2001 Tune Up Q's

[websthes]

I have a 2001 F-450 box truck. It has a 7.3 Litre powerstroke engine.

This truck has been having a hard time starting in the cold. I have two brand new batteries. And I changed the GPR with a stancor, that helps. But it still won't start unless I leave the block heater plugged in, and it makes a fair amount of white smoke.

The truck has about 150k and I don't really know the history. I'm pretty sure the glow plugs are done. I'll be picking up the plugs this week, other than not buying the notorious autolite, is there a consensus on a decent plug in the $10-20 range?

I'm also wondering what else we can do while we're doing the glow plugs. Is it a good time to change the rings on the injectors or is that a whole other ballpark?


Another problem I'm having is that even when it's warmed up, it sometimes acts like it has no power. I'll let it warm up for a few minutes, and when I hit the pedal to back out of the driveway, it'll do these little revs like it's not getting enough fuel and cutting out. And this morning (snowing and cold) after I drove it around the block a few times to warm it up it was still doing that, you have to step on the accelerator real easy and build up the revs.

Other stuff on my list is new Crank and Camshaft sensor. Can't remember which one falls into the keep an extra one in the glovebox in case it fails category. My mechanic guy can show me where it is, we'll replace it and I can keep the other one as a spare.

Draining the fuel bowl and changing the fuel filter I already did. But the new filter I got from autozone looked pretty cheap compared to the old one. Is there one that's the right one? I'll probably drive over to NAPA, I heard their stuff is a little better quality than Autozone.

Fuel Additive. Wal Mart sells the big bottles of Kleen but it says not to keep after opening. My truck has the big tank that holds about 40 gallon. Should I just throw the whole bottle in there? Or will putting too much screw it up.

I'm going to change the oil over to synthetic as well. I live in Montreal Canada and right now it's been pretty darn cold. And we still have another 2 months of winter. You can also really hear the difference when the truck's been plugged in, the motor will turn over a lot faster. What's a good oil to help it start up, but still good for the engine? The truck has an 18' box, I'm going to use it for moving, junk removal, etc, so the motor will be working hard.


I think doing all of the above should clear up some of the issues. My only other concern is the fuel system. I've worked on Ford cars and trucks. Changed fuel pressure regulators, injector o-rings, fuel filters, etc, but I'm at a loss what you guys mean by oiling, and where to start looking for issues with the fuel system. So to get to the point, if you just tell me what parts to buy, I'd rather spend a few hundred bucks here and now than have this thing break down on a job.

[Dietoremain]

well first of all the CPS is good to have as a spare.
Honestly motorcraft glow plugs are reasonably priced and worth it IMO(or beru, same company that makes motorcraft)

do you hear a roar when its doing the 'lack of power' i bet its your ebpv shutting to warm up the motor, i hate that thing, deleted mine long ago, my truck warms up just fine without it.

[CADASH]

dieselorings.com has the best price on glow plugs.