blue f-350

I have a 97 7.3 powerstroke, when i first start it when its cold it runs real rough and the check engine light comes on, then after about 20 seconds it smoothes out and the light goes off. After another 20 seconds its rough again, then smoothes back out. once the engine gets warmed up a little then it runs great . it just started doing this, i live in michigan so its fairly cold now. does any one have any ideas? the engine has 165,000 on it and its never been touched. thanks

turboED

I'm no diesel mechanic, but my boss's 4WD has got a 6.5turbo diesel in it, and that was running very rough when cold(like motor trying to get out of the bonnet rough) and we set the timing for the fuel injector back 2degs and that settled it down, lost abit of power when it was hot, but runs better when cold.. more to the point, is your fuel pump/injector pump tight?? bit funny for a diesel to do that otherwise.
hope this helps
mark

wallacelew

hello
it sounds like to me you may have a sticking or bad injector . thay will do that sometime. and the powerstrokes all had some of this type of problem.
sorry ,but its real hard to tell without hearing it myself but thats what you make it sound like it could be. o and if its runing blue smoke when its cold and doing this that also means an injector could be bad
hope its not this but it sounds like what it could be.