long cranking time, smokes

[02stroker]

Got a friend with a 2002 F-250 7.3L, automatic tranny that has been having some trouble. After sitting overnight, or for at least 8 hours, it takes several attempts to start the truck, and then when it does fire off, a huge cloud of blue smoke comes out and then clears right up. When it is turning over, it seems to spin faster than normal. It started on a cold night that it wasn't plugged in, but then on following nights it made no difference. Now that it is starting to get warmer, mid to upper 40's, it is still doing it. Once it is running it runs great and seems to have alot of power. Anybody have any suggestions on what may be wrong? The local Ford dealer says it may be the HPOP, but they would have to take a look at it to tell.Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[AARON29]

Mine does something similar to that. If it isn't plugged in at night it and it is Mid 40s or under it starts but it souds like it is on 3 cylinders and starts out with black smoke and turns to blue, after that it is fine.
My brother is a marine diesel mechanic and he said it sound like my problem could be the glow plug relay or the glow plugs themselves. I am having mine looked at next week, will post the results.
Hope this helps.

 

[lifted_up]

I had the same problem and it was two injectors completely worn out (185,000 miles) and three with worn o rings. I replaced them all for $1600 with the Stage II dragon fly's from Industrial Injection. starts in a flash now!

 

[Hoss 350]

Got a friend with a 2002 F-250 7.3L, automatic tranny that has been having some trouble. After sitting overnight, or for at least 8 hours, it takes several attempts to start the truck, and then when it does fire off, a huge cloud of blue smoke comes out and then clears right up. When it is turning over, it seems to spin faster than normal. It started on a cold night that it wasn't plugged in, but then on following nights it made no difference. Now that it is starting to get warmer, mid to upper 40's, it is still doing it. Once it is running it runs great and seems to have alot of power. Anybody have any suggestions on what may be wrong? The local Ford dealer says it may be the HPOP, but they would have to take a look at it to tell.Thanks for any suggestions.

The Ford dealer is starting with the most expensive and working their way down, apparently.

Hard and smokey starts in a glow plugged diesel almost always means glow plug issues. My best guess is that your glow plug relay is fritzed. This is a piece of cake, about 50 bucks at Napa.

It is the relay right on top of the engine, I'm sure someone else will have a pic to give you exact locations, but start by locating your oil/water separator, the big round thing right in the valley of the V.

Look left. You'll see two relays. The one that is towards the front of the truck and up higher is the GP relay.

To test your relay to see if it is bad is extremely simple. There are two posts on top of the relay. Go get a good set of jumper cables and jump the posts by using the same cable, one end on one post, one end on the other, so that an electrical current jumps across the relays (thereby bypassing the relay).

Make sure that the cables are free of any moving parts, then go turn your truck on. Wait for the WTS light to go out,and crank. If she starts right up easy and smoke is minimal, then you've found your problem.

No improvement? My next step is checking your glow plugs themselves. Try this first, then post again if it doesn't work, and we'll go over GP diagnosis.

Good luck!

 

[Tail_Gunner]

I'll vote for glow plugs/ relay also.

When I did my injectors a while back, I replaced all the glows plugs too as long as I had the valve covers off. Later on, I checked all the old glow plugs and 3 of 8 were bad. I suspected 1 or 2, but not 3. So you might be worse off in the glow plug department than you realize.

 

[02stroker]

Thanks for all the help guys. I was thinking glow plugs to, but he likes to check with the dealer all the time. I'll test the relay when I can. We work different shifts, so it may be a week or so. I'll let you know what I find.

 

[02stroker]

Well,I got a chance to look at the truck this weekend. We found one of the batteries was starting to go bad.We replaced both of them. I tried to check the glow plug relay with a test light. I have power coming in on one side, but the light does not light up on the other side when the glow plugs are cycled. I checked the relay on my truck the same way, and the same thing happens. I don't have any trouble starting on a cold morning. It just doesn't seem right to me that I can't light up the test light on the other side of the relay unless the relay is bad on both trucks. I can feel and hear it click when the key is cycled. It wasn't cold outside and the truck was not completly cooled down yet, so we didn't try jumping the relay.

 

[Hoss 350]

So did you try jumping the relay?

Not lighting up on the downhill side means bad relay to me. Did your problem solve itself with the batteries replacement? This is another common thing, battery doesn't make enough juice to turn over the truck AND fire the GPs

 

[JLDickmon]

Well,I got a chance to look at the truck this weekend. We found one of the batteries was starting to go bad.We replaced both of them. I tried to check the glow plug relay with a test light. I have power coming in on one side, but the light does not light up on the other side when the glow plugs are cycled. I checked the relay on my truck the same way, and the same thing happens. I don't have any trouble starting on a cold morning. It just doesn't seem right to me that I can't light up the test light on the other side of the relay unless the relay is bad on both trucks. I can feel and hear it click when the key is cycled. It wasn't cold outside and the truck was not completly cooled down yet, so we didn't try jumping the relay.

Rut Roh, Shaggy...
time to do the Stancor relay mod...

 

[02stroker]

Sorry I didn't post the results. It turned out to be the IPR. The glow plug relay wasn't powering up because the engine was to warm yet when I tested it. We ended up towing it to the dealer and they tested it and decided the IPR and the injection pressure sensor were going bad. Since they replaced them the truck runs great and the fuel milage went up slightly. The truck had no codes in it when it got to the dealership.