My Experiences and a few questions

[silverado3500]

Greetings,

Finally got my truck registered/taxed here in the U.K. about a month ago. Glad to be driving it again. Not being able to legally drive it for nearly a year was drving me mad. Part of getting the truck road legal in the UK is the annual MOT (vehicle safety check) part of which is the diesel emmissions test, which basically involves the tester revving the engine as fast as it will go, which was rather worrying for me. So I called Jody at DP-Tuner and bought a 2 position chip, with the 80hp economy tune, stock and a 2600 rpm rev limiter in position 0.

First, let me say that the 80hp tune really woke up the engine. The truck was always fun to drive, but now I always have a grin on my face. My only mistake was waiting so long to get the chip. As far as mileage goes, I gained about 1.5 to 2 mpg when I keep my foot out of it. Living in the UK, fuel economy is very important. A full tank costs over $260, so anything I can do to improve fuel economy is a bonus.

I have found that reducing my speed from 70 to 62 brings me up from 15 to 18 mpg, which is just as well, as most of the roads around here are 60 zones.

The questions I have are:

I'm getting a bit of white smoke on startup when its cooler out. I've tested the GP relay and its fine. So I'm reckoning that it a couple of plugs are giving out. What is a good place to get glowplugs. Is it best to stick to Ford/International OEM plugs, or are aftermarket plugs ok? Any good places to get them from.

The second question regards the thermostat. Was just wondering if there was any specific reason that Ford went to the 195* thermostat? Doesn't make sense. I'm assuming dieselsite is the best place to get the 203* thermostat from?

The last question is how long do the stock injectors typically last? Will worn injectors hurt mpgs much?

If you've read this far, Thanks

 

[DaveBen]

Only buy Beru/Motorcraft glow plugs. Any others are junk. Worn injectors will hurt your mileage by not producing a good spray pattern (conical pattern). I can't give you a miles figure on the length of time they will work.

Dave

 

[JLDickmon]

Ditto on the Beru/Motorcraft glow sticks... my guess is you got a couple that are junk...

 

[CHPMustang]

I understand mileage for sure! Make sure you upgrade your exhaust to a 4" system,open the intake with a AFE Stage II or similar,do the Cool air intake mod which unblocks the air intake opening.

Another mod of interest is the AIH Delete which could help your mileage and performance.

 

[dougger222]

You can test the glow plugs but once you've gotten to that point you might as well spend the $100-120 and replace all 8.

Took the valve covers off the F250 for the first time last Winter and found 2 glow plugs to be bad. Replaced all eight, 225K miles. Had all 8 glow plugs replaced in the X around 130K miles, never tested them.

A set of good guages if you don't already have them would help monitor things. Boost pressure, tranny temp, and exhaust temps are good to know especially if towing or running hard with a chip. Like mentioned before a larger exhaust only helps things, usually the exhaust temps drop a hundred degrees when you open up the pipe.

Have guages and five in exhaust with chip in the F250, a good combination.

 

[silverado3500]

What is a good place to get the motorcraft/beru plugs? Are there any tricks to keeping the old plugs from breaking off when removing them?

I need to update my sig soon. I have exhaust temp (pre turbo), and trans temp gauges, no boost though. I've only managed to set an overboost code a couple of times when I was pushing it hard up a hill. Intake is stock for the moment, and a muffler delete pipe.