Well I drove my truck to work on Saturday morning, it started with no problems w/o being plugged in. It sat all day in 55 degree, rainy weather, I did not plug it in that Sat. night, and it dropped down to 25 over night. I come out Sunday morning to go home and the truck barely turns over. It has done this to me three or four times the past month, I put it on the charger and cranks right up, but not today. I put it on the charger, and it did crank better but would turn over but not fire, kind of had a chug chug sound to it and was blowing a lot of white smoke out of the tailpipe. I pushed it into a heated bay at work and let it sit for about two hours with the battery charger on and the block heater plugged in. When I came back to start same thing. I thought it might be a frozen fuel filter, so I went and bought a new one. When I took out the old one it was black. I replaced the filter less then 10,000 miles ago. I was wondering what caused all this problems. The batteries and starter tested good a couple months ago, but it seemed like the batteries where dead as a hammer when I first started to try to start it. I am pulling my hair out trying to figure it out. Any suggestions as to what could be contributing to the cause? Do I need to put a winter weight oil in it?, New glow plugs?, New gpr?, Batteries, Batt. cables?

I am sorry for the long post but I am going crazy with this truck.

 

i would say bad batteries i had the same problem and i had 1 bad battery so i replaced them both and problem solved

 

how bout your alternator?

 

I didn't test my altenator but it is newer. I could get it tested for the heck of it though.

 

what first made me think of this is my alternator needed replacement last week. it was only 18 months old and 15,000 miles.
my fault for buying a reman but something to look at.

 

thanks for the suggestion.

 

I don't know for sure, but check your fuel bowl heater. You should not have black in your fuel filter. I think that the heater has insulators to keep it from shorting out on the bowl.
Those insulators deteriorate giving you the black. Also make sure you used Bosch GP's
I believe that is the same that Ford uses. Autolites are crap and will go south fast.

 

I have not changed the glow plugs yet, I have a brand new set of motorcrafts waiting to go in. I will have to check the bowl heater though. How hard are the glow plugs to change?