No start, air in fuel

[kassim503]

The ole trusty 1009 has been throwing a fit latley. I was chugging home after doing a little 4 wheeling where throttle was liberally applied, and it started misfiring, losing power and eventually stalled. I thought I ran out of gas, so I put in two gallons there, it starts up and kinda ran so I hammered it home. (all of 300 feet) Got in the truck the next day and had a no start, bled fuel from filter head and injector lines, started and drove great for about 4 miles and stalled out on me out of nowhere.

From there I thought it ran out of gas, so I put another two gallons in, bled it, still had the same problems. Put another six gallons in it, been bleeding it out in my free time for a few dayss, finally got a decent stream of fuel out of the injectors and it started, ran, but then it started surging pretty bad, like almost stalling to 3000 rpm level of surging. Gave it a little bit of throttle and it steadied out, put it in reverse and got no power and stalled the moment I backed off the gas.

It kinda sounds like a govenor problem, Im getting pressurized fuel going into the injection pump, and it appears to be air free as well, whats going on here?

 

[doghead]

Stop putting gas in it!

It's a diesel , and the pedal to the right of the brake is the throttle pedal(not the gas pedal).

 

[hemichallenger]

It could be getting air before the injection pump. Your govenor would not let air in the system. If you can hook up an other way for it to get fuel to the transfer pump. You can also put a gauge between the transfer pump and injection pump if possable to make sure it is getting fuel when it quits.

 

[texasdocholliday]

have you already gotten rid of the check valve in the fuel filter mount.......mine was sucking air.......threw away the switch and filled the hole with jb weld....no more problems.

 

[ranchhopper]

After it stalls let it sit for 30 seconds or so then try to start it.If it starts then stalls again its the fuel return line being restricted at the check valve going into the top of the IP.

 

[kassim503]

Hey guys, thanks for the great tips. Havnt been around this in a while, but today I finally got around to trying it again. To answer some questions, im sure some kind of diesel is in the tank, my fuel filter head has been replaced with a spin on, and I blew the return line out with a little compressed air. There may be a bad hose going from line to tank, but I would prefer to at least see foamy air come out of the line before wasting time to drop the tank.

I put on a clear section of vinyl tubing where the return line begins at the IP to the fuel line right below it and noticed I was not pushing a very significant amount of fuel regardless of key on or off. Mabye after a minutes worth of cranking It would fill the line up about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch. Took the fuel cap off and it did the same thing. There is pressure and fuel coming out of the filter and into the IP. I cracked 5 lines, two had a great stream, 2 had a semi good stream with no air and 1 didnt pump very much of anything, mabye a dribble here and there.

Later I may attempt to take the clear tubing and have it empty into a bottle, and mabye clean the check valve at the top of the IP, which should still be clean from the one time I cleaned it a short while ago.

 

[kassim503]

Re-routed the return line into a empty bottle and had no stream come out of it until I started to loosen the fitting on top of the check valve and it would occasionally spray air and fuel, so I removed the big fitting with the plastic check cone and cleaned that with some carb cleaner, along with spraying it down into the hole where there is this little pin looking thing (didnt wanna break something by pulling it out). The stream started to get a little better, but I feel like its just not quite what it should be. Should I go ahead and attempt to remove the pin under the return line check valve?

Btw- I got a bumpa- dee- thump out of it, the most its given me in a while

 

[kassim503]

When I keep cranking it it gives me short burps of spooling up and stalling after. The good news is the burps are getting longer in interval and eaiser to start every time. Mabye the filter lost prime or something?

 

[kassim503]

So I got it running by feathering the throttle and lightly applying glow after the first few chugs, the truck kept surging and running on. Immediately shot to the gas station to put in some diesel, in less than 5 dollars worth the filler neck filled with foam and the vent tube started to slosh out more fuel. At the same time the truck started surging and revving pretty decently, hopped in and booked it back home. Power on acceleration was about the same but putting it into neutral at any time resulted in a really high idle (near redline). Coolant temp was a little higher than normal ~180 instead of ~165, probably attributed to the hard driving and how hard it was running on the entire time. Got back to the house where it stalled in its parking spot after about a minute of idling, and the return line was pumping a stream of air bubbles.

Mabye a damaged fuel line or worn out hose on the suction side? Is it reccomended to pressurize the tank using the little tank drain line on the pass side of vehicle? And to about what pressure. Ted Korpi's advice on running it on a bottle would have been good to follow now wouldnt it have

 

[kassim503]

Well, found a leak at the fuel hose that goes into the inlet on the lift pump. Replaced hose, waiting for it to prime up and mabye itll be cruising time? What is the fastest way to purge the low pressure lines? Pink wire on or off?

 

[kassim503]

All better! Re-charged the batteries, primed it all out, smoked it up and it runs like a top! Upon closer inspection, the hose at a hose clamp 1 size too big on the part where it leaked. That + a degrading hose probably lead to its early demise. Thanks for all the great replies!