I have a 2003 Excursion 7.3 with 80,000 miles. The crank shaft sensor was replaced several months ago. After that it seemed harder to start like it was not getting fuel right away when starting, also could smell fuel. Took it back to Ford dealer a few weeks later. No codes. They said I needed oil change. Told them for the last 6 or 8 months my wife has only been driving about 2 miles to her office. They said the engine was loaded up because of the short drives. They changed oil and tech said he blew carbon out of system by ******* it for about a 1/4 mile. Seemed to be better afterwards but could still smell fuel. Looked under hood and noticed fuel pooled down on top the intake. After several weeks started to get the long hard starts again. I changed the fuel filter. Seemed to help and fuel pool dissappeared. Now after a few more weeks it is hard starting again. I have no confidence in the two Ford dealerships near me. Any suggestions?

 

Welcome gundog54.

Others will be along soon. Why was the CPS replaced and what color is the new one? Many are having trouble with the grey one. Where are you located, and are the batteries original? Stick around, help is on the way.

DND58

 

Welcome to FTE. The 2 common places for the fuel to leak on top of the motor are either the gasket on the lid for the fuel filter, or the drain valve assembly. You should be able to figure out where you're leak is with a flashlight. If your fuel filter came with the flat shaped gasket, you need to put a light coat of oil on the gasket to get it to seal properly. If the filter came with a beveled gasket, it just needs a coat of diesel to seal.

The drain valve is the yellow lever on the back of the fuel bowl. Open and close it a couple of times with the key on to make sure the valve isn't just hung up. Typically a leak from this area is from failed o-rings in the assembly. You can buy new o-rings here Replacement O-rings for Diesel Engines
and just do the repair yourself. Here are instructions to the repairs with pictures Separator Valve Rebuild

 

The dealer was shooting you a line
My trucks normal trips are 2 miles round trip and it starts fine
If however you batteries aren't getting charged enough it will make it hard to start

 

Another story. December 07 batteries went did. Took it to local repair shop. Two new batteries $225.00. Week later dead batteries. Took back to repair shop, they replaced one battery. Week later at daughter's graduation dead battery. Called friend and then AAA, could not jump start. Towed to repair shop, new alternator, $300 plus. No problem since then. To bad repair shop couldn't figure out it was alternator in the first place (parts changers).

 

Still looking for help on the hard start.

 

There's a good chance that the short drives are not properly charging your batteries. This time of year, the GPR draws a lot of power during the wait to start cylcle, and the short drive may not be enough to properly charge the batteries.

Was the CPS replaced by Ford under recall? Was it getting cold when that happened? How long do you consider longer to start? If you disconnect and charge up both batteries, does it start quicker? When the mechanic found the bad alternator, did you go ahead and replace the second battery? Batteries in these trucks should always be replaced as a set. If you just replace one, the weaker one will drag the new one down.

If you think the issue may be CPS related, you could always try a different one. Get one from Ford, or if you can find a black one from International, get that instead. The one from Ford costs about $25. Instructions to change it yourself are here Welcome to guzzle's CPS R&R Web Page

 

I feel certain the batteries are not the problem. Turns over real strong. It just acts like it is not getting fuel, like it lost it's prime. Just changed fuel filter. Does this vehicle have a second fuel filter in the frame between tank and engine?

 

Gundog, where in NC are you ?

 

Like Chris (F350-6) suggested, find the source of the leak or did you already? Did you open the yellow drain lever on the filter assembly and turn the key to the run position? If you do this, you should see a steady stream of fuel pour out of the drain tube on the passenger side of the engine. Steady stream = fuel pump is good. Dribble, slow stream, intermitted stream = bad or failing pump.

 

There are a couple of thing that could be doing this, but there isnt enough info to rule a couple out. First check engine oil level. If it is full, are you running correct viscosity for temperature in the winter where you live? If it is really cold plug in block heater and see if it helps.

Another could be an internal leak back to the pan in the HPOP if it is only hard to start after it has set a while and has had tim to drain. Before you start you could pill the plug on the top left of pump and see where oil level is, should be about 1" from bottom of threads (right side of pump as looking from front of truck into engine compartment).

If it is after warmup, then shut off and while oil is still warm and it is harder to start it could be a seal on top of the injector for actuation oil leaking into valve cover.

How is performace after it is started? If it is low powered the fuel pump could be weak. You can disconnect filter drain line and put a 5/16" hose with clamp on it to a 100 psi gauge and check fuel pressure.

I dont know about Fords as far as check valves in fuel system, but most heavy equipment has a one way check in the tank, or at the pump. If Ford uses one, it could have went bad and the fuel could be draining back to your tank causing it to have a hard time to get the pressure up in the fuel system.

A small leak on the suction side of the fuel system could cause a hard start problem too, and it would have low fuel pressure and low power from this also.

Glow plug condition could also cause hard starts if they are not working properly.

Tuners also can cause harder starts if it has too much fuel being injected into a cold engine. Learned this one by having my old one cranked to high from night before and it took a while to start.

One more (I can go all night), if you have an injector having a problem the engine would be dragging a dead hole and could cause this. If you have a pyro and boost gauge you can catch. One injector bad will lower boost, and cause the engine to have lower EGTs on the side with the bad injector and higher on the good side (reason I run two pyros, when one gets considerably higher than the other constantly I look at the cold side for a bad injector).

There are a few others like sensor problems, but most of the time a CEL will come up.

I hope this helps.

 

Lake Norman

 

Shacks87, I am out of town. Will call you Monday or Tuesday. Thanks.

 

Is this hard start all the time or just when the motor is cold, if so plug the block hearter in for few hours and see if it helps.