fourthandgoal

well, took some PB blaster to it and still no luck. Wasted the entire day on one damned bolt. Saturated it with the pb and gonna let it sit overnight.

Talk about a ridiculous thing to hold up progress.

TheWaterman1000

Are you talking about the fuel lift pump outlet to the pre heater/filter?

fourthandgoal

no, the low pressure supply line to the fuel filter. it's a steel line that fixes to the LP with a 14mm adapter nut (see img at end of last page that 9812vram posted)

TheWaterman1000

Ok.. Here's my take. Lift pump intake is from the fuel tank, the outlet to the pre heater/filter, then the outlet from the pre heater/filter to the fuel filter. Am I missing something? That's why I needed to down size the LP 1/2" outlet to the fuel filter.

9812vram

Yep, you're missin' something. This should straighten you out...

fourthandgoal

welp, no go. got the LP swapped out finally and (after also removing the pre-heater, replacing the OFV and fuel solenoid relay) it still won't start. Cracked the OFV again while priming with the new LP and still nothing.

It's really acting like there's just no fuel. I know there's roughly ten gallons in the tank, it's pointed slightly nose-down, and given that it was running just fine before being parked over a cold night (below 32 degrees), I'm wondering if the fuel's not gelled up or there's something clogging the line.

I'm really in a bind here but I'm out of time to work on it this trip. I suppose next time I'll come back prepared to drop/clean the tank...

9812vram

Did you bleed the fuel system after changing the pump? Could be air in the lines now after swapping pumps. May take a lot of pumping to get it out with only 10 gallons in the tank. Can you pressurize the tank with air? (air nozzle and a rag) Remove the inlet line banjo on the filter and pressurize the tank or pump the primer till fuel comes out. I say remove because if there's air in the lines the pump needs as much help as it can get - meaning 0 restriction. Then tighten it and repeat with the OFV loose or removed. Gelling is usually more of an issue in the filters rather than the lines. Seems like if the primer on the old pump was pumping fuel, this one should too. Know what I mean? If it's gelled now, it would have been gelled then too....
#2 diesel shouldn't gell 'till around -10 anyways

TheWaterman1000

Woops. Your right 9812vram. Total brain fart... I was a little tramatized when I had to yank the pre heater/filter. It was a pain... I went and looked at it again today. I had to adapt the Inlet to 1/2" size to the LP. I decided to give that a try to see if It would work. So far it is. As to the comment you made. If you can't pressurize the tank with air, then use a broom hand or like to pump the primer after you remove (or very loose) the bleed screw on the filter. I would still plumb a can of diesel into the intake off the tank and see if this will start after priming. Be careful when the truck starts It will pump it all into the fuel tank. Or try and spray some WD-40 into the turbo intake and see if the truck will start and run with some spraying. Mine had a big fit after the work I did. Would not start. Until I bleed all the air out. It's a step from each point. Fuel out the filter bleed screw, Crack the fuel inlet into the IP, if fuel, then crack all DV's to make sure fuel is coming out each, then crack the fuel IP lines at the injector and bump the engine to see if you can get fuel out the front 3-4 injector's. If you can get the truck running it will bleed the rest out. In the end I found out my fuel line's (inlet/pickup) was sucking major air with fuel filling the inside frame rail. One trick I did was with a fuel can plumbed into the fuel line with a bulb on the inlet side. It helped to prime the system until I was able to get the truck to fire up. If the truck want's to run with some WD-40. Then I would lean toward fuel/air problems.

I think this was said before. Checked the fuel shut off solenoid? Make sure It's all the way up and the fuel cut off lever Is all the way toward the front of the truck. If you have to take the arm off, do so and hold the fuel lever In the open with spring, wire or string.

fourthandgoal

^^I did not bleed the system fully, and though when I loosened the OFV and manually pumped it I didn't get any fuel coming out, I suppose it could have just taken more. I didn't bother cracking the injectors because I didn't see fuel at the OFV. Before dropping the tank next time I'll try pressurizing the tank and bleeding more thoroughly. I'll kick myself if it just didn't start because I was too impatient with it afterwards...

^Is loosening the filter bleed screw tantamount to popping off the inlet banjo? That thing is a bear to get to for a guy with big hands. That's good info though, I need to just bleed each stop step-by-step until I know I'm getting fuel to the injectors. I hate now that I didn't try that, I figured just cranking it a bunch would show SOME sign of life (i.e. trying to catch for a rev or few) at which point I'd bleed at the injectors to help it along.

The solenoid needs to be replaced but I can lift it manually each time for now, and I can see that the rack isn't parked. I'm hesitant to shoot wd40 into my turbo, I've had the stuff gunk up some delicate parts before. I pretty much only use it for rusty bolts now.


Also, for some reason the LP I got was a little different than the stock one and the rubber elbow that runs from the prefilter to the LP is under a lot of stress now due to an increase in angle. I want to replace that, can I just use any 1/2" diesel-rated hose (since that's not a high-pressure line)?

9812vram

You're right, if there's no fuel at the OFV, don't worry about cracking the injectors yet.

Bleed screw (or outlet banjo) is the best place to bleed the filter. I suggested the inlet only because if the filter is full of air it will take 50 pumps or more to get the air out. That's a lot of pumping if you think you might not be getting fuel up to the lift pump.... If the inlet line is off, you'll know much much sooner. So long as you know it takes a lot of pumping, the bleed screw's just fine, or filter outlet banjo, whatever works for ya. Cranking the engine works to a degree, but it takes a lot of cranking as the lift pump plunger only gets hit once for every complete engine revolution. It's a bit tough on the old starter and batteries.
I've always had best results bleeding each component one at a time.

If you had more time, I'd recommend getting 1/2" marine grade diesel line from Larry B's for that short piece, but since time is an issue here, yes any old 1/2" diesel hose will work fine. I hope some twit burger didn't sell you a Chineeze pump...
BTW, I thought you bypassed the fuel heater?

fourthandgoal

Ah, that makes sense. I just thought maybe there was another bleed screw independent of the filter outlet that I didn't know about.

I had to leave the truck again last night at sundown so I've got time to order some more parts before I head back out there after the holiday. If I have a Chinese pump is my truck gonna blow up and burn to the ground with me and my dog inside?

And I did remove the fuel heater...does that change anything?

9812vram

mmmmmm....YEP!!! lol j/k Just seems that the Chinese one's don't last, that's all. Typical. Oh, and I just wondered 'cause of the fitment issue. I made sure mine said Carter on it. Aaaahhh what the heck, it's probably made in China too.

How did you remove the heater? Just took the element out? I cut mine off the bracket and threw it in the bush lol.... Never looked inside it. Did the wires stay inside? Common air leak is at the heater plug.... Also if you had it apart, the gasket may possibly be leaking now. That could air lock the pump....

fourthandgoal

Naw I didn't check the manufacturer, I just picked it up from the good ol' boys at the cummins shop where I live. It was pretty cheap though, ~$75 if I remember correctly...I s'pose that should have been a clue.

To remove the heater I dropped the filter bowl and stuck an 8mm allen wrench up into the center of the heater chassis and loosened the threaded adapter that holds it in place. Chucked the heater and adapter and just screwed the bowl directly back under the filter housing, no wires inside (though the heater connect is still dangling in the bay). I cleaned and oiled the gasket before replacing, and I just cleaned/replaced the prefilter/gasket a few months ago so it's still in good shape.

9812vram

AAAHHH ok now I see what you did (thanks to Joe G's pics). When you said you bypassed it I just assumed you'd fed the tank supply right into the pump completely eliminating the pre-heater assembly all together.

So that whole pre-heater bowl is full of air now as well as your fuel lines back to the tank. Fuel pumps don't like to pump air, so it's probably going to take LOTS of pumping to get that air outa there. Pressurizing the tank with the filter bleed screw off is likely faster. Or pump the primer while pressurizing the tank if you have a gopher.
Keep in mind that when you pressurize the tank, fuel flows both up the supply line to the Pre-heater as well as backwards through the return line to the OFV. So keep the OFV tight during the pressurizing so you don't push air backwards into the IP.

fourthandgoal

well I'll be damned. It never even occurred to me that the prefilter unit was dry and that priming manually likely wasn't doing much of anything. sonofab, that's so obvious it makes me want to spit.