92 F250 7.3 idi that doesn't like starting

[brian_hobbs]

I have a 92 F250 5-speed 4x4 that seems to run fine but if it sits for longer than a couple days it will crank till the batteries die then it will finally start after you jump it off another veh and you still have to crank it 5-6 times. The wait to start light stays on for 7 -10 seconds like it's suppose to and the glow plugs where replaced right before I bought the truck 4 months ago. The other wierd thing is when it finally does start a huge white smoke cloud comes out of the exhaust piple and it shoots out white smoke a smells of unburned diesel for at least 20 mins or more while it warms up. It seems to take longer and longer to start. It has 310k on it. I'm wondering if the rings are going bad? Or the injectore pump is starting to go out. If you start it everyday it seems to do fine. It's just when it sits. Any ideas on what it could be or what to look at would be helpful Thanks.

[m-hickey95]

I had the same trouble. Most of the time it is due to leaking return lines. The don't necessarily leak fuel but allow air to leak in and the fuel all drains back to the tank so there is nothing left to start with. I changed injectors and return lines and it made a big improvement but not totally fixed. There is supposed to be a check valve and o-ring in the filter housing that also causes the same condition but I have yet to find them.
I also found that it will start much easier if you open the throttle during cranking. I think it just fills the lines faster.
Good luck

[brian_hobbs]

Thanks that real does help alot. I was thinking it acted like it was out of gas, but it didn't make sense as to why it would do that. Any idea as to why there is so much white smoke? This truck sits alot but didnt use to put out all that smoke when it started and continues to do untill it warms up. it also smells really bad of unburn fuel if you get anywhere near the exhaust. Again thanks for your help.

[Dave93IDI]

You might have an open injector. A friend of mine had a problem once with his 6.9 sat for 6 months water in line contaminated 1 injector wich caused constant fuel to cyl. Hope this helps you.

[brian_hobbs]

How would I check to see if one of the injectors was stuck open? It doesn't idle really fast or anything. Thanks for the help

Brian

[FordGuy100]

Start with the return lines. 99% of the time they are the case. Air gets into the system, and the IP's can't push the air(although they can with fuel).

[FordGuy100]

Plus these trucks were designed to use ok'd style diesel. We now habe ULSD. Ultra low sulfur diesel. I would recomend running some fuel additive to every tank.