I have a very hard time starting my 6.5 sometimes even when it is warm. On cold mornings, it takes a lot of battery and an incredible amount of white smoke to start and I have to keep the rpms at 1000 for about a minute or so or it will die. I have not checked compression, glow plugs, injectors since I bought the truck about 100K ago. It seems to run fine, maybe a little sluggish and I am not quite getting the mpg I think I used to get. But I can run 70-80 on the highway no sweat and in normal temp range. Any help Please!

It's due for glow plugs at least. Test them by pulling the wire off and putting a 12v test light or DVM between them. They will light if good.


Injectors can be tested by a fuel shop. compression requires a guage to measuse it.Edited by: quantum mechanic

I guess I will start with the glow plugs at the very least and let you know what happens. Thanks again

If it won't hold an idle for the first minute, I'd start by checking the resistance value of the coolant temp sensor. From my limited experience, bad glow plugs or slower than required cranking RPM will result in a hard start but once it lights off will run perfectly (hence compression ignition). My CTS was skewed toward much lower than proper resistance, resulting in a scanned value maybe 30 degrees hotter than it actually was. I didn't have the white smoke, but it was a bear to keep running after start.


Jim

CTS failure usually dumps extra fuel at an advance time. White smoke may indicate retarded injections, because the fuel didn't burn. The smoke would be grey to black otherwise.