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2001 7.3L hard starts and smoke

16K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  klhansen 
#1 ·
My 01 has started acting up when i start it in the morning. The first crank it just keeps cranking then after i warm up the GP's again it starts right up but idles very rough for about 10 seconds Im hearing crackling and popping lots of white smoke then all is well. My friend said that when i was driving it looked like i had white smoke under acceleration.
 
#3 ·
First off it sounds like your injectors may be starting to get a bit old. An injector buzz test when the engine is cold (very cold) will tell you which injectors are doing their job on startup. If you have a few injectors experiencing stiction (or just warn out) then the truck will cackle and run rough until the oil gets warmed up.

Also you'll want to check the operation of your glow plug relay with a multimeter/test light to see if it's working.
Check to see if you are getting 12v+ on the brown/yellow wire terminal on the GP relay within the first few seconds of ignition being turned on when cold. Individual glow plugs could also be failing.

White smoke when the engine is warmed up is usually indicative of low fuel pressure (be it from the injection pressure or fuel lift pump pressure). If this is the case then you should be feeling a difference in performance. To check this you will need to inspect your fuel filter to make sure its not causing too much restriction and monitor the fuel pressure with a gage connected to the rear of the fuel filter housing. Usually it should stay around 40-50 psi. This would need to be monitored when you expect to experience the white smoke (on startup and while driving).

All this said, the injectors are the first things that need to be checked. Very common if you have over 300k miles.
 
#4 ·
ok my buddy has the works for ford ill have him buzz the injectors. Ive noticed that the truck sounds a little different when im driving. Ill hook up a gauge and check the relay. Im using a wix filter if that helps at all (50 fricken dollars) so it better be a good filter. and im sitting about 205,000 miles.
 
#5 ·
I would recommend using the Racor filter simply to help save you some money in the long run. Racor is the oem mfg for the motorcraft filter and it is a great price from our friend at diesel o rings. Racor PFF4596 Replacement Fuel Filter Element for 1999-2003 Ford 7.3L Diesel

If you tow frequently then 205k is not too low to start seeing warn injectors. However it is fairly low mileage to see warn injectors on a standard daily driver like mine.

On a cold morning see if all the injectors buzz nicely. I had one case where a truck only had 2 injectors working in the cold. Then check fuel pressure at the filter housing and go from there.
 
#6 ·
I personally dont tow very much. Im not sure about the previous owner. But im really starting to lean towords glowplugs. The other day it was about 40 or so in the morning and the truck refused to start lots of smoke it would crank and fire for less then a second then stop. I jumped the gp relay and it fired up. What you guys think relay?
 
#10 ·
white smoke

I think BTJ has nailed it. I recently had almost the same issue a month ago. Hard to start on cold morning, white smoke, turning on and off the key several times to get enough energy into the GP's, etc. I suspected the GP relay was bad and I always carry a spare one of those in my most probable part to fail kit. I tested it, yep is was bad, so bad that when I was removing it, one of the small terminals just broke out of the housing when loosening the nut to remove the attached wire. Wow. That was a shocking to me as I have replaced it a couple of times never had that failure before. So my lesson learned is to find a good quality one for replacement.
As far as replacing the glow plugs, that is a lot more work than what is first realized. Plan on spending some quality time with your truck if you decide to tackle that one.

Hope you solve your problem.
 
#11 ·
thanks guys. I found a couple bad glow plugs and the relay is bad. I have all the parts now just need the time to do it...
 
#13 ·
Not necessarily. What matters is how much the voltage drops between the two large terminals of the GPR. Measure the voltage on both sides, or put your meter probes across those terminals to measure the voltage drop directly. If you only have 11V on the battery side of the relay as well, then your relay is in good shape. There will be maybe 1/2 to 1 V drop across a normal relay.
 
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