'97 had loss of power, now no start

Michigan F350 · Oct 22, 2011

My dad has been using my '97 for the last couple months since i bought a new truck and today he hopped in it to run to town to get some steel and it didnt want to start. It cranked and cranked and wouldnt start, it was putting out a blueish smoke and he said it had a check engine light on. Well he gave it a sniff of either and it started, he told me he has been having to do that every so often, even though I told him not to use either on it. After he got it started and left he called me saying that it had absolutely no power, he said that he had the pedal to the floor and it took him about a mile to get to 40 mph. It died on him when he was in town and while he was waiting for me to get there to tow him home, he called our local International dealer and they told him that it sounded like the fuel shutoff solenoid was bad. Well we got it home and all it wants to do is crank and crank, while its cranking its putting out the blue colored smoke.

What do you guys think it is? Could it be the fuel shutoff solenoid or did the CPS go bad again? I wasnt doing the cranking so I dont know if the tach was moving or not and it had a new CPS put in last spring.

The truck is completely stock except the a napa filter and straight piped exhaust and has about 270,000 miles on it. Sorry for the long post I'm just trying to get everything in one post. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom S · Oct 22, 2011

Well there is no fuel shut off solenoid for one. The check engine light holds some clue if you can get a way to read it which is where I would start along with a visual inspection. The next one I would do is see if it had fuel pressure and see if it is building HP oil 500psi min. Also a Buzz test.