Glow Plugs - Hard to Start
 

New to the site, must say purchasing this 6.0 has added a few grey hairs. I have an '05 with a #2 glow plug fault according to the Bully Dog GT tuner diagnostics. Oddly enough this seemed to happen at the same time I purchased the tuner. The truck is taking longer to turn over so I'm hoping thats all it is. Truck has 180 K.

I have been reading the sight for weeks but haven't found anything on changing glow plugs. Appreciate any feedback on how hard it would be to change one out ?

Is it hard to start all the time or only during certain times of the day? Mine was only doing it at first start. I just reflashed the FICM, hopfully that solves it.

Anytime the truck is cold (first start). Once the truck has warmed up it starts fine. I do get the fault code for #2 glow plug along with an EGR throttle position fault.

If the glow plug replacement is fairly easy / accessible I was hoping to try this without having to trouble shoot the FICM and possible other issues.

If you want to change the glow plugs, there is a small trick to removing the glow plug harness. The harness is located right at the bottom of the aluminum portion of the cylinder head. There is a ring at the bottom of each connector. Wrap a piece of 16 gauge wire around the ring and then yank the wire with a pair of pliers. The glow plug is 10mm, just remove and reinstall.

There is a specific glow plug removal tool that is recomended by Ford:
303-1114

Also - be careful:
In 2004, the combustion chamber on the piston has been modified (updated bowl design). Due to the design change of the piston, the glow plug has been made shorter by 1.2 mm. If the longer glow plugs are installed into an engine with updated pistons, glow plug to piston contact will result, ending in potential catostrophic engine failure.

To test:
you can disconnect the glow plug harness and test the resistance of each plug. Each plug should read 0.1 to 2 ohms resistance. The harness should read 0 to 1 ohm resistance.

<TABLE style="WIDTH: 562pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=749 x:str><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 562pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 26464" width=749><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 18.35pt" height=24><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow; WIDTH: 562pt; HEIGHT: 18.35pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl25 height=24 width=749>Video w/ a short excerpt on glow plugs at apprx. 6:00 minutes to 7:45 minutes:</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.9pt" height=17><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow; HEIGHT: 12.9pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" class=xl24 height=17>mms://multimedia.ford.com/seopts/Tech25_250k.wmv</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Glow plugs are discussed at 6:00 to 7:45 minutes into the video IIRC.

Edit - since tuners can also play a role in issues like this, it is always wise to see if you have the same problem when the truck is returned to stock.

AND

IMO it is easy to troubleshoot the FICM (easier and cheaper than changing a glow plug). I personally do not think that one bad glow plug would make it that hard to start (in the summer at least).

egr throttle placte dtc is caused by the bully dog ignor it.
IMO one glow plug should not make an engine hard to start.
check both batteries with the ground side disconnected.
check the ficm voltage... use the search function on the site lots of ficm info here on fte
also check the glowplugs.

Your right, glow plug is much more difficult to check. After wrestling with the harness for 5 minutes i decided to check the FICM instead. FICM looks good 47~48V from key on to start.

To do the glow plug check you have to pull the glow plug and check for the resistance ?

BTW - Bully Dog fault code for EGR disappeared ....

By the way, I would make the bully dog disappear. They are known to be hard on the torque shift tranny. Other wise start saving for a tranny rebuild. JMHO.

fastist way to check glow plugs is through the buss bar connector. disconnect it and check from each pin of the 4 pin connector to battery ground. you want the red lead on the buss bar componet side and the black lead on the - termail of the battery.

Starting to stress about this Bully dog (GT Tuner) - really something to be concerned about ? The performance shop stresses to not use the extreme and stay with the tow and performance and there shouldn't be any issues. I just use if for the mileage / towing and like the diagnostics (guages).

Once the glow plug is out is there a way to confirm if it is okay or NG ?

Really appreciate the posts.

yes but the easy way to test it is not removing it unless it test bad with a dvom first. use the buss bar to test it. if it fails the omhs test is when you remove it. once you find that from the buss bar to ground is bad then you remove the plug and ohm out just the glow plug. if that test good you have a bad buss bar if it test bad you have a bad glow plug. if both test good ohm the wire from the buss bar harness side to the controoler if that wire is good you need a controller.

this may turn out to be my first cheezitstroke.com video.

You might be on to something there cheezit.Maybe even get that whisker of yours famous.

Which one??:-lamesign

I don't think it is lame I think he has a stylish whisker,suits him well.Also think a video help site for 6.0 powerstrokes would do great if it had someone with some pazzaz doing the wrenching.

Well last attempt before I throw in the towel. Not having much luck with the resistance checks. Sorry for the dumb questions but if you were to get a bad plug or harness would it zero ?

From what I can tell comparing the #2 and #4 harness and checking the 4 pins on the plugs the ohm resistance I think is okay. (0.7) I'm guessing a bit as to what the ohm setting should be. DC 200m

Truck spins over fast just chugs/catches till it finally starts. No blue smoke just a bit of grey.