See, that's what I'm talking about. These things are monsters. It feels good though, when I'm driving down the road I feel great, and often think to myself, "This is what god must feel like when he drives a diesel Excursion!"

In all seriousness, my batteries were probably half shot. I could get a couple cranks, but not enough, and that was if I didn't prime the glow plugs. If I did, I'd get nothing, but headlights and everything else had full power. Just goes to show how much power you really need. At that point, it took 10 minutes charging my batteries with the "Jump" portion of my charger, at 225 amps. Just strait hooking it up yielded no result.

 

Voltage and amperage are two different concepts. For things like light bulbs, you need 12v and low amperage. For cranking, which takes a full voltage and lots of amperage, as the impedance (like resistance) increases, the voltage falls off quickly if the battery can't supply the amperage. Which is why you can watch the voltage drop considerably while cranking, I think as low as 10v is typical, but if you can't keep 9v, your battery is toast.

 

The optimas are nice...I run them in the offroad rigs when I need a bulletproof battery
the x however gets walmart batts....they do a fine job, hold up well, and the most important part...you can swap them out if need be at any walmart....Last ones I swapped out were in my old rv and they were a yr out of warrenty(they don't know how to check the dates on the battery in cust service)

 

the 7.3 in my International 4700 has two 1125CCA batteries to start it..... so yeah that diesel need lots of juice to turn over esp in cold weather.... tried using them in my X but they are about 2 inches too tall ....otherwise they would have fit

Plan is to add a couple of deep cycle optimas under the truck along the frame rail with a battery isolator at some point along with power inverter and my winch(es)

 

Mine was cranking slow about a year ago. It was still under warranty so i took it to the dealer and they replaced 1 battery. I said they should both be replaced but they said only 1 was bad. So a few months ago the other went. Now out of warranty. I went to WalMart and got the one folks on here suggested. It was easy to replace. You just have to remove the plastic cover on it.

As for cranking faster. I always had the dealer do the oil change for $59. The last time (november 08) they said it is now $99. So I changed it myself with Rotella synthetic and the motorcraft filter. I replaced the battery about 2 monhts before the oil change to synthetic. It cranks a lot faster with the synthetic and is not sluggish for the first few miles like before. It cranks the same speed even if it's cold outside.

But it sounds like you may have a dead cell.

 

That's super cheap for an oil change, I paid near $150 for the oil and filter. The lower weight oil will do that, 5w-40 is much thinner than 15w-30. During the winter months at least it's less of a strain on the starter to turn it. When i crank now it fly's compared to the 15w-40. I went 10k miles since I bought the truck in October, and just did hte oil, and tonight changed the filter and cap with a stock. Stupid after-market filter and cap screwed me up. Now I have all motorcraft under the hood, and I'm going to hcange the oil plug with an OEM that I didn't have to weld a 14mm bolt onto. Still, I don't care for the OEM much, as the bolt is so damned shallow and easy to strip. Had I not gotten lucky with the impact wrench my plug would still be in there, it was rounded when i got to it.

 

I will be picking up some wally world batteries depending on what happens tomorrow morning. I'm drunk as hell right now so I'm minimizing the work I do on my truck in hte middle of the night with no light. Already skinned the hell out of my knuckles doing hte oil filter. Alcohol + mechanics work = bad...

 

Wait till tomorrow morning when u realize that u changed the oil on your neighbors truck Doh!

 

LOL

 

Changing Oil - Men -vs- Women

Oil Change Instructions for Women:
1) Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 miles since the last oil change.
2) Drink a cup of coffee.
3) 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.
Money spent:
• Oil Change $20.00
• Coffee $1.00
Total: $21.00
================================================== ==========
Oil Change Instructions for Men:
1) Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.
2) Stop by liquor store and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20, drive home.
3) Open first beer and drink it, to assess the situation.
4) Plan to jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5) Find jack stands behind garden hoses, rakes and assorted crap. Jack up vehicle.
6) In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7) Place drain pan under engine.
8) Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9) Give up and use crescent wrench.
10) Unscrew drain plug.
11) Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process, cuss.
12) Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.
13) Have another beer while watching oil drain.
14) Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.
15) Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.
16) Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.
17) Buddy shows up; finish case of beer with him. Decide to finish oil change tomorrow so you can go see his new garage door opener.
18) Sunday: Skip church because "I gotta finish the oil change." Drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car. Cleverly dump oil in hole in back yard instead of storing it for recycling.
19) Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 18.
20) Beer? No, drank it all yesterday.
21) Walk to grocery store to buy 3.2 beer.
22) Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface. (Note that the filter companies tell you to do this just to ensure that the GASKET is actually there...)
23) Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24) Remember drain plug from step 11.
25) Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
26) Remember that the used oil is buried in a hole in the back yard, along with drain plug.
27) Drink beer.
28) Shovel out hole and sift oily mud for drain plug. Re-shovel oily dirt into hole. Steal sand from kids' sandbox to cleverly cover oily patch of ground and avoid environmental penalties. Wash drain plug in lawnmower gas over a bad patch of lawn.
29) Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.
30) Drink beer.
31) Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame.
32) Bang head on floorboards in reaction to step 31.
33) Begin cussing fit.
34) Throw stupid crescent wrench.
35) Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit bowling trophy.
36) More beer.
37) Clean up hands and forehead and bandage as required to stop blood flow.
38) Beer.
39) Beer.
40) Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.
41) Beer.
42) Lower car from jack stands.
43) Accidentally crush remaining case of new motor oil.
44) Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during steps 23 - 43.
45) Beer.
46) Test drive car.
47) Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.
48) Car gets impounded.
49) Call loving wife, she makes bail.
50) 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.
Money spent:
• Parts $50.00
• DUI $2500.00
• Impound fee $75.00
• Bail $1500.00
• Beer $40.00
Total - - $4,165.00
But you know the job was done right!!!

 

Oh this was a cut and paste off the web.... As I know someone is gonna get technical instead of just seeing the humor, Jiffy lube and "properly maintained" is an oxymoron. and we know its more than $20 to change the oil on a gas or diesel X

 

I think you forgot a couple of beers in there!

 

Get new batteries, I waited too long and it caused me to have a new FICM installed. They do not like low voltage. Name one car manufacturer that puts in a deep cycle battery to start your engine. There is none. I have a $300 K motorhome and it has 8 12v Deep cycles to run lights and things but it also has 4 high Cold Crank Amperage (CCA) batteries to start the V8 diesel engine. So why did they do that if you could get by with deep cycle batteries? In warm weather you can get by with low amperage.
GregM

 

Man that is one SOB of an oil change process there,,,Soutthpaw ! LOL