I'm looking at an 89 F250 4x4 conversion & wanted to ask a couple questions: Truck has a 97 12 valve/transfer case/auto trans conversion in it. Conversion looks great, everything looks well done & factory. I noticed 2 issues while driving the truck that I'm a little concerned about. First, the engine's hard to start. Turns over probably 8 or 9 times before it fires, and that's without giving any throttle. I have no idea what's been done, turned up, or modified. Truck runs good, no smoke on startup, no blowby, everything sounds & looks good. It will blow black smoke when you hit the throttle at idle. There had been a lot of fuel leaking on the driver side but the guy just changed the fuel pump, said it had a crack on the casing & was spraying fuel everywhere. No fuel leaking now. Previous owner had an electric fuel pump back by the tank that was just removed so truck is running on the pump on the engine only.
So, driving the truck it feels good on takeoff, really low gear, but never shifted into OD. A couple switches on the dash didn't make any difference. TOp speed only about 50 mph. No tach. ONly a little hazing on full throttle.
Owner called me today & said that he fixed the OD, the wire was off the switch so now it hits OD & runs about 82 top speed. Sounds about right for a low gear, right?
Anyway, remember this is a 97 setup in an 89 F250.
I know it's alot to ask without knowing anything about the engine but I'm asking for ideas about what's causing the hard starting, that's my biggest concern. Is the fuel system ok just running the pump on the motor or was there another pump needed on the Dodge trucks; is that what the lift pump is? Could that be causing the hard starts? Could be the fuel filter, or air in the system since the fuel pump was changed. Sorry for my ignorance but I had a 92 cummins & have an 06 so missed out on the 2nd gen configuration. Thanks in advance.

 

Not sure about the other items listed but if it's a 97 you will need to give it just a little bit of fuel to get it started. My 97 does the same thing. Cummins engineered it that way. If I don't give it a little throttle mine does the same thing. A Cummins engineer told me it was to keep the smoke down due to previous years that smoke the typical black cloud on fire up. The first gens fuel system allowed fuel rack fuel when they started up and the years after that slowly got less and less. Good old uncle sam and the emitions for you. It takes some getting used to, giving a little throttle to start but you get used to it. Good luck. Brian