[wyojess]

Just had one glow plug and some fried wires replaced on my 97 psd. I was having a hard time starting on cold mornings 35 degrees, new to diesel trucks and now that I have had my 1 glow plug replaced it still smokes until warmed up, by warmed up I mean temp gauge hitting the "N" in normal on the gauge. Runs great and stops smoking after @ 5 minutes, by smoking I mean white on start up for about 15 to 20 seconds and then grey for about 5 min, is this normal ? am I just being neurotic? A friend who has a cummins says his dosent smoke much on start but I think they dont have glowplugs, just a grid heater, to heat incoming air. any help would be appreciated.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Quadzilla]

That much smoke is excessive. It could be a number of things causing it, but the glow plug system is the likely culprit.
Have you tried plugging in the block heater overnight? If the truck starts without smoke after being plugged in for a few hours, you'll know the problem is within the glow plug circuit.

 

[wyojess]

thanks for the advice, my mechanic said the relay was fine and only one glowplug was out, in addition he said that there had been some backburning on a few of the glowplug wires which he replaced. When I plug the truck in at night it starts like a champ, and runs fine, plenty of power etc. I was just out under the hood and the truck has motorcraft batteries, do you think there is anyway these are the original batteries? the truck is a 97 with 63k. it was also always garaged, I am wondering if the truck just is not cranking hard enough on startup,it dosent sound that strong when cranking, the glowplugs should also cycle for a few minutes when the motor is cold, if the batteries are going and not heating up the glow plugs enough could that be causing the smoke? Thanks for the help... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Gone Fishen]

I don't have to much use for my gp circuit where I live but my cabin is at 8750 ft. I started the truck last yeat and had some white smoke and maybe about 1 minute or less some minor smoke. You have to remember that the diesel engine does NOT have spark plugs so it needs compression and heat to start and run. If the cylinders are cold then it will be a few minutes for the animal to warm up. I checked mine 2 years ago and just replaced all 8. I had 3 bad ones. I was in there and had the covers off so I just replaced them all. Might even talk myself into doing them next summer just to be ready. Make sure you have a spare gp relay on hand IN the truck as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif