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Old 11-11-2018, 07:54 AM   #21
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No block heater??? 7.3?? I would look very carefully again for a cord with a three prong male end 120vac plug somewhere near the bottom right area of the radiator on the driver side. It may be tucked up with some other things. Look up from under the front of the van.

The cord comes off of the block heater right above the oil filter and runs down the top of the driver side frame rail. It doesn't go into a harness that I know of. The end with the plug on it should go through the core support somewhere between the radiator and driver side headlight. But it may have been rerouted by a prior owner. Still, the cord starts in the same place which is by the oil filter.

It would be quite rare to not have one.

Black smoke - the only time our 7.3 has blown black smoke is when the DP Tuner was engaged and I was accelerating. Pretty much never use the DP Tuner anymore. I have never had any smoke at start up even when around zero F.

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Old 11-11-2018, 09:56 AM   #22
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Originally Posted by maxswasser View Post
Anyone know how many amps the superduty alternators are?

I just bought 130amp for my 7.3, but their is a 165amp ambulance option available.


My 1996 7.3 E350 came from the factory with 2 batteries in the engine compartment. Does yours have 1 battery or 2?
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Old 11-11-2018, 10:46 AM   #23
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Originally Posted by TomsBeast View Post
My 1996 7.3 E350 came from the factory with 2 batteries in the engine compartment. Does yours have 1 battery or 2?
I’d like to see a pic of your engine bay with 2 bigass batteries in it. I’ve never heard of any year van that had both batteries in the bay. Did all 96’s come that way?

Also my block heater plug was routed into the hole in the bumper when I got it and just hangs out in there resting on the plastic splash plate.
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Old 11-11-2018, 04:33 PM   #24
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I never laugh at anyone just because they don't have experience yet. We all start somewhere.

I would still suggest checking your glow plugs, when you can, one or more bad ones will make it start hard and smoke more when cold. I don't know enough about the 7.3 to know if it has a warning light for a burned out plug. On my Merc the only way to know was to pull the connector and use an ohmmeter on each pin.
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Old 11-12-2018, 01:49 PM   #25
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I’d like to see a pic of your engine bay with 2 bigass batteries in it. I’ve never heard of any year van that had both batteries in the bay. Did all 96’s come that way?

.

All diesel vans came that way until '97 I believe or whenever the dash changed. The vans that had dual batteries under the hood had smaller batteries tho. Not the group 65 size batteries found in the late model diesel vans. Starting in '97, there was a group 65 battery under the hood and another slightly smaller battery on the passenger frame rail for the 7.3. When the 6.0 came out in'04, both batteries were moved to the frame rails.
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Old 11-12-2018, 03:17 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by TomsBeast View Post
I just bought 130amp for my 7.3, but their is a 165amp ambulance option available.


My 1996 7.3 E350 came from the factory with 2 batteries in the engine compartment. Does yours have 1 battery or 2?

Two Batteries, one tucked underneath the body on the passenger side.
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Old 11-12-2018, 03:21 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by 1der View Post
No block heater??? 7.3?? I would look very carefully again for a cord with a three prong male end 120vac plug somewhere near the bottom right area of the radiator on the driver side. It may be tucked up with some other things. Look up from under the front of the van.

The cord comes off of the block heater right above the oil filter and runs down the top of the driver side frame rail. It doesn't go into a harness that I know of. The end with the plug on it should go through the core support somewhere between the radiator and driver side headlight. But it may have been rerouted by a prior owner. Still, the cord starts in the same place which is by the oil filter.

It would be quite rare to not have one.

Black smoke - the only time our 7.3 has blown black smoke is when the DP Tuner was engaged and I was accelerating. Pretty much never use the DP Tuner anymore. I have never had any smoke at start up even when around zero F.
I didn't look particularly hard for the block heater, I just don't park it in a place where I could plug it in unless times really were desperate. Was your block heater plugged in whenever it was cold? After I drove it a few times and left it parked overnight, it would still put out a bit of black smoke when I turned it on at ~25degrees - enough to turn the snow a bit black. That makes me want to check my glow plugs. Could anyone point me towards a good tutorial?
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Old 11-13-2018, 08:54 AM   #28
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Originally Posted by shenrie View Post
I’d like to see a pic of your engine bay with 2 bigass batteries in it. I’ve never heard of any year van that had both batteries in the bay. Did all 96’s come that way?

Also my block heater plug was routed into the hole in the bumper when I got it and just hangs out in there resting on the plastic splash plate.
Factory stuff. Two different batteries though, the one Ford chose for the passenger side is a group 50, and special order through Napa and Interstate.
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Old 11-13-2018, 09:13 AM   #29
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interesting. thanks for the replies gents.
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Old 11-13-2018, 07:44 PM   #30
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The dealer cooked my batteries doing this when I had it in for some warranty issues...driving into the bay, then back out to the lot, back to the bay, back to the lot, etc... Completely dead when I went to pick it up and my batteries never recovered. Of course, it wasn't their fault, though.
That makes sense. FWIW, I've noticed our BMW dealer always has the diesels hooked up to chargers when in the bays. I'm not sure if they just do this with all vehicles, or just the diesels, but perhaps they are doing something correctly there.
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