Hey Guys, I have a 1983 F-250 diesel that seems to (well I know for a fact, I should say)be underpowered. This all started as an excess smoke situation a couple of weeks ago and now after some adjustments, has resulted in the no power scenario I have now. Originally I had a bunch of grey/white smoke coming out of the exhaust and the truck was very difficult to start. It was so bad that I thought I was gonna have the local fire department pay me a visit. Coincidentally, this occurred when the weather was pretty cold around here. I used the block heater and that seemed to solve the hard start problem. I did a little research and figured that the IP needed adjustment. As far as I can tell I advanced the timing on the pump a couple of degrees and it seemed to stop the smoking problem, but now I have the issue of no power. I changed the fuel filter and although the truck will start (a little bit harder than normal-but without need of the block heater or ether) it has very little power and I have to floor it to get it to move much at all. I noticed that it also seems to be shifting harder and later than before. Whaddaya think????????

 

How cold is it there and hace you got winter fuel in it. are you running bio diesel and have you ran any vegetable oil.
Which way did tou turn the IP there is a very good chance you are now out of time if the no power started after you moved the Ip.

 

I am in the San Francisco bay area, so the temperature is not particularly cold,, even in the dead of winter-maybe at the coldest around 45F. I turned the IP counterclockwise if you are looking at it from the front of the truck. It was maybe a 1/16" to the right of the timing mark, I moved it to where it was just to the left of that mark(I assume that this advanced the timing). The fuel I use is commercial grade product from Chevron or one of the other major suppliers in the area. The truck is not what I would consider a high mileage truck and has about 120,000 miles on it and seems to have been well maintained. I think in its previous life it was used primarily to haul a horse trailer on weekends. When I drained the fuel filter, the fuel seemed to be clear when I poured it into a clean plastic tray. I filled the filter to the top with ATF and I let the ATF soak into the filter medium until it stayed "full". I am kinda new to diesels and know my way around a gas engine, but this is foreign to me. I also pressed the schrader valve on the fuel filter when the truck was running just to see what kind of volume of fuel would spit out and it seemed to be reasonable. I don't know about the fuel pressure however.

 

as far as trying to clean it out a little, while the motor is still warm, fill the fuel filter up with sea foam, let it run about 30 seconds then let it sit about 5 minutes crank it up and run it... see if that might help a little... a lot of us have gotten some good results from the foam.

 

what kinda air sytem ya got going on it? the easier it is for these diesels to breathe the better they will run, i had a blocked cat converter on my truck took it off and it was a totally different rig

 

These engines don't have cat converters.

 

On your excess smoke when was the last time your cdr was cleaned.

 

Excuse my ignorance; what is a cdr? And how often should it be cleaned?

 

That's the CDR:



Should be cleaned every second oil change.

Let it soak in gasoline for a couple hours, and let dry (DO NOT blow compressed air on it)

 

Thanks for the tip, I will give it a shot and give you an update in a couple of days.

 

Hey halfbad welcome to the best forum on the net, we will treat you so many ways you will have to like one of them.

The cdr performs the same task as a pcv valve on a gas motor.
It is the nost overlooked maintenance item on an idi engine. I have seen many engines with well over 100,000 that were never serviced and this the main cause of headgasket failure fir these engines. When they clog up they let to much oil go straight into the intake causing a bluish smoke and it all winds up in the back cylinders and since oil has more btu's than diesel cylinder heat and pressure is increased to where it eventually lifts the gasket.

Ut is very possible that this was your smoke problem that is now masked by too advanced timing. You might try cleaning it (if tyou get little piece of crumbled rubber out of it replace it) and returning your timing to where it was and possibly getting your power back.
If your rig is all stock we can help you wake it up. in fact while you have the air cleaner off you should cut the soupbowl off, if it is still on there.

 

hey star how about possibly 192K on a cdr? from what i have seen on this truck, po didnt do much... afrain to take it off.

 

Dont be afraid to take it off, CLEAN it it has to eventually stop up.
Actually my first one went a lot further than that I didn't know about it then but looking back that motor might not have been wore out, just started using oil because the gdr had never been cleaned.lol

 

afraid of o rings being dry. i have a set of o rings, my luck i dont have ones to fit.

 

wellp, it pulled off and on no prob. was frickin nasty.... never seen gas that black that fast.