I have a '99 7.3L Powerstroke, it has 180K miles on it. It recently had the fuel recirc pump, the one under the drivers door mounted on the frame, replaced. The truck runs very rough when cold, smokes and takes 10 minutes to warmup to go anywhere. If I dont wait the ten minutes, it will act like it is running out of fuel on me. Ford says the injectors, not all of them, but enuff to make it costly, need replacing. Any ideas on the problem? Is it realy the injectors?

 

I think I would start by taking a close look at the wiring harnesses under the valve covers.

 

Sounds like glow plugs are bad to me. Have you checked them?

 

How would you check the glow plugs? Forgive my ignorance... just trying to learn more about my engine.

 

Disconnect the plugs that are connected to the valve cover gaskets on each side. I think there are eight pins inside the connector on each side...4 for glow plugs and 4 for injectors. The glow plugs are the 2 pins on each end of the plug and the injectors are the 4 center pins (that is eigh total on one gasket...16 for both gaskets). Using a multi-meter, clamp the ground anywhere on the engine. To check the glow plugs test the 2 pins on each end of the valve cover connector (4 total on one gasket...Should read 0 ohms.) Also check the 4 center pins and make sure they all read the same resistance. If the 4 injector pins don't read the same resistance "most likely" the connector under the valve cover has wiggled loose and will need to be fixed.

 

The glow plugs, are they inside the valve covers? What about the glow plugs would cause this engineering to act as if it is out of fuel? The truck is far away rightnow, what holds the covers on, its not some silly torqx head or odd fasterner that requires me to buy a drawer full of special tools is it?

 

I have a '99 as well. The valve covers are held down with a bunch bolts with either 1/2" or 13mm heads on them. Some of them have studs coming out the top of the bolts to hold wiring harness brackets, dip stick tubes, etc.
Basically all you need to remove the valve covers is a socket set. Also a 1/2" or 13mm swivel ended socket is very helpful for removing several of the bolts. Nearly impossible to get a straight shot at 5 or 6 of them.
You'll need a 10mm socket to back out the retainer bolt that holds the wiring harness plug to the engine harness. It's in the center of the plug on the port side facing out. Back out that bolt and the whole plug disconnects.
What happens is the wiring harness's disconnect from the inside of the valve cover. If you have a '99 it most likely has some problems with the glow plug wire rubbing on the push rod. I had to buy new valve cover gaskets and new wiring harness's because of the way they were routed, the glow plug wire rubbed through on a push rod and melted the plug.

I made a thread about it a couple of years ago.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...or-wiring.html

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Great detail. Thanks, guys.

 

Hey kwik... didn't you also recently find some injector torque problems under your covers? If so, I can't remember what the proper torque setting should be, and want to make a note for when I go digging inside sometime soon. (I hope I'm remembering this right)

 

Has anyone had dealings with purchasing reconditioned parts? Like injectors?

 

Hey Dale, we have another thread running along these lines... here's the link.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...good-idea.html

 

Wasn't really a "problem" so much as everything under the valve covers were a little looser than factory spec.
I retorqued everything last time the covers were off and about half of the rocker arm pedastal bolts were a little loose, the others were still ok.
Torque them to 18 FOOT lb.
The injectors hold down bolts, all eight of them took some more retorquing but none of them were actually loose. They just took some more when snugging them down to the factory spec of 120 INCH lb.

 

I'm going to go ahead and flag this thread in my favs so I can get to it more quickly when I go "under cover". Thanks, Kwik.