1993 ford f250 7.3 liter diesel starting problems

Bad glow plugs or timer relay.

I think you nailed it with the amount of time you glow plug light. It should stay on until you engage or it should be timed to stay on longer.

You should never use starter fluid when the glow plugs are hooked up. It can cause severe engine damage. You probably need to replace all the glow plugs and the glow plug controller.

SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED A NEW GLOW PLUG CONTROLER

Are you waiting after turning ignition key on before actually moving key to start position? My diesel I turn key to 1st position;bells and lights;if engine is cold an amber light that looks like a lamp filiment comes on...wait until that light goes out before engaging the starter.

This engine 'loves' glow plugs! One goes and the others try to handle the amps. Change them and you will have no probs! Other than that, I feel this is about the best diesel truck made!

The glow plugs are essential to starting your motor.Each time one fails,the rest get too much power causing them to fail,snowball effect.If the glow plug does not go to ground with an ohmmeter put to the the wire terminal and then to the block it is no good.If they check to be good then you likely need the relay that controls them,It's near the fuel filter,under the the cover that can easily be removed by taking off a few 10mm nuts.Check the plugs with the wires removed.Also a known problem has bee the valve cover gaskets,which have the printed circuit built into them for the injectors,popping of the valve covers and doing a visual inspection will show the obvious.

check glow plugs wait a little longer beforecranking after light has gone out

The relay should cost about $35-45. A common Ford Starter relay can be used in place of the official glow plug relay. All that is required is a relay with terminals that have 5/16 or 3/8 terminals and can carry about 150-200 amps. When all 8 glow plugs turn on, it draws about 150 amps is all. There are two relays for the 7.3 diesel. One energizes the glow plugs and the other energizes a heating element in the air intake. That one is used to help eliminate white smoke while warming up and is turned on and off by the engine computer. It is usually only called for when the temperature is 20 degrees F or lower.
Otherwise only the glow plug relay works.

HAd the same problem turned out to be the fuel tank selector vlv not sealing off m/t tank on return line so when truck sat cold fuel would drain off injectors making me reprime injectors (airbound)
found this by dumb luck I got a hole punched in front tank (muddin )so I removed it and ran off back tank I observed fuel draining out unhooked return line next morning
replaced valve (and tank) problem went away
Disected old vlv (broken O-Ring)

by the way quick way to ck glow plugs ,What's your voltmeter on your dash doing when wait to start just goes out -If it's bouncing There workin