'03 6.0 Hard to Start - Cranks for a LONG time and pumps out LOTS of white smoke

[DownTown]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here and new to diesels and can use some help. I have a '03 F350 with the 6.0. When my truck sits for half of a day or more and I try to start it, it will turn over for a long time (around a full minute) and it pumps out tons of white smoke. Sometimes I'll hear it start to fire for a half a second and then back to cranking. Once it starts I have no problem starting it right back up. It does this during the day or at night and it is in the 80's here. I've searched the forums and haven't found any really good answers for this.

Does anyone know what is causing this or are there some definite things I can check for this? And more importantly than what is wrong, is how do I fix it or check it? And please keep in mind that I'm new to this so be careful with the accronyms and pictures of where things are located would be awesome! I had to read atleast 10 threads before I figured out what the heck HPOP meant.

Oh and the other thing is I'm taking the turbo off anyways to replace it, is there anything I should check or just go ahead and replace while I'm in there? Thanks guys!

[mikeproc]

how many miles, could it be bad injectors leaking fuel while it sits and then hard start and smokes while it burns all the extra diesel? Im not sure hopefully a tech will chime in here good luck!

[DownTown]

168,000 miles. I know that one of the injectors was just replaced by the previous owner.

[mikeproc]

Again I might be totally wrong but i would get a scaner and do a buzz test and cylinder contribution test and see if they all pass. If its a sweet smell out the exhaust i would say its egr cooler related, but it sounds more like injectors from the long crank and starts fine once its been running. keep posting and someone smart will come around.

[m-chan68]

2003 model years have been notorious for injectors dumping raw fuel into the exhaust causing the exact symptom you describe. 2003 model years also NEVER have EGR cooler failures (unlike 2004 to 2007 model years), at least not in my experience.

[03f250stroke]

im going with injector failure. white smoke is raw fuel, or coolant but i doubt its coolant.

try to get the truck scanned and see what you can find. 03s hardly ever throw a check engine light. 168k is a good amount of miles for them crappy injectors in the 03s so i would check to see if you find any problems there

[Abrannan19]

Originally Posted by m-chan68

2003 model years have been notorious for injectors dumping raw fuel into the exhaust causing the exact symptom you describe. 2003 model years also NEVER have EGR cooler failures (unlike 2004 to 2007 model years), at least not in my experience.

seriously, AGAIN with this, just because you haven't had one single failure (which I find hard to believe) doesn't mean they "never" fail..I know we have had a ton of them..


with that said, its probably and injector. You can pull the oil fill cap and see if once its running its pouring smoke out of there.

[cajun1963]

I had the same problem with mine. The check valve in the oil filter housing was stuck open causing the oil to drain out of the reservoir after the truck was shut off.

[DownTown]

Originally Posted by cajun1963

I had the same problem with mine. The check valve in the oil filter housing was stuck open causing the oil to drain out of the reservoir after the truck was shut off.

Where is this check valve? Is it in the filter housing? On the outside? Or part of the housing? And how do you fix it? Replace it or clean it?


And in case that doesn't work, how is the best way to test for the injectors. Do I need to just suck it up and pay the dealer $120 for their diagnostic?

[cajun1963]

I brought mine to the dealship because it was still under warranty. I brought it back to them four times before they figured out what was wrong. I'm not possitive but i think the check valve is located underneath the reservoir. I know it took them two days to replace.

Diagnostics could not find the problem because they looked at it four times and could never figure out what was wrong. I believe the mechanic unscrewed the cap on the oil filter housing and found no oil in the reservoir after the truck sat there overnight.