Hello all. Thanks for all the great information and I need more....

This is a continuation of the post Coolant Usage. It all started with a "loud clatter" at freeway speeds merging onto another freeway. It lasted less than 2 seconds. Made me almost mess myself. (A high speed rod knock, if you will.) Solid and loud..... Truck never seemed to miss a beat. Pulled over and all was fine. Gauges where they belong. No odd noises under the hood. Pulled back onto the freeway and it drove same as always. Next several days, it started harder and harder. White smoke and a lite stumble. Cleared out and ran fine in less than a minute. Used small amounts of coolant over time...

During the next week and many posts here, I ended up doing a compression test and located two low cylinders, 350 and 360. The rest @ ~400. As I was going though tiny amounts of water, ended up pulling both heads. Blown gaskets and cracked heads.

Ok, cool. Fine.....

Checked bores and piston tops for anything. All bores where round and in tolerance. Pistons uniform and in fine shape. Slight, slight build up of residue on edges of the pistons. Possible coolant !?! Removed pan and checked for cracks, as described in this forum. No cracks. Timing chain in excellent shape. H-balancer is fine. Flexplate is fine. No cracks.

Put it back together as follows: New heads. Marine injectors. 60G glow plugs. New air, oil and fuel filters. HO water pump(still have single T-stat. Temp gauge now moves between 195 and 205 on a cycle.) New ssdiesel FSD with Heat Sync. New CDR valve.

Starts like ****..... Worse than when I started this... Lots and lots of white smoke. Stumbles for over a minute now, then smooths out and drives excellent. The only real "upgrade" for the motor was the marine injectors. You can "feel" the difference. ):h

I have rechecked the compression, ~400 across the board. I tested, voltage, all of the glow plugs for juice, fine, then replaced the connectors with new spade connectors for a snugger fit. Checked all fuel fittings for any signs of leakage, fine. Got 5 PSI off the lift pump. Coolant usage cured....:ro) .

I am thinking I have two problems now. First is the wrong choice in glow plugs!! It is currently in the low to mid 30's at night and unless I plug it in, starting it is worse for me than the truck and second could be the marine injectors are "not helping the cold start issue"?????

Thoughts please..... What simple thing did I overlook!!!! Tx

60G's work better on a momentary switch or put a cutoff switch on the wires off the coolant temp sensor. This will give you the longest glow possible. 60 g's are know for being hard to light and not burning out.

Marines and 60G's require more glow on-time, but NOT thru a coolant sensor.
A set of hi-heats from Kennedy Diesel would help, or I can give you a modification to the controller, to increase duration, requiring some electronic work inside the controller - not for the timid or faint-of-heart..........

Burning the engine heater at temps below 40deg is easier on engine mechanicals, including starter AND batteries.
Particularly in event of short-tripping, as in shopping and running errands, where batteries do not get long re-charge time.

Almost fergot - good overall job, dude! Yer on top of things, fer sure..........;)

:cool: Yeah,
It's refreshing to hear your summary. It reads like it went well overall and you're driving it again.

All in all, it went well, though next time, I'll pull the motor as working over the fenders with these heads is hard on the body. This system looks to be designed in place and not for much work under the hood. It all just fit's.... Anyway, yes GMCTD, I would like to have the change to the controller you mentioned. I have ordered a set of "fast heat" dual stage glow plugs from NAPA and I will see how they work. Sooner or later I will win with this truck as I simply refuse to loose.... Not in my garage....

If it is any consolation, I did much the same work you did, and my Burb now starts like crap too in cold whether. It belches out bluish/white smoke like a James Bond car for the first 15 or 20 seconds, and stumbles and bumbles accordingly. I’m sure if I plugged it in for a couple hours before starting in the morning, it would be fine. I also know, that the cheepo Autolite 1011’s I put in are half the problem.

On a side note, I plan on doing a lot more work to the burb this weekend. I want to remote install my new PMD, finish up my A/C repair, and maybe replace the crank pulley.

I did a one piston rebuild, and one head came off to fix it.It started like crap after that. I replaced two plugs and I'm starting quick but with a cloud of white smoke every time it's cold (there was frost on the hood this morning).

A few commonalities there. We all have 6.5Ls, it's getting colder and the heads just came off.

Spooky.... my 95 had both gaskets replaced and its not starting to well either???

Is the high pressure fuel system self bleeding? It appears it is, but thought I would ask. As far as commonalities, that is a little scary. On another note, when someone, me, replaces the chip with a new HP one, is it as simple as removal and installation OR do I need to force it to learn the TDC offset, which I did not do....

Seems the common thread is the high pressure fuel system being cracked open. New gaskets and new head bolts should not cause a mechanical difference other than stable compression.

Mine was done at the dealers, not saying it was done right but it would have been a better job than i could have done seeings i didn't have correct tools and torque specs at the time nor the time to do it.

Does the '95 send a large cloud of white smoke out at start-up?

Nope..... more like a HUGE cloud!

i replaced my head gaskets a while back and in cold weather it smokes a little for about 2 seconds and clears up fine,it sounds like a glow plug problem you are haveing to me.

A really real common thread is that IT'S COLD OUTSIDE..................

Everyone's truck starts a little longer - more white vapors, some rough idle.

60G plugs are higher voltage, need a little more jiuicing to get same heat as oem 11G's, but last longer, for that reason - they do not get as hot when engine does not need much glow, where coolant temps are 180deg and up.

Cold weather will reveal most of the faults in the system.

Tighten the hose clamps on the filter IN, DRAIN, and PUMP hoses, and Inj Pump inlet to stop leak-back.

My smoke started as soon as the head went back on. Two glows later it starts on the first crank dead cold ambient ~5 C 40 F but still throws out a large white cloud like never before. I still have two to check though.


My dad's '96 doesn't smoke like that when starting cold.

I replaced the glow plugs with Bosch 80034 and it started a little better. Shut it off and unplugged the temp sender on the T-stat housing. Restarted it and all was normal. High idle. Cycling glow plug light. NO WHITE SMOKE..... Let it run for about a minute and then plugged the sender back in. Idle dropped to 675 and it idled excellent.

Now I'll surf this forum and attempt to discover the name of this sendor and possibly a test for it. This darn little part got me, it did.... I failed the KISS principal. Keep It Simple Stupid.

Also as I had three complete sets of glow plugs, I bench tested them all. Original 100,000 + mile 11G started to glow red in ~6-7 seconds. 60G where ~7-8 seconds. The Bosch 80034 started to glow red in ~4-5 seconds. Much faster and would seem to get along better with my cold start glow time of ~7 seconds.