need buying advice on 93 non turbo IDI. hard cold starts

[lmarcucci7]

Hi everyone. Looking to purchase a '93 f350 dually 7.3 IDI. It has 250k on it, seller said the engine and tranny were replaced before(he has no proof, though). When i remove the oil cap or oil dipstick, i see zero blow by. I even put my hand over it and felt no air coming out. Should i also remove the CDR tube and check there? Truck has no problems, except for hard cold starting issues. Seller says the truck is very hard to start if it sets overnight without a block heater. With a block heater, he says it will start in 3 cranks. When it starts, there is greyish, black smoke for a minute, then when it warms up it dissappears. Seller wants $1800. Does that sound like excessive blowby, or is that just glow plug, injector or fuel line air seapage problems? Should i buy the truck? I can handle fixing it. Interested in knowing anything else pertaining to inspecting this truck the best i can. Thanks!

 

[C_Luft]

You should let the truck warm up for about 15 min, and then check the blow by, also check the coolant and coolant tank for oil, the hard start is probably glow plugs. A quick engine start then it dies and then won't start up after a couple cranks is a air intrusion in either the return lines or in your fuel filter housing,, others will chim in about checking other things.

The video below is of my old engine that thing was on its last legs and the puff of smoke you see coming out of my oil cap, that is a cause for a concern.
https://youtu.be/VAggOk5ID_A

 

[OLDBULL8]

Luft; I'd run a trearment of Auto-RX thru that engine, might do a world of good, that is if it don't have valve problems.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the forum. Really lots of reasons for hard cold starts. Might be a fuel leak down issue and that can be a bad lift pump or a leak in the return lines. the lift pump is around $25.00 and a return line kit is around $40.00. Another hard start reason is bad glow plugs. Those should only be replaced with Motorcraft Beru BD9 plugs. Anything else fails and will cause plenty of other issues. My guess is of the block heater helps the engine start cold then the glow plugs are shot. A warm engine starts much easier than a cold engine without glow plugs working. Once the engine is warm the glow system shuts down and is no longer needed for starts.