Glow Plug R&R Tutorial?

[warmblood58]

Time to replace my glow plugs and relax, I have new ZD-9's! I have changed my MB glows but this is my first IDI change on my '94 7.3 N/A 7.3 e350 Van and hope to god I do not find Autolites! I searched the forum and nothing was popping up for a complete R&R sticky or tutorial for removing and replacing glow plugs. Can someone direct me? Thanks!

 

[The FNG]

It's actually pretty simple. You will need a deep 10mm socket, an extension, and a universal extension. I used a 1/4" setup and it worked well. I'm not sure how deep the engine sits in a van, so it may prove more difficult than on a truck. You said you are n/a, so you shouldn't have to take off much more than the intake. Hopefully more members can chime in soon to help. Sorry, but there isn't much to it, so a complete tutorial would be overkill IMO. good luck.

 

[warmblood58]

Thanks, MB is simple and the van offers good access . . . praying to not see autolites!

 

[The FNG]

I just pulled autolites from my truck. I guess I got lucky, but I only ran them for about 10k

 

[stumiister]

Time to replace my glow plugs and relax, I have new ZD-9's! I have changed my MB glows but this is my first IDI change on my '94 7.3 N/A 7.3 e350 Van and hope to god I do not find Autolites! I searched the forum and nothing was popping up for a complete R&R sticky or tutorial for removing and replacing glow plugs. Can someone direct me? Thanks!

On your van I would remove the dog house cover and the air filter, remove the wiring on the gp's using the approprite tools loosen the gp'sif they dont come out easy get some sray lube like WD-40 or PB Blaster and soak the gp's.
Its possible they have alot of carbon on them.

 

[riotwarrior]

There is NO NEED to remove the INTAKE, just the AIR filter housing...cover that hole if the screen is missing and cover it anyway so no debris gets into it!

As mentioned it's a matter of removing the wires, and carefully undoing the GP's if you find resistance when attempting to pull them out...STOP, get some KROIL, WD 40 , PB Blaster, or just about anything that you can squirt down the hole and let soak and hopefully loosen/dissolve carbon build up. As well it helps to lube the tip when attempting to withdraw it from the GP bore.

Biggest issue won't be carbon it would be a swollen tip. This again is patience and perseverance to overcome the issue.

Just don't go yanking on anything stuck, come back here and describe issues thoroughly findings of other plugs etc. this is a matter of better to wait...and find out best suggestions..than not wait, break stuff and end up worse than before starting....

JM2CW but others will chime in...

Al

 

[The FNG]

Oops! I meant the air filter housing...thanks for catching that. My bad....

 

[warmblood58]

Good news! Fist GP marked Behru . . . . I used my compressor and blew debris out of the GP ports first with intake foiled to prevent debris from entering. This GP had just the very tip burned off and came out whole . . . . hopefull the whole set is Behru . . . I am pre spraying each GP thread with aero kroil and spraying every couple of turns. My GP harness insulators (white plastic) are original and the first was soft and waxy . . . looks like time for a new GP harness - are they expensive?

 

[icanfixall]

Well so far your doing exactly what I would be doing. The aerokroil is about the best idea. A little spary. A few turns out. Spray more and turn it back in. That drags the spray into the threads nicely. You will see the seal bevel below the threads on the plug body.. Thats where the plug seals.. Not the threads. The berus come ready with an anti seize on the threads but applying more wont harm anything. Just make sure its not on the bevel seal. If you find a tight area just remove that injecter hard line for easy access.

 

[rhkcommander]

The plastic doesnt matter much. Clean it up, use some nice shrink tubing if you want.

i made my own harness, i think i used 14 gauge, and i wanna say .156 female bullets fit nicely on the zd9 glowplugs. Wires never get hot which means its plenty to handle the load.

Some will say this can affect resistance and stuff, but what i did was similar to the stock harness except they used fusible links everywhere. Works fine with my manual control setup, cant promise it would with an automatic controller but id be suprised if it didnt. Heat shrink over the old harness wont change anything negatively if i wasnt clear before.

The bullet connector plastic did shrink after the first run on a harness i repaired, and one i made. Just made it a tighter fit, they didnt do it again so i think my batch had something like shrink wrap. I would guess that the glow plugs were hot + engine heat, and maybe the crimp site was hot. Wire wasnt though. Might try solder next time but this harness has lasted a year