Kids and unscheduled maintenance,.

[phantom309]

I put the car into a ditch just before christmas,. 4:30 am, blinding snow squall, i knew the corner was there somewhere,.DOH!
Called the boy, asked hime to come get me, i never mentioned bringing the truck, it has been sitting quite a bit,..
I was only 10 mins away from the house, so i called him 45 mins later (snow squall completely gone now of course) he was trying to get the pickup going, boosting it etc,..i told him to quit and just come get me,.
When i got home i surprised that the truck hadn't started,. i have duratherms and a longer glow time on the chip (obd1 94 truck)
First thing i noticed is the the glow plug light was shutting off after 1-2 seconds,.(wtf?) i must have waited 10 mins or so while i drank my coffee still 1 sec glow times,. i tried about 10 times or more then all of sudden it stayed on for its regular length of time, but now start,.
so cleaned all cables, brought batteries in adn warmed them up overnight and charged them,.
Next day had the normal short glow when first key on, waited,. second try was normal glow time,. but no start, just seems like one hole is trying and the others aren't, we tried all day,. truck plugged in, heat gun on high pointed into the turbo,. still no fire just 1-2 popping off once in a while,.
So,. other than being a bad coincidence,. what could he have screwed up? this truck is normally very reliable,.
I also plugged in my spare pmd,. still acts the same,.

thanks everybody,..

[DmaxMaverick]

Back to fundamentals...... Fuel + Heat + O2 = Fire.

Heat (GP's, block heater, heat gun). Check.
O2. Check.

Fuel. ??? What was the ambient temp, and how long was the engine/fuel system exposed to what temp? A truck that doesn't get used much doesn't cycle much fuel. If it is filled with winterized fuel, how much summer fuel was it mixed with? What was the tank level? Less than full invites condensation (water). If you are using only winterized fuel from the station pump, it may be able to handle lower temps, but isn't normally treated for water management (emulsifier/demulsifier). 1-2 cylinders trying to pop indicates the fuel system is trying to send fuel, but is unable to send enough. This indicates a significant restriction or blockage, somewhere. If it started and ran well before, that leaves the weather/temperature the change that prevented a good start. If water was present, in any quantity, freezing temps can allow it to block fuel flow, even if the fuel itself is able flow at that temperature. Demulsifier fuel additives (such as Stanadyne) allow water to drop out of the fuel (and freeze independent of the fuel), while emulsifiers (such as Power Service) emulsifies the water with the fuel, allowing it to pass through the system with the fuel, even at freezing temps. Have a look into the fuel filter, and make sure the filter heater is working. Also, if the engine is shut down hot, then attempted to start at freezing temps, it is possible the fuel cap isn't venting enough to compensate for the contraction (replace the cap). Excessive fuel system vacuum can prevent fuel flow, regardless of other conditions. At the same time, lower temps can also shrink seals, which may allow air leakage into the system. Your current situation may likely be a perfect storm of conditions, which never occurs at a convenient time.

[More Power]

Try it with the engine temperature sensor unplugged. This fools the computer into "thinking" that the outside air temp is -40 degrees F.

Let us know. Jim

[phantom309]

Thanks for the reply's,..

I dragged it down to a neighbors shop and left it over night,.
Next day i removed the inner fender, pulled all 8 glows and found 3 were nfg,.. I also realized the connectors were all pretty crappy, so in cut them off and soldered new ones on,.
I just happened to have 3 spare 60g plugs,.
It was still a bugger to get going but now we could tell it was definitely a fuel problem to,.
Turns out the main feed line to the filter was loose!! i have a cat fuel filter mounted on drivers side,.
After it ran for a while (sounds so nice too for an old wore out motor but with 40,000 mile injectors)we put it outside for the day,. at 5pm it was -6c with high winds,. and she started up just fine,..

So thanks DMM you were right it was a perfect storm kinda thing,.
With all the damn calcium the spray around here it's murder on the wiring,.
The fuel is last summer stuff so i added some howes fuel conditioner,
fuel cap has a hole drilled thru it for years now,. I can only surmise that the cold shrunk the damn fuel line a little letting the fuel siphon back somewhat,.

Bloody winter,. you southern boys should count your blessings, if i could move south and support us i'd do it in a heartbeat, no more winter beaters,. just drive something clean all year round,..

Nick

[phantom309]

truck sat overnight and we had high winds and drifting snow, wasn;t plugged in,. -22c.
No start,. same condition,.banging away on 1-2, 3-4 cylinders then gives up,.

I left it for a while with battery charger going , voltage came up some,.

The scene is wierd tho, you can turn the key wait for the glow light to go out,.(i have a modified chip so glow times are longer) start cranking and it will roll over without out so much as a try on any cylinder,.

repeat,. this time it tries to start,..

wait,. give the ecm time to reset,.roll it over again and no fire at all,.it seems erratic,.

I plugged it in and had brekky, came out an hour later

try again,. now it's trying to start on 3-4,, let it rest, give it another try, no fire again,.give it another try then you can hear 3-4 again, and it just gallops with the starter until it can barely leave the starter behind followed by 1 by 1 the others warming up enough to fire and then she's got all 8,.the last one or two are pinging pretty good til they go, plenty of unburned fuel smoke, but as soon as she has all 8, smoke clears right away as you would expect,. so again i,m suspicious of the glow harness/plugs again,.
I had the temp sensor unplugged the whole time just in case it was causing retarded timing lowidle etc,.

Is a glow plug relay like a starter solenoid inside? could it be just arc'd too much and putting out low voltage or clicking but not putting through much amps?

It;s bloody cold here in the grips of old man winter, -16c (4f) and with our exposed spot, we get high winds and 4-5 ft drifts easy,.

when i had things apart i did check all 8 glows with booster cables and i put 8 in that glowed well,

I,m thinking either glow plug relay or i have a thermal link nfg,.or,
I also wonder about the ignition switch?

I,m thinking of running a bigger feed cable to the relay right from the pass side battery,..

I,m in dangerous territory with this truck, it needs a complete front end steering rebuild, she is a rust belt truck, and her cosmetics are passable thats about it, but as much as i,m sentimental about the damn thing it is aggravating me, aggravation always leads to acquiring new iron,.

thoughts and experiences on glow plug relays?

i ran a ford starter relay and a push button on my old 6.2 suburban and i,m tempted to go this route again,.

UPDATE: this AM no glow plug light on in the dash,... booster cable from pos bat to outside of glow plug relay count 20 or so,.glow plug light on in dash ,.. it fired up,. still have 2? bad holes,. but it fired ok plugged in all night

I think i'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new relay, a new harness and 8 duraterms,..
i just wish the loonie buck wasn't so weak,..

[HH]

I put a manual glow control in my 93 and 83. You can use a Ford starter type relay, and a momentary switch only, so you don't leave them on.

[Robyn]

CERTAINLY SOUNDS LIKE A BAD GLOW CONTROLLER.

Install the Ford starter relay and a momentary button and be done with it.