Ok folks I just picked up another truck to add to my stable. She is a 88 7.3 non turbo 4wd crew cab 5 speed. The PO did some work to it like a pushbutton off of the GP controller and added a block heater (truck was from Nebraska). When I went to crank her this morning I waited for the light to go out and tried starting. It sounded almost like a carb motor not getting enough fuel or something,so I cycled the switch and waited for the light again and after a few turn overs she fired up and smoked a little heavy but ran fine.
My 86 6.9 fires right up so I am wondering if I should do the GP's on this one too. Any suggestions?

 

test the glow plugs. if they are good, well then, how long did you leave them on for?

 

I tried her again when I got home from work and it was 40 degrees out and the controller I think was making a clicking sound after the truck cranked and was running. Of course the more I tried to find it I couldn't climb up there in the engine compartment. It cranked over for a while before she fired off. The light stays on for about 4 seconds everytime though.

 

you got plugs out i am going to bet.

 

DC, that is what mine is doing unless I plug in the block heater.

 

Mine was doing that. I replaced gp's(all 8 were bad) and now she usually fires right up if I drive her everyday. Unfortunately, I'm an OTR truckdriver, so she takes a minute to crank after sitting for 1-1.5 weeks in cold weather. Boss won't let me run extension cords to the parking lot. Lol

 

I replaced all the GP's with new motorcraft after I found an Autolite box while cleaning out the truck. Luckily I don't think they were that old but the were pretty sooted. But after all that I am still having a hard time getting her to crank when cold. The light stays on for about 10 seconds whether the motor is overnight cold or after I have driven it 30 miles into town. I narrowed the clicking sound to the GPR and it will click for about 5 seconds or so after she does fire. I notice the voltage guage dropping pretty good while it is doing the clicking as well. The batterys are holding 13v cold without the motor running but I am confused because this one does nothing like my 6.9
I'm beginning to wonder about the injector pump since she has 187k on her but the PO replaced the motor from a wrecked truck with about 100k he said.The fuel filter looks new as well although I do have another one I could possibly swap over if need be. Right now i'm lost because once she fires it runs awesome but I did refill it this morning and averaged 10mpg if that helps too.