p pump swap starting

[cumminz90]

To all you guys whove done the p pump swap in your trucks have you had any trouble starting them with the single battery. I was told for our climate I need to hook up my grid heater and duel batteries. Is this true? Thanks for the info in advance.

[dpuckett]

I really dont see how the injector pump would make any differnce in your starting battery needs. I'd think the engine would put more drag and resistance than the IP.

What are you doing with your VE?

[Richie O]

My 97 did not start near as well as any of my ve's.
I also used to drive a fairly new 94 years ago that belonged to a lumber yard I worked for. The thing would not start under about 20 degrees without being plugged in. The truck had low miles and was still under warrenty. It was checked out and all was operating.

[RumbleFish]

ill 2nd that, sorta. my dads old 97 would start hard when it was really cold out. he plugged it in nearly all winter. on the few days here that it is below 0 continuously, it would need nearly 10 mins to sound normal and better than 30 to build heat.

all my ve trucks have been a hugely different story. i have only had them not start twice. once in my 91, because it was -5 before windchill and i had a 850cca battery and not plugged in, and the other last winter with the goober. the battery was near junk, and it wasnt plugged in. i think it was 15-20 degrees. a new battery solved it, it even had some warranty left on it.

living in deleware, i would sure look into more cca's. it can get damn cold here, i can only imagine how much colder it is than here.

[peobryant]

All three of the '97's we've had have started just fine in the winter. My brothers 1st '97 has a small hole so air would get in over night making it hard to start, but other than that, they've never been bothered by the cold.

They don't start as good as my truck, but we never have to plug them in either (except when my brothers 1st '97 ran a LOT of timing.) My truck has only failed to start on me once. I ran out and started it to warm her up, and went back in the house to get something from my room. When I got up there, I couldn't hear it anymore, and it wasn't smoking white, so i knew she wasn't running. Turns out, the fuel gelled, but that isn't the trucks fault. Although, I do find it strange that my truck was the only one to have it's fuel gel, even when the others were parked in the same driveway, for the same amount of time.

[cumminz90]

Well the reason behind me asking a couple weeks ago it was 70 degrees outside and i started that motor with only a little amount of cranking no i can hardly get the thing to spin fast enough to even put out any smoke to even act like its trying to start with a freshley charged battery and a jumpstarter to it and its only about 40 degrees when i last fooled with it.

dpuckett- i think im going to keep it for now as a back up being that the other truck is still a ve and anything ever goes wrong with it

[cedardiesel]

Its not that bad at all my 92 I p-pumped does just fine on one battery and its a cat battery with I think 1000 or 1100 cold cranking amps and It fires right up no problem at all no matter if plugged in or not.

[crewcabxlt]

its the fixed timing of p-pump that makes them harder to start. around here its been around 0 for saeveral weeks. the p-pump trucks weve run start alot harder than ve,s

[cedardiesel]

Yep your right but its a thing you get used to I mean its nothing that at all should problematic unless you are running extreme amounts of timing when really once you get above 18 degrees or so driveability on street begins to decrease slightly.

[crewcabxlt]

true, not a big deal. especially compared to powerstroke ! they still start ok. ive never seen another diesel start as easy as a 1st gen.

[Farmboy]

I didn't know you could get a diesel to start on only one battery. All of our tractors have two batteries, my truck had two batteries, and every other diesel truck I know of has two batteries. but when I got that dog box off of Philip, the battery tray only had a spot for one battery. was the second battery an option from the factory?

[Ace]

Nope. 1st Gens had one 1100cca batt from the factory. They will start reliably deep into the negative temp numbers with a healthy battery. People make the battery mistake by installing lower rated batteries and then wondering why pre-heating the 200+amp grid heaters cripples them in severe cold. Just use the spec'd battery and they start great. 5w/40 oil helps with cold cranking alot too.

[peobryant]

true, not a big deal. especially compared to powerstroke ! they still start ok. ive never seen another diesel start as easy as a 1st gen.

I'll second that. Our 2nd Gen's and 3rd gen don't start nearly as easy as my truck.

[ZSkibo]

Hey DE! I used to live in Milford, worked in G'town. It NEVER got cokd enough in the 4 years I lived there to even worry about 2 batteries. Get yourself a NEW 1100cca battery and you'll be fine.

[cumminz90]

i will try the1100 cca batterry first then if that dont crank it fast enough then im goin to two of them the ve used to start all day long on a 950cca battery around here no matter how cold it got but i will see if the 1100cca batery will do the trick. yea delaware dont getto coldat all lol compared to some f ya.