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The Ford F250 7.3L diesel
Cold-Starting Trouble: When Hell Freezes Over
We
also have a 1988 Ford F250 diesel pickup truck. This vehicle has already carried
us over 30,000 km's on straight used vegetable oil.
The truck has two fuel tanks, which is a fairly standard feature on these old behemoths. We keep diesel, or biodiesel, in one tank, which we only use for starting the engine and for flushing the fuel system before shutting the engine down. The second tank, of course, contains the free, used vegetable oil, and is the tank used for the bulk of our driving.
The truck has always been a pain in the arse to start, even on petro diesel. We have checked some of the fuel lines for air leaks, but the awkward design makes it hard to get to the firewall injectors. Still, an inexpensive booster pack and some extra deep cycle batteries in the camper help keep us on the road. I recently purchased a small solar-powered trickle charger for $22 CAD which has greatly improved cold-starting (it only charges at 80mA, but that seems to be enough).