1990 F250 dsl questions

I was wondering about how long a 7.3 dsl engine should smoke when first started in about -1 degree's out. I've had the block heater plugged in for about 28 hours before starting it up tonight. It smoked really bad when I first started it and then it was still smoking ten minutes later. But just not as bad. Another question I was wondering is what else should I do to keep it running and starting this winter? Thanks for the help, if anyone needs any other details about the truck just ask and I will reply.


Thanks

The best tip for staying running this winter is to keep your fuel liquid. I don't know why, but I'm seeing more gelled-up diesels this year than ever before. As for your smoke problem, you may have a bad glow plug or two. If you still have several good glow plugs, you'll start but if you have a couple bad ones, those cylinders can make a lot of smoke. If you attatch a test light to your positive terminal of your battery and then touch the top of each glow plug, then it should light. If it doesn't then the plug has too much resistance. I can't remember this late at night if there was an intake air heater on the old old 7.3s but I know they had them on the new old 7.3s to cut down on white smoke on cold starts. Good luck with it.

While testing the glow plugs should I have the engine running or should I just have the key in the "On" spot?

You test the glow plugs with the engine off, and the key off. You remove all the glow plug connectors from the plugs, then attach a test light to the POSITIVE terminal on the battery (or use a meter to measure resistance connected to a GOOD ground), and touch each plug seperately, the light should light well, or the meter should read under 5 ohms.

As a side note, at -1 *F, you should expect the truck to smoke even when fully warmed up, but it will lessen as the engine warms, just not disappear completely.

Also, based on my working with these for the last 20 years, the starting limits for a number of bad glowplugs on a good engine are:

1 bad = 40*F, 2 bad = 55-65*F; 3bad = you'll likely never get it started even at 80*F, 4 bad = you will not get it started at 80*F.

Now, if your injectors are all great, and the starter basically new, and the batteries basically new, you can move these numbers colder some, but not more than about 10*F.

Thank you guys for all the help. This is my first year owning this truck and the 1st winter for driving.