I have been asked to assist to assist a friend of my dads with his truck. His truck us a 97 f-250 with the 7.3l. I guess the truck had a check engine light and made what he described as a "bad" noise while he was driving last night. He shut the truck down and then called me this morning. When I got there, I could not get it to start. It turns over and is puffing smoke. It starts for long enough to reach idle rpm and then dies. I believe that it has something going on with the glow plugs but I believe that it has a fuel issue as well. When I did the ultimate "No-No" and gave it some starting fluid, It barked back through the turbo and I actually had flames in the intake tube. Fortunately I had already taken it all apart and was able to get out. At that point I told him that there was no way I was able to work on it where it is at, we are going to move to my garage. Does anyone have any idea what the issue could be? I have access to a code reader but that guy is working through the weekend. Any help is apprecieated. Thanks
97 won't start
- Thread starter hntnv
- Start date
DaveBen
SDD Senior Member
Get the codes and post them here. There is a code description in the WIKI section, above in the first blue line. Do not use either with glow plugs!!! It will blow up, as you have seen.
Dave
Dave
It is showing a P0261. Which is #1 injector circuit low. What I have found that is doing is startinig and then dieing. So I checked the ICP and it is reading 0 all of the time. My thoughts were that if it didn't have high pressure oil the injectors should not fire at all. I thought one of the parameters for starting was that it saw 500 psi. So I am working on getting a pressure guage installed so that I can see what the actual pressure is. Is it possible that if it is having a #1 injector issue that the pressure drops low enough once it has started for it to die again?
DaveBen
SDD Senior Member
We can guess until the cows come home, but that won't do anything. Get your gauge on and see what is going on.
Dave
Dave
While I was trying to pull the injector I found that the plug going through the valve cover is burnt. It burnt the valve cover plug and the internal harness. By looking at the plug I think that it is the glow plug portion that burned up and shorted the harness out. At this point I am waiting till monday when I can get parts. I don't know whether to continue to change the injector anyway or jsut change the glow plugs and put back together. I think that the best is to change all involved but trying to save money for the retired gentlement involved.
