well i guess my glows and or block heater are bad, my truck will not start and its currently -2.

my gasser never left me stuck and i had a feeling this would happen if it got cold when i bought this thing.

i so want to give the old ether sniff to it but that is such a bad idea.

and now my batteries need a good charging from all the cranking.




just needed to vent :cool:

Do not use ether. rather check and see why its not starting. my truck starts perfect in the cold with everything working correctly. Also a diesel will become addicted to ether over time, almost like a human gets addicted to crack. Ether does more damage than good.

I feel for ya, same thing with mine last year. Two new batteries and a set of glows later I'm in good shape.

Don't forget grounds and batt terminals.

Ya, mine will start at -20*F, granted it runs rough and sounds like someone dumped a bucket of bolts in the crankcase it still starts without getting plugged in :D

Do not use ether. rather check and see why its not starting. my truck starts perfect in the cold with everything working correctly. Also a diesel will become addicted to ether over time, almost like a human gets addicted to crack. Ether does more damage than good.

yea i know better than to use it, i drive a freightliner for a living.


i knew it had at least 1 bad glow plug from the way it starts normally with 1 cylinder not firing properly for the first 20 seconds or so.

Ya, mine will start at -20*F, granted it runs rough and sounds like someone dumped a bucket of bolts in the crankcase it still starts without getting plugged in :D


Started my truck today @ 5*F... lets just say your description is accurate. although you left out the part where for the first minute, it smokes out my entire townhouse complex :)

Started my truck today @ 5*F... lets just say your description is accurate. although you left out the part where for the first minute, it smokes out my entire townhouse complex :)


it shouldn't smoke like crazy. You may have just found a problem. Mine doesn't smoke anything more than a puff at startup so far this winter.

Mine just smokes when it first starts then clears u. When i switched to synthetic engine oil it really took out all the noise after cold starts.

Doesnt really smoke like "crazy" but its just like 30 seconds of white while the afterglow is going. after that it smoothes out and theres no smoke, white winter exhaust . I think my glows are OK considering it started without excess cranking . what else could cause this condition?

Injectors. They wear out and don't atomize as well, making it harder for the fuel to ignite. Results in hard/smokey cold starts, black smoke, bad fuel economy, possible missing.

Yeah im thinking they need to be done pretty soon. as far as i know they are the originals. Truck runs fine though, nice mileage, nice power, havent had any problems. ive always lived by the motto if it aint broke dont fix it, but i guess preventative maintenance cant hurt with something like injectors..

Injectors.


Agreed with RC. how many miles on your injectors?? my old stock ones did this, but it was 50+ outside. i'd get white smoke after it started perfectly. swapped in new ones from heath diesel and the smoke was gone.

they have 160k on them so roughly 100k miles. Could a worn injector cause a loud clicking sound? the other day i had the hood opened and noticed a metallic click coming from the passenger side behind the turbo. could this maybe be an injector stuck open

The block heater is easily checked, use an ohmmeter go between both plug blades should about 40 to 80 ohms, then check ground prong to vehicle ground should be 0 ohms and ground to each blade should be open.

Quick check glow plugs with a test light, test light to + on battery and unplug and touch spade on the GP, should light.

Consider going to better flowing oil in the winter, I run 0w40 in the winter.

When I was in Alaska I had a buddy put mobile 1 and dyno oil in a shot glass with a toothpick in each. He left them outside for a long time. One day of many he went out when the temp outside was well around -40F and stirred both of them. The mobile 1 stirred like water, the dyno oil stirred like gel. Both oil stayed like this to temps all the way up to -1F. After that we got bored with the experiment. Just thaught I would share this with you.

they have 160k on them so roughly 100k miles. Could a worn injector cause a loud clicking sound? the other day i had the hood opened and noticed a metallic click coming from the passenger side behind the turbo. could this maybe be an injector stuck open

Could possible be a small exhaust leak they can sometimes make a sound like that.

Hey guys, I'm sorta new to diesel... At what temp should I think about adding "anti-gel" fuel treatment or it is already a part of today's fuels?

depends where you live and where you fuel and drive too. if you live in a cold winter area, it should be blended for it. when you live in a warmer area and you get a cold snap or drive somewhere cold, thats when you may have problems.

Hey guys, I'm sorta new to diesel... At what temp should I think about adding "anti-gel" fuel treatment or it is already a part of today's fuels?


IMO I use it when we starting seeing temps below 20 which here is now.:(

Opti-Lube XPD

Yeah it should already have it in the fuel but you can put it in when it gets around 20 to 25 if you want to be safe.

well i guess my glows and or block heater are bad, my truck will not start and its currently -2.

my gasser never left me stuck and i had a feeling this would happen if it got cold when i bought this thing.

i so want to give the old ether sniff to it but that is such a bad idea.

and now my batteries need a good charging from all the cranking.




just needed to vent :cool:

Not to sound too harsh but if you had the feeling this would happen you probably should have checked the block heater to make sure it was working. I check mine every time I plug it in...even if it's only 35 degrees. You can 'feel' the area around the block heater and can tell if it's getting hot or you can shoot it with a $30 IR thermometer and do the same thing. Not sure what temp it's supposed to get to but mine is always around 140 degrees.

Dang! -2 yikes! Yeah, diesels don't like it that cold.

its not too harsh, i should have looked into things better, after i put the charger on the batteries for about 2 hours i came back and got it fired up.

the batteries are only a year old but i wonder if them only being 700 ca have anything to do with the cold start issue as well.

Yeah these trucks really need to be cranking good to start in that kind of cold. If it is not cranking fast might want to upgrade them.

its not too harsh, i should have looked into things better, after i put the charger on the batteries for about 2 hours i came back and got it fired up.

the batteries are only a year old but i wonder if them only being 700 ca have anything to do with the cold start issue as well.
Mine fired up yesterday without the block heater. It was -19 according to my thermometer that has so far been pretty accurate. It didn't like it, but it did it. Mine smokes quite a bit when it starts up, and will put out white smoke on acceleration for quite a while. Runs good and gets decent milage(19-20, hwy), but it's probably an injector issue. One more thing to put on the list of stuff to do I guess...