Got a couple questions about our truck.

1998 24V

1st Problem: Hard Start

Very hard to start, even when warm outside. Intake heater seems to work fine (hot to the touch). You have to turn it over for at least 30-45sec minimum before it starts. Then it idles very rough and billows smoke (smells like fuel). If you give it a little throttle, you might hear a few backfires before it leans out and smoothes out. Seems to me like its burning off excess fuel in the engine thats building up when its cranking and not starting.
Replaced Crankshaft Pos Sens, going to replace Camshaft Pos Sens tomorrow. My best guess is that the timing is off when its cranking and cranking and not starting until it finally fires.

2nd Problem: Burning Excessive oil

Losing oil bad. Took a 2 hr trip, with a decent load and was almost a gallon low when we got there. Needless to say, we were stopping more often on the way back. Runs great when full of oil, obviously, not sluggish. No drips in the driveway. With no load on truck, it still looses a lot of oil, but not as quickly.

Thanks for the help.

 

Low compression due to stuck or broken rings could cause both problems.
Do a leak down compression check and that will tell you wich cyl are bad.
Cylinders should not very by more than 10%. ie: 75/80 would be good 71/80 is bad.
Also when you do the test listen at the intake, exhaust and the oil fill.
If you hear air at any one of the three you will know where you have a problem, (intake valve, exhaust valve or rings)

 

Ok, will look into doing that this weekend, about how much will that test run?

 

with the cranking. . .it sounds either one your cam or crank sensor could be bad. . .

as far as oil, you could have a problem with the turbo or a scored cylinder

 

How many miles are on the truck?

 

177K, but, its been used and abused. We use it almost 100% of the time now, but the owner, in the past, has not been the most caring towards his equipment.

 

Could be that the oil is being consumed by the engine. Leaking by the rings, turbo seal, or valve stem seals. The leak down check would tell you about the rings. Some excessive oil in the cyls at start would caus the smoke and hard starting. This is the basic mechanical stuff. I don't know much about the computer controls on this thing.

 

If it lost a turbo, there would be lots of oil either in the intake, or dripping from the exhaust, expecially ifyour losing a gallon + If it was a scored cylinder it would have a knock or a miss unless all cylinders are bad. You can check this by hooking up a pressure gauge to the crankcase and see what it reads. There would also be lots of oil coming out the breather tube.