I think I know what I am going to be told but I want the wisdom of this great forum before I do anything else.

Quick history …. I just bought a 1994 12v with 84,000 miles. When I picked it up I drove it for about 2-3 miles and it started acting rally rough. I managed to get it home but it would die if I didn’t have my foot in it.l

The idle was/is at 500 rpm so I tried to stretch the spring in the overflow banjo… no help. While I was tinkering with it the Water in Fuel light came on so I drained the fuel from the bottom of the fuel filter and all seemed to be well ……..

I took it out tonight and went for a ride … (it was prob 20 degrees cooler tonight than it was Saturday) after the truck got up to operating temp it started running rough again and then it wouldn’t run unless I had my foot halfway to the floor and my foot on the brake to control speed.

Thinking it might be water again I drained more fuel … negative results.

I can get it to start if I hold the fuel pedal at ¾ throttle and it will run at 2k rpm for about 10 seconds and then start loosing power until it dies.

Thoughts comments?


BTW the fuel has a very DIFFERENT when its burning than my 2003 24v

 

The miles verses age, causes me to think bad fuel, clogged fuel filter,pre screen full of crud, Diesel will go bad when left to set for long periods and cause symptons you describe. I would suggest to change the fuel filter, clean the prescreen, and drain and fill with fresh fuel to start with. As far as the overflow, I would thro one of them at it too. Goodluck,,Rick

 

I hate to sound stupid .... how do you get the fuel filter off ... I looked at it the best I could with it getting dark and the engine was hot so I didnt dig a bunch before I gave up for the night.

 

You didn't menton anything about smoke, so I assume it is not smoking. Definitely change the filter and clean the pre filter/water seperator and try it again. You could possibly have an overflow valve going bad or a fuel lift pump bad. Also check the rubber fuel lines for signs of deterioration, replace them if there are any signs. Also check to make sure the shut down sol is full up. Good luck
The fuel filter comes off just like an oil filter, just harder to reach. I try to prefill the filter before installing, or crack the air bleed screw on top and push the primer until you get solid fuel out.

 

Yep on the fuel solnoid, Hemi is right they can and do stick half way. Might add a trick on the fuel filter, when taking off drain it and slip a gallon baggy over it after it is loose, and when going back do the same thing with the baggy over it as you install as the diesel won't splash over everything, and the pre filter is the most overlooked maintanance. Let us know...Goodluck,,Rick

 

Thanks for all your help guys ....

When you get on it it has White smoke .... very lean

 

White smoke is not a lean condition, it is unburnt fuel. Late injection timing will cause that. This model has that problem if the drive gear nut was torqued to the old spec, I would have to look it up to give the correct updated torque, but it is around 160 lbs. Someone on here may chime in with this spec or look it up under inj pump timing for your truck. Air in the fuel will cause this also, but you will have starting complaints when setting for a while. One more question, did your problem start imediately after winding the eng up under full power?

 

The truck dont seem to have full power even when its running .... Now remember I have been driving a 450+ HP CTD for the last year, so everything seems weak.

Last night I rode around the neighborhood for some time befor I ventured out. But it started after I hit it hard to see what it would do. Now I cant get it to start and stay running.

 

I'm guessing that your timing slipped, it is all to common and when it happens it will cause a bit of white smoke and some real poor running depending on how far it slipped. Seems like I just read a thread that somebody couldn't even get his truck going once it slipped. http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1994/18-10-94a.htm

Normally I would say there is a possibility of an air leak and the overflow valve causing it but an air leak of that scope would most likely be a fuel leak as well. If you want to test this cram some rags in the filler neck and let a few pounds of pressure build up in the tank from your air source, then go hunting for leaks.

Sometimes the WIFF sensor goes off if the motor has recently been wet, it takes a couple weeks for it to stop doing this.

 

As far as I'm concerned there is only one way to remove the filter used from '94-'96.
First remove the two nuts that hold the master cylinder to the brake booster. It doesn't look like it but you can then pull the entire master easily towards the driver's side giving yourself a ton of room. If you need even more room pull the big vacuum hose out of the booster. People who don't know this trick must have a real battle.

In your case I won't even mess with the filters till you drain the tank and add fresh fuel. In order to siphon the tank remove the fill hose from the tank in order to get a siphon hose around the roll over ball in the fill hose.

 

Like Kandgo and Infidel mentioned, wet, contaminated fuel sitting in there could have a BUNCH of "snot" growing inside. The prefilter/heater and the fuel filter will likely be full of it.
Question: when you drained the filter housing, did you get any water/dirt out???

After all, you said it ran well for 2-3 miles then started acting ugly.
I'm betting you're getting more "snot" from the tank every time you take her out...
After you drain it and put the fresh fuel in it, don't forget to give it a good shot of biocide to help keep it from growing any more "snot".

After you've experienced the "fun" filter situation that Infidel spoke about, you may appreciate that an old broom handle makes a nice fuel priming pump button "extension".. It sure saves the thumb and right arm, especially if you have to do this process several times to get all the crud out of the tank.
Pump the daylights out of it till you hear fuel flowing nicely through the overflow valve..

Hopefully this will show some results and then you can discern if it has a fuel or a slipped timing problem.

Good luck and keep us posted...

Keith

 

Thanks for all the help guys .. its raining so I sit inside looking out the window at it ...

I hope to get under her tomorrow and clean the prescreen and see what I got.............

 

Well I went in the rain and cleaned the Prescreen out …… I did not find what I thought I would …… very little junk at all but some junk non the less. I cleaned the filter with starter fluid rinsed with clean fuel and put it back together.

As before the truck ran but ran sluggish. The one thing that I can say is common between all three times that the truck has died on me is that it does the “staling” “dieing” what ever you want to call it after it has been run for a while and up to operating temp then shut off and restarted with in 20-30 min.

The white smoke drops drastically after the truck is up to full operating temp, but still pretty heavy smoke.

 

If its a warm climate truck I believe its a good idea to run some Biocide through the fuel system to get rid of the algea and such.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm confused... You "cleaned" the Fuel Filter Element??? or the pre-filter screen?
The filter media in the fuel filter is ultra FINE and not meant to be cleanable.
Put a brand new filter element in there and try again...
LOTS of white smoke you say?
If you can verify there's sufficient fuel pressure on the inlet to the P7100 to rule out fuel system pluggage, definitely take a look at what BoostCTD is saying about slipped timing.

Can you send some of that rain down here!!!

Keith