Hard Start, Romping, NO START.

[PSDprepper]

Ive been having problems...

When I first bought my truck, it would occasionally romp once or twice during a "cold" start. I didn't think much of it at the time. After 1 month of ownership, I blew a #20 fuse? (the one for the fuel system, could be #22 i forgot) It did it 2 more times and I had a shop look over it and they found a short in the fuel heater and a leaking fuel pump. The fuel heater remains disconnected. Replaced oem fuel pump and went on with life.

Later the truck started having trouble cold starting, replaced gpr, still had the same problem, although it didn't happen all that often. The truck started to romp more often and more violently as it got colder outside.

I did a lot of research on the .ORG since then and pulled a cps code,

Now is were it all went bad. The truck would rarely start on its own in the morning unless I plugged it in. It has only been 27 degrees here... During the day it would randomly star normally or take 30 seconds to fire. After a while I started having to jump start it. It would actually like a below freezing Minnesota cold start, white smoke, long cranks... I ended up having to jump start it to get it going in the morning. So I suspected my batteries were dead since the voltmeter shows in the negative.

I replaced the CPS with a gray one from NAPA, and my mistake was pressure washing the engine before checking to see if the CPS was functioning. I got in after washing the engine, and lead footed it to Napa to pickup a fresh 6637. (old one needed replacement) this is when I noticed that the truck would skip and buck if I punched the skinny hard enough. I kept driving it and around 3k rpms it would violently skip and buck, while spitting out white smoke, then it would shift gears.(E4OD) I drove it maybe a total of 10 minutes trying to diagnose and it was getting even worse. I parked it in my driveway and now I can't get it to start. Even jumping it. I got to the point where I overheated the starter. And gave up.

So where did I go wrong? Could it be a bad CPS? Did I screw something up when I pressure washed the engine? Is it a bad set of batteries? A bad starter? Or are the injectors bad? HPOP? PCM?

I have no idea, I'm new to diesel engines. I'm asking all of you for your opinions on what it could be?

I removed the injectors thinking the o rings were bad, but that's not the case. I'm taking them to get tested this afternoon, hopefully they pass. The glow plugs seem fine but I don't know what the difference between good and bad ones are. I am going to replace the fuel filter as it looks saturated with dirt. The batteries tested good 2 weeks ago, but could have been run down since then.

Thanks guys! Sorry it's such a long post, I just wanted to tell the whole story in case the different events have something to do with each other and for the sake of easy diagnosis. Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks

[Patrick Feeley]

Is this a 1997 California model or a Federal model (does it have the "Starship Enterprise" pulse dampener on the back end of the fuel pump)? I guess I would be inclined to remove the Injector Driver Module (IDM) to see if it may have gotten water in it. I would also check/disconnect some of the connectors for the ICP, EBP, etc. and blow them dry with compressed air. Cheers!

[PSDprepper]

Originally Posted by Patrick Feeley

Is this a 1997 California model or a Federal model (does it have the "Starship Enterprise" pulse dampener on the back end of the fuel pump)?

It is a california truck. What is "starship enterprise" doing on my truck?

[madpogue]

Originally Posted by PSDprepper

What is "starship enterprise" doing on my truck?

It's hiding under the "Darth Vader" engine cover....

[PSDprepper]

UPDATE

I got the truck to start. I ended up putting the injectors back in and changed the oil. I had to buy a new starter. After I put that in the truck started up fine. I am still getting a skip in the engine when I hit it really hard. It spits out white smoke when it does it.

I pulled some codes to:
Po603
Po344
Po237

Cleared the codes then checked again and got p1111

Thanks Guys!