Where to begin? 7.3 IDI sitting for a year.

[marmot]

Went to pick up my new 93 f250 IDI turbo today, left at 8am and I pulled my flatbed trailer 100 miles on horrible ice and blowing snow/ground blizzard. I called the guys I bought it from this morning and they said he had put it "on the street" and they would clean it off and make sure it was plowed out when I came. I got there and the son of a &$%%&&& had left it in 2ft of snow with the front tires in a steep ditch. The Trailer deck was just under level with the hood and My ramps were pert near vertical. I tried to pull it out but it was glare ice under 2ft of snow so no go. I even tried winching it out of the ditch with the trailer winch and it drug my f350 sd and trailer backwards but did not even budge the truck....so I pulled out the AAA card and used my 100mile tow, which I was hoping to save for our annual drive to south carolina The driver was excellent and commented on how much trouble he had pulling it out! He also said it looks like it will be a nice truck. It is sitting in the driveway now, my wife got home from work, walked in the house and said "It smells like sheep." HAH!

SO where should I start with getting ready to try and start this thing? The truck has been sitting for 1yr with loose injector lines It has a new injection pump, freshly installed injectors, and return lines and new glow plugs. It also has a new fuel filter. I put a battery in it and it has 3/4 tank of fuel if the gauge is good. I did not try to turn it over. Any thing in particular I should look out for? Thanks

 

[FoolhardyIDI]

The first thing I would do. Pull the injectors and glow plugs. Then turn the engine over by hand. Making sure nothing is binding. Next make sure there is oil in the engine and turn it over with the starter. If there is any fluid in the cylinders this will get the fluid out. Reattach the injectors, glow plugs, fuel lines bleed the air out and fire her up.

 

[Kevin 007]

Check oil, toss a couple batteries at it, bleed those loose lines and see if it fires up following the correct cold start procedure

 

[IDIoit]

the first thing i would do is get it under a cover! hopefully a garage.
nothing worse than messing with the unknown in harsh conditions.
check oil, put batteries in it, turn it over until you get fuel at the injectors, tighten injectors, disconnect glow plug system, give it a shot of eather and see if it will kick over.
if it does, bleed the air reconnect glow plugs and see if they cycle. then fire.
after it fires, take pictures and post on oliburners.net
now either 2 things will happen, it will fire. in that case grab a beer and assess again,
if it does not fire, grab a beer and work the problem.
main ingredient = beer.

 

[sassyrel]

The first thing I would do. Pull the injectors and glow plugs. Then turn the engine over by hand. Making sure nothing is binding. Next make sure there is oil in the engine and turn it over with the starter. If there is any fluid in the cylinders this will get the fluid out. Reattach the injectors, glow plugs, fuel lines bleed the air out and fire her up.

THIS!! since them azzes, left it in a snow bank,,aint no telling what might be going on with that engine...

 

[Kistthesky]

I would also check coolant level & quality then plug in the block heater, make sure the batteries are fully charged & keep the charger handy.

The first thing I would do. Pull the injectors and glow plugs. Then turn the engine over by hand. Making sure nothing is binding. Next make sure there is oil in the engine and turn it over with the starter. If there is any fluid in the cylinders this will get the fluid out...

If you do this I would pull the fuel line at the filter head too and catch what comes out in a coffee can to make sure your lift pump is working and see what the fuel looks like. i would go over this thing with a fine tooth comb before attempting to start it, and if you do get it to run i would check the tranny/rearend fluid, front end parts and brakes before test driving it because who knows what those jackasses did with/to it since they left it in a ditch during a blizzard, probably out of spite, but thats just me.

 

[BrandonMag]

after it fires, take pictures and post on oliburners.net

X2

now either 2 things will happen, it will fire. in that case grab a beer and assess again, if it does not fire, grab a beer and work the problem.
main ingredient = beer.

 

[Iowa 73]

The truck has been sitting for 1yr with loose injector lines It has a new injection pump, freshly installed injectors, and return lines and new glow plugs. It also has a new fuel filter. I put a battery in it and it has 3/4 tank of fuel if the gauge is good. I did not try to turn it over. Any thing in particular I should look out for? Thanks

Pretty sure it won't just fire up. That's a clue that they could not get it to run. You may have a bit of a project on your hands. With patience you can probably get it going.

 

[IDIoit]

Pretty sure it won't just fire up. That's a clue that they could not get it to run. You may have a bit of a project on your hands. With patience you can probably get it going.

it was at a shop that the PO didnt want to pay for the new IP install

 

[marmot]

Pretty sure it won't just fire up. That's a clue that they could not get it to run. You may have a bit of a project on your hands. With patience you can probably get it going.

Well it did run, in fact the lady that owned it drove it to the shop. She had gone to start it one morning and it fired up and then died, after which it took 15min of cranking to fire again.(AIR LEAK?) She REQUESTED a new IP,Injectors and gp's! The shop installed most of the parts and then called her with a bill update at which time she told them to keep the truck. The stopped right there and did not finish reassembly. That was last january, It had sat in their yard since. On Friday they dragged it out for me and parked it in the ditch, I think the shop owner might have been a bit po'd that I low balled him he must have had a bit over 600$ invested in it, But he could have said no. Regardless it is in my drive way now and it turns over with a wrench so I am going to install a couple batteries and run the fuel out of the lines, purge the air and see if it fires. My house came with a car port and it is now an addition on my house and the new garage won't happen till next summer so I am in the driveway. 4 degrees this morning so I am going to wait till it warms up before I mess with it. I will post pics and a video when(hopefully) it fires. Thanks for the ideas.


Oil looks good and full with no grit, coolant is full and clean, glow plugs are not new, injectors are NEW and so is the IP.

 

[typ4]

since it is cold and wet I would spray some wd40 down the intake to lube the cyl walls. Dont want galling going on due to dry pistons.
Or pull the injectors or glow plugs and use some atf then crank over with them out, it will be messy but could save the rings.
Very good or new batteries are your friend.

 

[Kistthesky]

i'd do a quick light tester check of the glowplugs as well just to make sure they are working.

 

[marmot]

Montana is so damn dry I think I might just purge the lines with the facet pump and give it heck. It is a turbo motor so it is hard to spray wd40 in it. I am missing at least one line clamp, I have two and it appears there were three? I will post pics later.

 

[IDIoit]

is it an ATS turbo?
just remove the hat bolt and spray the WD40 there.
some is better than none.

 

[bbjordan]

Get your motor running...

It sounds like the new pump & injectors may or may not have solved the original problem. If it were mine, I would hook up the facet pump and pull fuel from a fresh jug of diesel. This will eliminate all kinds of other possible problems upstream of the fuel filter. Speaking of which, I would put a new filter on full of fresh diesel. I would also pull the glow plugs and put a squirt of ATF or WD-40 in the cylinders as mentioned above. Then after the engine is nice and warm from being plugged in for hours, with a battery charge on the batteries, I would crank and bleed the injectors. This kind of kills two birds with one stone; cranking and lubing the engine and bleeding the injectors. It's a whole lot easier on the starter and batteries to crank the engine when the GPs are out. It could take a while to bleed the injectors... Also, it's nicer to work on a warm engine when it's cold out. Once the injectors are bled, put the GPs back in and hook them up and try to start it.

M2CW

Good luck!