My dad has a 2002 ford excursion with the power stroke he bought new in 01. Well it sat over night in my drive way because my brother was driving it and left it at my house and it was in the way of me getting in my garage to mess with my cummins. well man can i say power stroke don't want to start in the cold. let the glow plugs warm up. took almost 30 seconds for the wait to start light to go off. the excursion has around 15,000 miles on it. and i sat there and cranked the key for almost 10 seconds before it started, and when it did it sounded like the engine was ready to die, low idle, blah blah, JUNK. id be scared to start that thing in 5 degree weather thats coming up here soon!

the only thing i liked on that power stroke was the sound of the turbo, man i wish the cummins had that sound to them, i could hear the hissing from the turbo in my house when it was idling. sounded good. but id still never buy one

here later when i take it back maybe i will take a video of how crappy it starts. someone can tell me if there is a problem with it or if thats how them piles start

 

Youre lucky it started My bro inlaws wont start below 45 if he doesnt plug it in.

 

Well we have a few 7.3 PSD around here for work trucks, they pull ok and push snow just fine. I sat out in the cold a few morning since i dont have anywhere to plug all of them in.... Consisted of a generator, battery charger and a nice big can of ether.... We pull the tubes off of the air box, sniff it with ether(with the key off) jump in and just start crankin. The ether usually with get to the cylinders before the air heater of glow plugs get hot enough to ignite it and cause a cheap hair cut to come back out of the intake tube. Works everytime for us. I have started my cummins without the air heater in colder weather than a PSD will start with glow plugs, and an air heater.... Gotta remember they need extremly high oil pressure to fire the injectors. And Im sure everyone knows what 15W40 oil is like under about 30 degrees or so...

 

throw an upgraded turbo and BHAF on there and listen to your dodge sing and feel the kick in your pants and youll forget about that Ford.

 

well i got a 60mm compressor on the way, ordered tonight and i have the bhaf, hope it sounds good

 

Thats just the way powerstrokes are, trust me I know, I unfortunately had two of them before I finally got a cummins (best decision I've ever made). The wait to start light is not hooked up to the glow plug relay so when it goes out it doesnt mean anything, for some reason ford just put the light in there. The glow plug relay is the 2nd relay back on the passenger side of the engine just to the left of the fuel filter if your were standing there looking at it with the hood up(common on fords, maybe thats why they put a good hood latch in there?). You can take a digital multimeter and hook your black lead to the neg on the batt. and put the red clip on the hot side of the relay, should read 12v or so with the key off, the other side should be dead. Now go turn the key on and put your meter to the other post on the relay it should read 12v or so anywhere from 20-45 seconds(both my strokers were at about the 30 second mark) then it should go off, that is how long your glow plugs stay on. If it doesnt read any volts at all it is a bad relay, it is a common problem on those trucks, I went through three in 45k miles, they cost like $40 at napa I think. That might help it start better, if the relay tests fine then its probably the glow plugs, they are not too hard to replace they just take time, I did them on both of mine and they helped but they still never started as good as my cummins does. My last stroker just poured white smoke at startup and had to have ether if it dropped below 45 degrees until I replaced all the glow plugs.If you have any more questions feel free to ask me, I have been through all that hard start crap before. You'd probably be better off to rip that sick ol' powerjoke out and drop a 12 valve in there. Hope this helps ya, Good luck

 

Well, I have an 05 6.0 Excursion in my driveway that belongs to my friend that is overseas. He is one of the lucky ones that got a problem free truck. It has 43000 miles on it with no problems whatsoever. I've actually been driving it for the past few days to give my legs a rest from sitting in traffic with the 6 speed. It starts up nice and easy even in 20 degree temps everytime... It's for sale if anyone wants one.....

 

My 6.0 seemed to start alot better than our old 7.3

 

My 04 6.0 starts no problem when it is cold out. It is never plugged in. It usually sits all week, and driven on weekends. Change the oil to 5W-540 synthetic. The 15-40 is so thick at that temperature that the engine 7.3, or 6.0 won't idle properly until the oil warms up. A 6.0 will do the romps if running 15-40. Also the 6.0 needs to spin at 200 RPM minimum before the injectors will fire. Keith