How bad are the "romps" to our 7.3's

[E'sStrokr01]

.......or to any diesel truck, but obviously to our 7.3's in particular?

I forgot to plug my truck in last nite and had to leave for work this morning. We got snow on the ground here where I live so I had to drive the truck and didn't have an option to take the car.

It romped for about 2-3 seconds on the first start then died. 2nd start it did it again for the same duration then died again. The third time it started, romped for 2 seconds and then cleared out. White and blue smoke during this whole process then when it finally cleared out the smoke went away and the truck ran really good and as always does.

My question is how bad is this for our trucks? Is it okay every now and again or NEVER? Just want to make sure I'm not taking miles and hours away from the life of my good ole' 7.3

Thanks

[superxcrewfx4]

Mine does it all the time now, I was told 5w-40 oil would help but i couldnt find enough the other day to do my oil change with. I just keep starting it until it runs. Yesterday it was over 7 tries

[Black&Gold]

mine starts right up no mater the weather. i only have 65K on my 7.3L though. do you think it will get to be a PITA to start once it gets over 100K?

[superxcrewfx4]

I am at 220k with glowplugs in the last 20k and new gpr, shes just not very friendly anymore. Last winter it was better, this winter shes very angry.

[ju015dd]

Mine has 226,xxx and now that I have changed over to 5w-40 I have no probs. She fires right up on cold mornings. Coldest she has seen is low teens but started up on first try none the less. When I was running 15w-40 she would romp and hard to start in anything 32 or below.

[superxcrewfx4]

Ugh I couldnt find enough of that oil to do a change the other day, wtf.

[j440]

mine has 174,xxx miles and when i have the proper amount of oil (LOL) it starts pretty easy in even single digit temperatures. It will still run rough and OCCASIONALLY stall once but it will run

[JK23112]

It's not just the oil that thickens up, but diesel fuel sometimes will gel at temps below 20 degrees or so. I drive heavy-duty (52,0000 GVWR straight trucks and 80,000 GVWR big rigs) trucks and they get a little rough on cold starts. We don't plug them in, either; and they don't have glow plugs like little trucks do.

5w40? Wow! That's thin oil. We have to use 15w40 (Rotella, Delvac or equivalent brand) in our trucks, even though it gets like Aunt Jemima syrup on cold nights.

Many moons ago, I had an International work truck with the old 7.3L (non-turbo) and it was a royal pain to get started if it sat outside all night. Once it kicked over, though, she ran pretty good once it got the blood flowing.

[ju015dd]

Originally Posted by JK23112

It's not just the oil that thickens up, but diesel fuel sometimes will gel at temps below 20 degrees or so. I drive heavy-duty (52,0000 GVWR straight trucks and 80,000 GVWR big rigs) trucks and they get a little rough on cold starts. We don't plug them in, either; and they don't have glow plugs like little trucks do.

5w40? Wow! That's thin oil. We have to use 15w40 (Rotella, Delvac or equivalent brand) in our trucks, even though it gets like Aunt Jemima syrup on cold nights.

Many moons ago, I had an International work truck with the old 7.3L (non-turbo) and it was a royal pain to get started if it sat outside all night. Once it kicked over, though, she ran pretty good once it got the blood flowing.

do some searching, the 5w-40 works like a champ

[driximus]

Originally Posted by JK23112

It's not just the oil that thickens up, but diesel fuel sometimes will gel at temps below 20 degrees or so. I drive heavy-duty (52,0000 GVWR straight trucks and 80,000 GVWR big rigs) trucks and they get a little rough on cold starts. We don't plug them in, either; and they don't have glow plugs like little trucks do.

5w40? Wow! That's thin oil. We have to use 15w40 (Rotella, Delvac or equivalent brand) in our trucks, even though it gets like Aunt Jemima syrup on cold nights.

Many moons ago, I had an International work truck with the old 7.3L (non-turbo) and it was a royal pain to get started if it sat outside all night. Once it kicked over, though, she ran pretty good once it got the blood flowing.

Reminds me of the Old Diesel Generators I use to work on. They used strait 30w oil LOL they had no GP's. They had an option for Ether starting kits but ours didnt have them LOL