they made it, over in four you heard it here first!!

Now down to business. I have a pretty big problem when i start my truck, temp doesn't really matter but its a little worse in the cold, i blow white smoke for about 10 minutes if i just let it idle. if i try to drive it before its warmed up it feels like its missing on half of the cylinders or an injector is sticking, this goes on until the temp guage hits the N on normal. But if i plug it in this gets rid of the missing problem, however, she still blows a pretty big cloud of white smoke for a minute or two. i'm not to sure what the problem is, i just replaced all eight GP's so i'm pretty sure thats not it, didnt see any problems with the wiring either. the voltage drops about a quater of the way once she is started so i believe the GP's are getting power. So i've narrowed it down to a couple things: injector is sticking open, GPR bad or something else that you guys are going to help with. Oh and i just changed the oil and drained the fuel from the fuel filter housing so thats not the cause. Thanks i appreciate any feedback

 

Hey Devman and welcome. The white smoke sounds like the relay. Mine was thick as the smoke off dry ice and would continue for a minute after an attempt to start. I am not an advocate of changing parts "just to see", but I was out in my other truck (56 Chevy) and driving by NAPA so I went ahead and sprang for the GPR. I figured if I replaced alll the glow plugs I would be replacing the relay anyway. Well it was the problem for me. I went out early this morning and it started right up with no smoke. I bought the GPR109 for ~$27 after AAA Discount. I think the GPR110 was ~$70 before discount. According to posts earlier on this thread, the 110 could be handy if you spend alot of nights in the mountains, but here in Denver the 109 should be fine.

What a fiasco on the Rockies WS tix. Now I have to take a few more hours off again today to try to get tix. It will be worth it if sussessful. GO ROCKIES!

 

7 ohms is OK when going though the wire harness too. The harness adds a little resistance. You can recheck themwhen you replace the bad GP if that's what you find. Could be wiring? BTW: I would do all 4 if you are going to pull the v-cover anyway. You can get them for 2.99 at autozone. Ask for zd-11 GP's. Don't have them do it vehicle specific. I just bought 32 of them.

 

i might be wrong but doesn't autozone sell autolite glowplugs and some guys say not to use them

 

Man was I glad to see this thread. I've got some weird stuff going on with my GP system.
I always unplug the wiring harness to my GPR during the summer just to save on the GPs and batteries. Well, we had a little cool snap here in Lower Alabama the other nite and my truck didn't want to start the next morning so I plugged my GPR back in. Tried to start it again and for the first time I noticed that I had no "Wait to start" light. Still did not want to start. The GPR is only about a year old so I'm hoping it's still good (especially since it has been unplugged for most of the time). It does not "click" when the key is turned on. There is no voltage drop indicated on the dash like there used to be when all was working. What turns the "Wait to start" light on? The small wire that runs from the GPR and goes to ground to activate the coil..... where does it pick up the ground?
Thanks for any suggestions!