Ill start from the beginning. I have a 98 f350 single cab 4wd auto. I've owned it for about six months. jjavent had any issues so far other than my fuel bowl leaking (big surprise) but it has been letting out a puff old white smoke upon start up for about two months. never really thought twice about it. I got in it Saturday (raining and 55 degrees outside) and she was fairly slow to start and idled fine. I hit the high idle and she ran like death and white smoked like a banshee. By the time I got it warm it ran fine and didn't smoke. went to start her up for work this afternoon (60 degrees and sunny) and she was super slow to crank, kicked over a couple times and wouldn't start at all. just crank slow. put a charger on the batts while I was at work. fully charged new batts and a new starter.
T/S
fuel pressure at bowl- 55psi
Idm harness ohmed out according to gb's technical bulletin
ucv looks and feels fine with no breaks in wires
all fuses good
gp relay clicks (ran out of daylight before I could ohm gp)
12v on both banks of gp relay

I'm thinking either glow plugs or injector o rings. Some feedback would be awesome just to make sure I'm not missing anything. thanks ya'll

 

I would definitely suspect glow plugs, even gp relay ( the contacts could be burned). The 7.3 hates being cold.

 

Just out of curiosity, can I use a starter relay instead of buying a new gp relay?

 

I suppose a starter solenoid would work, but GPR109 from napa is only 22 bucks.

 

I don't even want to get into the semantics of the difference between a relay and a solenoid. ill let you know if the starter "solenoid" works out.

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Turned out to be injector o rings. 3 of the orange o rings were split. and the glow plug relay and starter relay are the same Borg Warner part number at the O'Reillys