7.3 Smoke Bomb

mOdD · Apr 1, 2009

WTF is going on with my '01 powerstroke? It used to smoke a little bit when starting it cold but now when you cold start it she kills every bug for miles there is so much smoke. Glow plugs gone? I already changed the relay??

robertyoke · Apr 1, 2009

what color smoke? what temp?

autolodge · Apr 1, 2009

If it starts fine but still smokes bad, it is the intake air heater or air heater solenoid. pretty common on the smokers. Clip a power probe on the Intake heater side of the relay and stab the light in the negative of your battery. If you start the truck and the light comes on chances are it's the heater, no light and you got a bad solenoid.

merlin2569 · Apr 1, 2009

I had the same problem and it ended up being a bad injector. Not sure if its the same for you. Not the easiest thing to check for either.

mOdD · Apr 1, 2009

Hey thanks for the tips guys! I will try that out for sure!
It starts fine but smokes like a bastard when it's been sitting all day and no engine heat. Not as bad when it's plugged in but it's still doing it pretty hardcore at plus 10 outside.
I think the smoke is whitey kinda blue a bit too?

LM. · Apr 1, 2009

If it is hard to start when cold, and you have white smoke that can be glow plugs or a glow plug relay. This is one of the most common items.

big_wally81 · Apr 1, 2009

white usually means bad injectors. blue is oil. a little of both is pretty normal on cold starts. how long does your wts light stay on (check exactly how many seconds).

summitxtreme · Apr 1, 2009

I have a 2000 Ford Diesel 7.3 and mine did that for about 3 months when it only had 40,000 miles on it. Then one day I'm pulling a trailer in the mountains and my turbo melted on me. That was the problem. After the new turbo it never smoked like that again.

Powerstroked162 · Apr 1, 2009

big_wally81 said:
white usually means bad injectors. blue is oil. a little of both is pretty normal on cold starts. how long does your wts light stay on (check exactly how many seconds).

Wrong.

Cowboy Steve

skidooer1 · Apr 1, 2009

Originally Posted by big_wally81

white usually means bad injectors. blue is oil. a little of both is pretty normal on cold starts. how long does your wts light stay on (check exactly how many seconds).

Wrong.

Cowboy Steve

haha, cowboy steve is right. a cold diesel will smoke white...like when it has no glow plugs. if its injectors and smoking white when at operating temp...you would be making some oil for sure.lol. most injectors that crack tips just blow some black smoke when warmed up.

sounds like modDs truck is ready for some glow plugs.

theultrarider · Apr 1, 2009

autolodge said:
If it starts fine but still smokes bad, it is the intake air heater or air heater solenoid. pretty common on the smokers. Clip a power probe on the Intake heater side of the relay and stab the light in the negative of your battery. If you start the truck and the light comes on chances are it's the heater, no light and you got a bad solenoid.

I've got a 96 that does the same thing. Never any smoke when warm, runs well. Starts right up cold no issues. But, on a cold start it smokes a ton of white smoke and wreecks of fuel something terrible. I recently have changed the injector o-rings and that did not help that problem. I changed glow plugs about a year ago and has a fresh glow plug relay. I am not familar with the air intake heater??? Does the 96 model have this? If so, where is it?

mOdD · Apr 15, 2009

theultrarider said:
I've got a 96 that does the same thing. Never any smoke when warm, runs well. Starts right up cold no issues. But, on a cold start it smokes a ton of white smoke and wreecks of fuel something terrible. I recently have changed the injector o-rings and that did not help that problem. I changed glow plugs about a year ago and has a fresh glow plug relay. I am not familar with the air intake heater??? Does the 96 model have this? If so, where is it?

Exact same issue as mine ultrarider. The thing stinks like diesel in the cab now when driving slowly. would you be able to here a bit of a different sound if an injector is gone?

fastlane · Apr 15, 2009

Guys, I have my own shop and work on quite a few of these , like the other guys said check the intake heater and solenoid, glow plugs, harnesses, glow plug relay. As far as injectors, run a contribution test on your scan tool, sometimes you can catch a bad one on there, most of the time if I question them I pull them and run them on the bench, I have found alot of times they flow high at lower injection pressure-idle/low rpm, think what happens is the pintle leaks fuel by as it wears and you get fuel running in the cyl vs. atomizing it like its supposed to, under the higher ICP pressure 1500 -2000 ish they seem to flow what they are supposed to, due to the higher pressure forcing the pintle down, a new one flows the correct numbers at every pressure, just something I have found, the other, thing is if you smell fuel bad, check the valley of the motor for fuel , the early ones leak fuel from the vacuum switch on the filter base and the lines from the lift pump. The later ones leak from the fuel drain for the filter base or the base itself. feel free to call if you have any questions, 507-533-6674 thanks Terry Stewartvile Truck Service

ADRENALINE · Apr 15, 2009

First, check your coolant to ensure you don't have antifreeze getting in the cylinder via a head gasket etc. that will cause white smoke too. (see note about injector sleeve at the end if you are using coolant). Second, if it starts up fine (not runs fine but starts right up) like you say it does but smokes WHITE then ask yourself if it is missing/stumbling? If it is missing then you probably have an injector issue (burnt tip) raw diesel will smoke white/black in a cold engine. The engine will shake at an idle just as if a plug wire was off. If it is running good then I am leaning towards one of two possibilities either glow plugs/relay not cycling (they had to come on to start) or the fuel heater is inoperative/malfunctioning. The only other thing I have seen is a cracked injector sleeve which can cause coolant or fuel or oil or a combination of any (depending on the length of the crack) to get into the cylinder, but it usually won't go away. This is something you have to have special tools to remove and install. Usually you won't see this until 300,000 miles +. Let us know what you find, good luck.

Snowballs · Apr 16, 2009

The Powerstrokes do not use an intake heater, just glow plugs.
Tim

Braaap12 · Apr 16, 2009

Does it do it if its plugged in? What about if you cycle the glow plugs a few times? My dads 7.3 smokes lots of its cold and not plugged in and if i'm to lazy to go cycle the glowplugs so I use the remote start

theultrarider · Apr 16, 2009

ADRENALINE said:
First, check your coolant to ensure you don't have antifreeze getting in the cylinder via a head gasket etc. that will cause white smoke too. (see note about injector sleeve at the end if you are using coolant). Second, if it starts up fine (not runs fine but starts right up) like you say it does but smokes WHITE then ask yourself if it is missing/stumbling? If it is missing then you probably have an injector issue (burnt tip) raw diesel will smoke white/black in a cold engine. The engine will shake at an idle just as if a plug wire was off. If it is running good then I am leaning towards one of two possibilities either glow plugs/relay not cycling (they had to come on to start) or the fuel heater is inoperative/malfunctioning. The only other thing I have seen is a cracked injector sleeve which can cause coolant or fuel or oil or a combination of any (depending on the length of the crack) to get into the cylinder, but it usually won't go away. This is something you have to have special tools to remove and install. Usually you won't see this until 300,000 miles +. Let us know what you find, good luck.

This sounds like my truck. It not only rolls smoke on a cold start,it idles very rough, like a gasser with a dead plug. Until it warms up. Then the idle will smooth out and run fine. the other thing that makes me think I have an injector sticking open is that I can check the pressure on the valve on the side of the filter housing and have 0 psi as soon as I shut the engine off. It jumps instantly to 100+ psi when cranking on the motor, but goes back to 0 as soon as you kill it. They way I understand these motors, it should hold pressure for many hours. The lift pump is new. How do you check the injectors to try and figure out which one is the bad one?

hymark860 · Apr 16, 2009

go to http://www.forddieselpower.com/forums/index.php those guys can help.

ADRENALINE · Apr 17, 2009

theultrarider said:
This sounds like my truck. It not only rolls smoke on a cold start,it idles very rough, like a gasser with a dead plug. Until it warms up. Then the idle will smooth out and run fine. the other thing that makes me think I have an injector sticking open is that I can check the pressure on the valve on the side of the filter housing and have 0 psi as soon as I shut the engine off. It jumps instantly to 100+ psi when cranking on the motor, but goes back to 0 as soon as you kill it. They way I understand these motors, it should hold pressure for many hours. The lift pump is new. How do you check the injectors to try and figure out which one is the bad one?

Couple of questions: 1.) Rolls smoke but you don't say what color? 2.) What are you checking the fuel pressure on the filter housing with? This should only have lift pump pressure at this port. 100 lbs is way out of line. You are correct in that it should hold pressure, but not 100 lbs. More like 8-12 if I'm not mistaken. Take a look at the link posted by ???? provided above, seems like a lot of good information for both the novice and the experienced. Gotta go get ready to ride!

theultrarider · Apr 17, 2009

ADRENALINE said:
Couple of questions: 1.) Rolls smoke but you don't say what color? 2.) What are you checking the fuel pressure on the filter housing with? This should only have lift pump pressure at this port. 100 lbs is way out of line. You are correct in that it should hold pressure, but not 100 lbs. More like 8-12 if I'm not mistaken. Take a look at the link posted by ???? provided above, seems like a lot of good information for both the novice and the experienced. Gotta go get ready to ride!

White smoke sorry...just wreacks of raw diesel fuel. I was checking the pressure iwth a tire pressure guage on the valve on the side of the filter bowl. At this point, I know I need to get or borrow a code reader or something along those lines. I am pretty well convinced that I have an injector that is not shutting off and dumping raw fuel while it sits, and/of on a cold start. The truck has right at 200,000 on it. Ipr/icp/cps are all new in the past couple of years. new lift pump and a few other things. I recently did the injector orings and it needed that badly by looking at the orings. i did have this smoke issue both before and after the oring change so that is not my problem. I was hoping it was the orings, but was not. All 8 were ugly, so that was not a lost effort. Thanks for the help.

7.3 Smoke Bomb

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