Hey guys. I got a 1988 Intnl with a non turbo 7.3 I rarley drive it, but every 2 weeks I crank it up and run it 15 minutes. Then drive around the yard to keep everything freed up. Today I did my usual routine. No start this time. Normaly it cranks up easily in our mild climate. Need throttle feathering for 10 seconds then it is good. Always had a white-grayish smoke,kinda like a rain cloud since I bought it. Normaly there is little whiteish smoke when it is cranking. Today while attempting to crank there was no smoke,none. The is a pump on the side of the engine that has a line going to fuel water filter. Disconnection show a good flow of fuel. There are two other lines on the filter that had good flow out, one little hose and one about the size inbound hose. There is a thing(no clue) front top center of the block with one big metal hose and 8 little metal hoses. Also one rubber hose on top of this thing. No fuel came out of the rubber hose during cranking.The metal ones I had no clue what I was doing by that point so now I am here. I know at least I have good fuel coming out of the filter, from there I am clueless. The hanger in the tank revealed 8 inches of fuel,no hills involved. What we have is a truck that ran fine 2 weeks ago with its usual colored smoke. Today not even a pop and nary a whiff of smoke. Oh yeah, engine spins over fast, batteries are great. Glow plugs indicator works, and some clicking nioses can be heard when the ign is left on more than a few seconds. Thanks guys

 

Well first off it sounds like your glowplugs are working since you said if you leave it on it will start clicking after a few seconds.
Second, That THING on top of the engine with 8 lines comming out, 1 metal line going in and a rubber one on top is the injection pump. I would first make sure you are getting ignition power to that IP pump (the thing). It will have 2 wires going to it, Check the front wire with the ignition on with a test light or volt meter. The wire will pull right off. IF you show having power to it, when you put it back on the injection pump, you should hear click noise when you re connect it. If you have no power, it could possibly be a fuse like what happend to me in a parking lot this winter. So check the fuses. If you do have power to the ip, then you need to see if you are getting air into the fuel system. There are several ways of doing but the most common way seems to be putting a Clear rubber hose between the fuel filter header and the metal line going to the injection pump and watch for air as you crank it. If your getting air, it wont start, but (unlike your symptoms) they usually smoke a little though. The other guys may give you more ideas later on today but I would try the voltage check first. Good luck.