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Rough Cold Start

Big T said:
Over the winter here in Montana I had taken to plugging the coolant heater in the '99 K2500 Suburban as it was getting tough to start. Issue goes away when it's left plugged in. Now that spring has arrived, I still need to plug it in or it starts rough. I ordered a set of 60G glow plugs, but I'm wondering if my injectors are leaking. On the rough starts, only a couple cylinders light initially and then you can hear the others light almost one-by-one until they all light and the engine runs normal.

I don't know the exact mileage on the injectors. The prior owner had changed them, but I don't know the miles he did it at. I've put 75K miles on them. These injectors are the marine version and were purchased from Heath. If I need new injectors, where do I purchased them?
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I send my injectors in to get rebuilt and balanced. A long time ago I posted where I send them. I was very satisfied.

I ordered hard stainless washer head nuts from fastenal for the heat shields.

PT is on my flaceblook friends list. There are some 6.5 pages there with a lot of kids asking all the kid questions.

For the glow plugs on the passenger side, I used my little 1/4" drive Craftsman battery ratchet. I get in with the 3/8 to pop them loose and spin them out and back in with the battery ratchet and wobble extensions from Harbor Freight. then torque them. Seems like I could never get much swing with the 3/8 ratchets.

I use one of the glow plug spade connector pullers. Works pretty good.

I ohm test the glow plugs before installing.

I also remember the AC Delco glow plugs coming with 2 different size hexs. I don't if that was something that changed at some point in time or what.
 
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There are 2 socket very close to each other used when replacing GPs a while back: 3/8" and 10 mm.
IIRC, I took of the old one with 3/8" and install the new with 10 mm.
The new one was Bosch and old was stock ACD.
This was when Bosch was good, at least 13 years ago.
 
JMJNet said:
There are 2 socket very close to each other used when replacing GPs a while back: 3/8" and 10 mm.
IIRC, I took of the old one with 3/8" and install the new with 10 mm.
The new one was Bosch and old was stock ACD.
This was when Bosch was good, at least 13 years ago.
Click to expand...

I took out Bosch and they were 10mm. The AC Delcos are 10mm, but the height on the nut is taller which provides more to grab.

I am interest in the harness plug puller. Driver's side I just grab the plugs, but passenger side I pull the wire which is not ideal. That said, you are doing this very often.
 
Big T said:
I took out Bosch and they were 10mm. The AC Delcos are 10mm, but the height on the nut is taller which provides more to grab.

I am interest in the harness plug puller. Driver's side I just grab the plugs, but passenger side I pull the wire which is not ideal. That said, you are doing this very often.
Click to expand...

That is good to know that both are 10 mm now.
The good news is hopefully, you don't have to do it again for a long time.
 
Big T said:
I took out Bosch and they were 10mm. The AC Delcos are 10mm, but the height on the nut is taller which provides more to grab.

I am interest in the harness plug puller. Driver's side I just grab the plugs, but passenger side I pull the wire which is not ideal. That said, you are doing this very often.
Click to expand...
There is a part number and link to it on the site someplace. GMGuy posted it, I believe. It's been several years ago. I'm sure the number is still good for searching
 
OK, got the shields and harness in on both sides. The new PT Wiring harness has a red wire with a butt splice. The old harness had a black wire with a plug end. Is that where the red wire from the PT Wiring Harness goes?

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While doing this job, I think I found the source of my coolant leak. Both lines to the heater core were soaked. I would only get an occasional whif of coolant outside the cab, never inside. Got new hoses and will address tomorrow.
 
Looking at your last picture you have a big wire in that group with the rubber cap. Looks like the main battery power wire, nothing should be connected with it. My first picture shows the output side of the relay with 3 wires, one for each side of the glow plugs harness and the 3rd wire goes to the one you unplugged.
 
ak diesel driver said:
Looking at your last picture you have a big wire in that group with the rubber cap. Looks like the main battery power wire, nothing should be connected with it. My first picture shows the output side of the relay with 3 wires, one for each side of the glow plugs harness and the 3rd wire goes to the one you unplugged.
Click to expand...

The PT Wiring harness has separate ring terminals for each side as opposed to OEM which has all going into one and on that terminal. Both PT and OEM have a single wire (red in the case of PT) coming out of those ring terminals. In the case of PT with two sides, the red wire comes out of the passenger side ring terminal with an butt splice on it to be crimped to a wire. His instructions say to pull the old harness to find the wire, but then
speaks of two orange wires, so it’s confusing.

Anyway, the only other wire that went into the OEM harness was the one with the plug in it, so that has to be it.
 
Seems to me you should cut off the end from the old harness, crimp and heat shrink it onto the new harness. iirc they don’t all use the same connector, so that’s probably the hy he left it as the butt splice end.
 
Will L. said:
Seems to me you should cut off the end from the old harness, crimp and heat shrink it onto the new harness. iirc they don’t all use the same connector, so that’s probably the hy he left it as the butt splice end.
Click to expand...

I cut off the harness side of the plug and butt spliced to it, then connected the plug.

Just went out and tested it and the the WTS light does cycle properly. Still need to finish connecting the heater core hoses and the turbo oil drain hose before I can run it.
 
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If you are getting the form fitted heater hoses-they help in certain locations.
But imo when replacing just regular straight hose, buy the silicone hose. It is a little more expense lasts a lot longer.
 
OK test ran the truck and it's fine. However, two issues from all the work:

1) I somehow knocked out the coolant temp on the dash. Where do I trace this down?

2) I broke the air hose for the boost gauge and I need one of those brass compression fittings that goes over it. Where can I buy or order one?
 
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