I have an 88 F350 with the 7.3L with 167k miles. This my first diesel so I am not an expert on anything diesel. I think I know but that is when I am most often my most dangerous. The big baby runs well once it gets warmed up. This morning I went out to start it and it turned, never really fired over and eventually ran the battery down to where I decided to just let her sit with a charger on it for a few hours. I went out this afternoon and it cranked twice for like 5 seconds and fired up. It idled rough with what I would call a skip if it were a gas job. Kinda a pup pup perrup pup pup pup pup perrup. When I run it up to about 2000 rpm it smooths out and after I let it sit for and idle for 5 minutes it idled well. Also, it was blowing white smoke all the while.
Here is what I think, correct me if I am out to lunch.
1. Glow plugs. The guy I bought it from said he replaced two and cleaned the others. I am thinking they should all go. I have read the threads on changing plugs and it doesn't seem out of my abilities.
2. Injectors. I am thinking they need to be cleaned out. I am going to try and run some cleaner through it. I replaced the fuel filter and had put a little Diesel 911 in the filter but I think I should run some diesel clean, or whatever it is called.
3. I don't know. The closest station to me has Clean Diesel. I think it is a bio diesel. It is an Irving station.
I appreciate any thoughts. I don't really want to just throw things at it.

 

1. Sounds like you do need to replace the Glow Plugs, If they are NOT Motorcraft/Beru then replace them regardless with Motorcraft/Beru.

Easier than changing spark plugs!

To do a test light test of the glow plugs.

• Unplug the GP.
• Connect one end of a test light to 12v+ battery.
• Touch the other end to the terminal on the end of the GP (where you unplugged the harness).

Does it light up?

• Yes, Chances are it's good.
• No, It is no good.

This test is very susceptible to miss diagnoses and should only be used for a quick reference.

To do a positive test use a volt/ohm meter and test the ohms between the terminal and base. Should be .5 to 1 ohm resistance.

2. Injectors, Remove the fuel filter, empty it (or replace it) and fill it completely with Diesel Kleen (or your preferred Diesel Injector Cleaner & Lubricant), Start the motor and let it run for 30 to 60 seconds and shut it off, let it set for an hour or so, then restart.

Does it normally start and die, or start and continue to run bad until it warms up????

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

It doesn't die. Once it starts, it starts. something else I forgot to mention is that after I try to start it the first time, when I go from off to run with the switch, the wait to start light goes out instantly and it ticks. I turn it off then on a couple of times and then it stays on and goes off like normal.

 

How long does the Wait to Start light stay on the first time you turn the key on?

What does the white smoke smell like? sweet or fuel

At the mileage you have on it, you probably have a couple leaking injectors.

 

i would say glow plugs and leaky return line.both a cheap fix

 

i just hope the white smoke is a fuel smell not sweet smell. That would suck if it was sweet. I had a guy start his today next to me and it smelled like candy when his started, i mentioned the whole cavitation think and he just scoffed like it couldnt happen to him.So i let it be, poor *******.

 

[quote=Festus Hagen;7664754]1.

Does it normally start and die, or start and continue to run bad until it warms up????
quote]

And what if it does? My glow plugs are perfect, and my truck is having starting issues. Basically I use my manual GP switch for 6 seconds in the summer, and the truck starts for about 5 seconds and then the engine seems to be starving for fuel or it is getting bad air intrusion somehow but it is still running. I have to hit the gas pedal a couple of times and then the engine is running happy. So what do you think that means? The truck is not smoking at all, and it seems that it isn't running on all cylinders when it is starving for fuel until I hit the gas pedal.

 

The white smoke is not the sweet antifreeze smell. I assume it is the unburned diesel blowing. I appreciate all of you guys support. I figured it was the plugs. Need to check injectors as well then. Thanks~

 

yeah definitely check those and let us know!

 

Glockem45,

You really should start your own thread so as to not hijack Daved336's thread!

However, You state you GP's are perfect, How did you test them to know they are perfect!

The best thing you can do at this point would be to pull your fuel filter first thing in the AM before starting and see how much fuel is in it... It should be plumb full, if it's low at all you are getting air intrusion causing drain back. I suspect this to be the case!

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Well our topics are pretty similar, so I figured I would ask since one of your responses asked the same question I was going to ask about anyway.

MY GP's are perfect brand new Motorcraft/Beru. I got a new set once I ran a manual GP switch inside my cab to bypass the crappy controller. ANyway, I can take a multimeter out again and make sure they have the correct OHMS, and or use the test light again.

So you think it could be air intrusion and filter might be low? If this is the case, how do you fix air intrusion? I.e. where is it coming from?

 

problem with air intrusion is finding the point of "intrusion." If the lines just need to be cracked then you can just loosen the lines and bleed them a bit. If that wont do it, pull the filter, top it of with diesel and re attach, if not there.....happy hunting. One of these pros on here will maybe be able to point you in the right direction but it is going to be starting at one point and working to the next, checking all the seals.

 

Air intrusion is very difficult to pin point, Diesel molecules are larger than Air molecules therefore connections may very well leak air but not fuel.

The most probable locations are the Injector return lines and caps (Tees).
Although there are many places it can be.

I believe you have a water separator on the drivers side firewall tucked in behind the inner fender. There is a ring on top to pull and drain the water, However they are notorious for leaking and are typically removed or bypassed.

There is also a connection (4 way tee) on the return lines at the top back of the motor.

My suggestion would be to do a Return Line kit, and the 4 Vibra-lok seals.
There are two 5/16" and two 3/8" Vibra-lok seals.
The two 5/16" seals are on the line between the Filter and IP.
One 3/8" on the line between the lift pump and filter.
One 3/8" on the return 4 way at the top back of the motor.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

On the 85 I would suspect the water seperator first and return lines second.
I did the bolt in the drain line on mine and thought that fixed it.
When I swapped in the later style with the seperator in the filter and removed the original I was amazed at how much better the engine ran.
I guess it was sucking in small amounts of air around the bleed pull ring, not enough to make it run rough, but enough it dropped the power some.

86 was the last year for the old style seperator, so for the 88 the return lines moves to the top of the list.
Also on the 88, you could be sucking air around the fuel filter heater connection, the one on top of the housing.

For possible starting issues, could also be the power wires to the glow plugs.



Both trucks have the connector circled in red where the engine harness connects to the chassis harness.

That one is the 86 and older connector, the large orange wires on the bottom in the picture carry current from the inner fender mounted relay to the glow plugs.

On the 88, the wires are either yellow or tan and they carry power to the glow plug relay from the battery.

In either connector which is near the dip stick, the connectors for the large wires corrode and get hot, melting the plug.
When that happens, the battery power is not all making it to the glow plugs, so they don't heat like they should.
Hard starts is the result.

The only fix is to splice the wires around the connector if it has melted.

On the 88 truck, be careful, the large AWG wires have constant battery voltage on them since the relay is mounted on the back of the intake.

 

The water seperator on my 85 F-250 has the electric connector disconnected b/c it never worked anyway, so that you can only manually pull the pin vertically to let out any water in the fuel. I wonder if b/c it is manual only now, would that increase the chance of intrusion through this area?

As for the wires you show below, I inspected these when you told me about them last time when I fixed the GP's and installed the manual in-cab GP switch, and they appeared to be unaffected by burning or melting. I will check them again though.