Hey everyone.
Background: 99 F250 with the 7.3 Intercooled, 207,xxx miles.
TL;DR: Truck cranks, no smoke, no fire. ICP, IPR, and CPS all good. Glow Plugs and GPR good. Lift pump good. What else is there?
Before all this work, the truck had major issues starting, it would fire on a few cylinders even with the block heater plugged in, in 90 degree weather. Eventually more cylinders would fire up, and it would run on 7. It would always blow white smoke until you hit full boost, then all cylinders would fire and it'd run great. But once you came down off boost, it would go back to blowing white smoke. CCT reported cylinder #5 was bad.
The fuel filter was black, so I figured it was injector O-rings. Also, the guy who owned my truck before me was a special kind of idiot, so I've spent a lot of time cleaning up his mistakes (like smearing a metric ton of goop on the oil dipstick tube adapter to try to get it to stop leaking).
Anyway, my problem. The truck will crank, but it will not start. There is no smoke coming out of the pipe. In this round of repair, I changed out all of the injector O-rings, as well as shimmed the injectors following the ebay kit's instructions (set the armature clearance to .004" with .002" more on the coil). I also changed out the fuel filter, the oil dipstick adapter o-ring, and the drain bowl o-rings. Cylinder #5 was special, the outboard injector hold-down bolt was loose, and it looks like the injector came up out of the head a bit. The injector cup was heavily coated in carbon; I was literally pulling chunks out with a brush. I used a shotgun cleaning kit and polished the cup up, and it looked great when I was done. I also cleaned all the crap off the injector, new o-rings, and installed it.
The truck cranks strong (new starter and a pair of new batteries a few weeks ago). When cranking, the tach comes up. Forscan tells me that the ICP shows 80psi to begin, and it climbs after about 10 seconds of cranking to over 1000. The ICP and IPR are fairly new. The CPS is also fairly new. Forscan also tells me that the cranking RPM is about 120-150.
There are no engine codes stored. I ran an injector buzz test and a KOEO self-test, all passed with no codes.
When I crank, each of the injectors spurt out a little oil. After cranking for about 20 seconds, I hear a click or a knock coming out of the core of the engine. Not sure what that's about.
I've been off and on trying to start it for the last 3 hours. Still no fire. When I first tried starting it, about the 3rd round of trying to start, it did blow a little white smoke and sound like one or two of the cylinders were firing. Now, 3 hours later, I have nothing. No smoke, no diesel smell in the pipe.
Also, when it cranks, I seem to get some white smoke out by the injectors. I thought it was the kind of smoke that is usually in the crankcase vent, but now I'm not so sure. It doesn't have a strong smell to it, so I'm not sure if it's diesel or oil.
I'm at a loss here. I have ruled out everything that I know how to rule out. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Background: 99 F250 with the 7.3 Intercooled, 207,xxx miles.
TL;DR: Truck cranks, no smoke, no fire. ICP, IPR, and CPS all good. Glow Plugs and GPR good. Lift pump good. What else is there?
Before all this work, the truck had major issues starting, it would fire on a few cylinders even with the block heater plugged in, in 90 degree weather. Eventually more cylinders would fire up, and it would run on 7. It would always blow white smoke until you hit full boost, then all cylinders would fire and it'd run great. But once you came down off boost, it would go back to blowing white smoke. CCT reported cylinder #5 was bad.
The fuel filter was black, so I figured it was injector O-rings. Also, the guy who owned my truck before me was a special kind of idiot, so I've spent a lot of time cleaning up his mistakes (like smearing a metric ton of goop on the oil dipstick tube adapter to try to get it to stop leaking).
Anyway, my problem. The truck will crank, but it will not start. There is no smoke coming out of the pipe. In this round of repair, I changed out all of the injector O-rings, as well as shimmed the injectors following the ebay kit's instructions (set the armature clearance to .004" with .002" more on the coil). I also changed out the fuel filter, the oil dipstick adapter o-ring, and the drain bowl o-rings. Cylinder #5 was special, the outboard injector hold-down bolt was loose, and it looks like the injector came up out of the head a bit. The injector cup was heavily coated in carbon; I was literally pulling chunks out with a brush. I used a shotgun cleaning kit and polished the cup up, and it looked great when I was done. I also cleaned all the crap off the injector, new o-rings, and installed it.
The truck cranks strong (new starter and a pair of new batteries a few weeks ago). When cranking, the tach comes up. Forscan tells me that the ICP shows 80psi to begin, and it climbs after about 10 seconds of cranking to over 1000. The ICP and IPR are fairly new. The CPS is also fairly new. Forscan also tells me that the cranking RPM is about 120-150.
There are no engine codes stored. I ran an injector buzz test and a KOEO self-test, all passed with no codes.
When I crank, each of the injectors spurt out a little oil. After cranking for about 20 seconds, I hear a click or a knock coming out of the core of the engine. Not sure what that's about.
I've been off and on trying to start it for the last 3 hours. Still no fire. When I first tried starting it, about the 3rd round of trying to start, it did blow a little white smoke and sound like one or two of the cylinders were firing. Now, 3 hours later, I have nothing. No smoke, no diesel smell in the pipe.
Also, when it cranks, I seem to get some white smoke out by the injectors. I thought it was the kind of smoke that is usually in the crankcase vent, but now I'm not so sure. It doesn't have a strong smell to it, so I'm not sure if it's diesel or oil.
I'm at a loss here. I have ruled out everything that I know how to rule out. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!