[Small White Car]

*tl;dr see below.


So lemme lay it on ya, I managed a fleet of old ass E-350 Fords for a couple years until the business I worked at closed and the trucks went indoors and sat...

And sat.

And sat.


It's a year and six, no seven months later and now they've been dragged out into the light kicking and screaming.

Now they were parked with full tanks of quality diesel and were run now and again for the first oh, I'd say year, when I could get there to do the favor. Nothing in the last seven months, just stored indoors in a fairly climate controlled (in so much as it's closed) building in southern California.

Two I put on the charger and after an hour or so they fired and I drove them out, one has had a new pair of batteries put in it and it runs like a top and has gone on to a new owner, however these two particular trucks were used to sitting for a couple months at a time because they were the back up trucks so I wasn't too surprised.

The rest, not so much, I'm getting less than 12 across the terminals so instead of cranking a dying cell to its bitter demise I'd throw a new set in and figured I'd be good to go.

Yeah, not so much. The new boss picked one, against my recommendation to burn them all for the insurance, and asked me to bring it back to life and against my own better judgment i said okay.




I got a good crank with the new batteries but it sounds like I got no fuel and there ends my knowledge of the Ford Powerstroke.


My friend and mechanic Bill passed away a while back and the new folks really don't want to deal with the trucks, I mean they gave me a price but ½ the worth of the truck pretty much tells you how they feel about taking these things under their wings.

*tl;dr please disregard dribble and begin here.

So anything? Advice, knowledge, ability to come to my place in Santa Fe Springs and make them live for a few bucks?

[Shaolin Crane]

I need to know what year and engines we're talking about, im assuming they are 7.3's but i could be wrong

[Small White Car]

Yes, 7.3l in a 98, a 97, a 96, two 99's and one 1985.

My concern at the moment is the 98. I got a code reader coming today, hope that helps...




By the way, they're all for sale.

[Shaolin Crane]

I dont need any more 7.3s 3 is enough

First thing check the easy stuff, oil level is very important, injectors are oil actuated so if its below a certain level, truck will act like no fuel when the hpop just isnt actuating.

Cps sensors, when the truck cranks does the tach move at all? If not the cps is bad

Uvc harnesses, both sides there is a harness that is part of the valve cover gasket, the oil over time wears the plastic clip out, fix is a $6 dollar clip from international

Idm, when it goes bad it goes bad, you'll generally get codes related to it

Gpcm, controls the injectors and drive functions on start up as well as heating the glow plugs. Thanks to wonderful kommieforniastan only ca trucks have them since the epa swears the added electrical draw from the standard relay burns extra fuel.

Those are the main ones, you can also check

The fuel bowl and heater assembly, there is a fuel drainage that goes bad on all of them, not an if thing just when. The o-rings dry out and you might have a major air bubble in the fuel system. Check it by pulling the fuel filter cap turning the key on and letting it run, you should hear the pump and heater

[Small White Car]

Woo hoo, thanks for that!

Friend of mine dropped an OBD II reader in my hand, said quit chasing ghosts and what if's. The one I wanna make go comes back with a P0381 glow plug/heater indicator circuit.

I'm mad Googling right now as I'd like to pull of making them go with some magic and no dirt if I can, took me all night to get the grease from under my nails.

[Shaolin Crane]

I need to know all the codes that came up, im going to suspect the icp for now, unplug it andd see if you cant get it to fire. The code you showed is a common gpcm code, if the module isnt working then no glow plugs, which means REALLY hard starting if its sitting. Try cranking the shit out of it to see if it will go.

You didnt comment on if the tach moved when you cranked it though. The more infprmation the sooner i can help you get them on the road, then you can buy me a green tea

[Small White Car]

p0381 was all that came up, mind you these things were fully serviced and parked, fresh oil and coolant and a full tank of fuel and into storage. This truck had a brake job three weeks before it was parked, although that was nearly 18,000 (425x7x6=17,850) miles on the fresh set when she went inside. The visual is all good, took my Fluke and I got good fuses everywhere. I was gonna yank the relay out of another truck, like maybe the one that runs but I had on my nice clothes today and frankly no one had paid me yet so I wasn't really in a big rush to see whats up beyond plugging in the code reader however someone slapped some dead inventors in my hand so tomorrow I'm back under the hood.


Oh yeah, no tach.

These are cutaways with 14 foot bread van bodies on the back. Automatic, base models,maybe air...

[Shaolin Crane]

No tach points to cps, they wont run without them. They have a recal on the cps as well, might be able to swap at the dealer for no cost but i doubt it. They run about $20 and you'll want the gray tops, its cheap and should be changed anyhow. Try that and get back to me.

[Small White Car]

No no, I mean there is no tachometer in the truck.

Just a speedo, a fuel gauge, a temp gauge and an OP gauge.

:dunno:

[Shaolin Crane]

Any way to ghetto rig for a tach signal? Use a dmm and try and see if the tach bounces, would be a big help