I have a 2000 international 4700 with a 444e engine. Truck starts and runs fine if it is over 60 degrees. Anything lower it starts hard or not at all and runs rough. When I got it running in the cold weather I used a IR thermometer and the passenger side is only at 150 degrees. I pulled the valve cover and there is no oil coming out the oil spouts on that side. What would cause this only on 1 side of engine?
What oil is in it?
Those things are picky about oil, but I suspect the cold weather hard starting issue is probably related to weak batteries, cable problems, or some failed glow plugs. Start with the simple things, first. Put a set of Buru plugs in it.
Has 15 40 rotella not sure why that would cause one side to not fire?
Valve cover gasket/harness pass thru are notorious for burning. Glow plugs another common failure. You may have leakage in the high pressure oil rail. This will typically show the same problem on both sides since the pump is common. Is your fuel clear or is it turning dark?
Good point, Funwithfuel. ! totally forgot about those burnt-up valve cover gaskets and cheazy harnesses. Those engines have lots of weird idiosyncrasies.
Fuel looks good and clear and clean. Why would the pass thru gasket only be an issue in cold weather? Also would it affect all 4 injectors?
Glow plug power passes through valve cover gasket . Below 60° engine needs help via glow plugs. Here's how glow plugs fail. One fails, now the relay sends the same voltage/amperage to the remaining 7. This isn't a big deal , m ou st folks don't notice it. The remaining 7 are still heating as if there 8 , same time but higher amps because its spread over 7. This will cause others to fail more frequently. The higher amperage will sometimes burn the tips off the plugs . This goes on until its really noticeable. And here you are.
I think glow plugs are ok the looking at the injectors there is not any oil coming out oil exhaust ports. What would cause them to not fire only on 1 side?
You could have a failed o-ring at an injector dumping off your high psi oil rail. That would dump that heads oil volume either into fuel rail or crankcase. There should be an oil manifold bolted to the intake side. But you say the engine runs fine, when running. Depending on software, some injectors have multiple injection phases. Pre combustion, post combustion and obviously compression ignition. Not all dribble out the port. Simple test. Ground a test light on the battery positive post of the alternator. Touch the test light to each glow plug tip. If it lights its possibly good, if it doesn't, it's for sure bad.
So what makes you think glow plugs are ok? Stop trying to invent a problem. Pull the valve cover off, ohm each of the four glow plugs, the outside pins of each connector on the valve cover gasket are the glow plugs. Maybe even replace them if you're in there already. Go to IH, and GET A NEW VALVE COVER GASKET. Then, check back here if it still doesn't start.
Not inventing anything. From what I've seen in the past when these injectors are firing you will see oil leaving the injectors. I see NO oil leaving the injectors. What would cause only the passenger side of engine to not fire any of the injectors. I'm doubting it is the valve cover gasket because it fires and runs fine at warmer temps.
Well, the wiring that operates the injectors passes through the gasket, so there is that. There is only one HPOP, so if 4 injectors are getting oil, it would seem logical that the other 4 would as well.....
How is it running fine on one side (four cylinders) and not the other side? And still running OK enough to pull the passenger side valve cover to study the oil flow? Lol. Keep your eye on the prize. You are chasing a rabbit down a hole. Please listen to the advice of Mr. Funwithfuel and Shimmy1. Their words are golden. And, report back with an update.
Runs fine in warmer weather. When it runs now passenger side temp of exhaust manifold is 140 degrees while drivers is over 300. Makes it very obvious passenger side not firing. Now that it is cold it won't even start I removed passenger side valve cover and see no oil coming out of injectors when cranking. Tomorrow I will inspect pass thru wires on valve cover.
The 444E is the engine Ford turned into the 7.3 PowerStroke, I've had a number of those and have been through many problems. I don't know how many similarities there are to the IH version but surely there are some. The PowerStroke had two glow plug relays, one for each side of the engine, perhaps the IH is the same? I never got in deep enough to be familiar with the injectors so I can't answer those questions. The valve cover harness has been mentioned, I had one go bad in a snowstorm and lost one side of the engine, I was barely able to limp it home. If your problem is intermittent it could be that harness or one of the connectors leading to it is on the way to failure but hasn't yet. I'd start at the head and start checking the connectors and see is any of the pins are green and work your way back to the engine computer, look for wires that could be broken but not severed as well. That connector takes a lot of heat and vibration, it's possible it's not as secure as it was designed to be after the years.
I'm new to diesels. My kid bought a 1995 powerstroke. He did replace the block heater. He started it at about 20f one morning while I was there and it had a cylinder or two missing at start up. Smoothed out after five seconds. Found an article explaining how to check the glow plug system. He found burnt connections at the valve cover. That fixed it.
On the PowerStroke version the injectors were fired both by electricity and oil pressure. One of my PowerStrokes acted up in colder weather, below 25°F. I bought the truck new and after having it a couple years in cold weather the engine would lope severely for a period of time before it smoothed out. If I plugged the block heater in it would start and run fine. The colder it was the longer it would take for the engine to smooth out. Sometimes I had to go through several start cycles as it would stall after about 20 seconds or so. I never figured out why this happened but I had a theory, as I mentioned the injectors fired partly by oil pressure. The specified oil is 15/40 diesel oil which is pretty heavy in cold weather. There is a high pressure oil pump (HPOP) that is part of the injection system and boosts the oil pressure up to 3000psi in the injection circuit. The HPOP was at the end of the engine oil passages, the last thing to receive oil pressure from the engine oil pump. My theory was at the colder temperatures the oil couldn't move quickly enough to adequately supply the HPOP and thus ran rough until the engine ran for a minute or so and warmed enough to flow freely. I got in the habit of plugging in the block heater to avoid this. Below are a couple videos I made of this condition back when I had the truck. Again, I don't know if IH uses a similar system or not.
I changed out valve cover gasket and still having same issue. Glow plugs test good. What else other than computer could kill entire side of engine?
Is the CEL on?
I cannot get it running to see if light is on. I've tried scanning it after cranking and no codes come up. I thought about trying to get it running in ether.
This maybe worth a read. Authored by a username that very similar to one here. https://www.thedieselstop.com/threads/hard-no-start-check-here-first.75094/
DO NOT USE ETHER!!!!! Those little stickers all over that say , do not use starting aids, they're there for a reason. You'll do more harm than good. You've already had the valve cover off. Why not just remove and inspect the injectors? If you have an o-ring blown, you can address it right there and then. If you've got a tip blown, you'll see it and can continue from there. If you're firing off one bank, the ECU knows everything it needs to know and is making adjustments. You likely have a physical fault vs an electrical gremlin
So, let's recap. If it's above 60°, it starts/runs fine. Below 60°, exhaust manifold is half the temp of the other side. Does this maintain this temp, or does it eventually catch up? If it's at 150°, then presumably some of the injectors are hitting. You need to check the port area of each cylinder to verify if that particular cylinder is firing. As far as your starting issue, I am a Ford guy, and I have had glow plugs that have continuity, and are failed. If you have that valve cover off, you should have all new glow plugs in the holes. Have you verified you are getting voltage to the glow plugs before attempting to start??
Sounds a bit like the hell I went through with mine awhile back. After the fix I did it's run great for years now- started right up this morning at 17* & then later on Lolo where it was brrrrrrrr. Starts around pg 6/ post #100-ish: HeavyEquipmentForums
Put a heat gun in the intake and try starting it. That will tell you if it has something to do with the engine been hot or if it is your starting system. My truck did something like that and what it was is where the main harness connects to the engine it chafes on the drivers valve cover. I was having problems with the truck cutting out cylinders and no power but it only did it sometimes and never stored a code. Also my truck use to do like steves in the cold but doesn't anymore. this is on a ford pickup i dont know if they are the same
Don't you guy's just love those diesel pickups? I have a Ford Ranger 4.0L 116,000 miles-always starts runs smooth-just some regular maintenance is all. If I need a larger truck I borrow one from the company--but I've never needed to.
Well i have 340 000km on my truck now and thats the only engine problems i have had with it other then a few glow plug relays over the years. I also have a toyota echo 1.5l with a 5 speed that i drive almost every day and i would not trade it for anything. 240 000km and has had nothing but brake pads and oil changes when i think about it.