leadvilleram

Here's the situation: It was approx 10 degrees F, plugged in for 3 hours, started right up, idled for about 10 min. while I was loading some tools, ect to go to a warm garage to see why my brakes need to be bled again...another story. I was driving for 5-6 minutes to get some DOT 3, and she just died on me driving through town @ 25 mph. It seemed like someone slowly closed a clamp down on the fuel line over about 20 seconds with decreasing power tll it just died. I'm using winter diesel. I got it pulled to a warm location, let it sit for 3 hours, Drained the filter, all liquid, no gel or wax. I added some Liquid Muscle just to be sure. After draining the filter, we cranked the engine for a few seconds with a cup under the fuel filter with seperator pulled and some fuel came out right away. I assume lift pump is OK...I have been trying to search, but the function is not working on the site right now. Only thing I have found sifting through threads, FAQ and Wiki are related to the fuel cut solenoid on the IP. Anything else to look at? It had no symptoms up until this point-no hard starting issues or lack of shutdown. It's cold outside right now, so I'm killing time until the sun gets going! Thanks for any help.

Crossy's son

Did you losen the injector lines and crank it? If you see fuel then your good. this will get any air out of the lines. you may have a slow leak in your fuel system whether its between the tank and the lift pump or between lift pump and the IP.

leadvilleram

I'll check that. I know it's time for a fuel psi gauge. Any other components to look at? I had a guy tell me there was no whine from the fuel pump...to my knowledge, there is a lift pump on the block, and the IP...there is no electric pump in the tank is there? Only the sending unit for fuel gauge is in the tank.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
This may be a good one for the wiki once I sort it out...no start issues for the 1st gen. followed by a list of things to check and test.

wannadiesel

No electric pump.

It sounds like the filter got plugged with wax. Put a new filter on it.

leadvilleram

yup, gonna head out and pull the fuel cut solenoid first, then on to the filter if that doesn't work. The piece with the 2 wires connected that the filter screws onto is turning when I go to loosen the filter. What is that? There is a tiny bit of fuel residue on the outside of the filter from that area too so I have a seal to replace there. Even with the wires disconnected, the connection socket hits the head and won't allow it to spin around all the way, and it seems difficult to hold/plastic/fragile, so I need to get it and the filter out together to seperate the filter from it. Does that make sense?

BearKiller

Did you actually remove the filter, or just drain off the bottom ??

A gelled or blocked filter will still drain fuel from the bottom.

Your situation reads like a typical filter stopping-up case, most likely due to the fuel waxing up, considering the temperatures.



What is "Liquid Muscle" ??

I never heard of it before.

leadvilleram

Only drained it. I'm going to bundle up and go pull that filter, I have a new one ready to go.

Liquid Muscle is a soy based winter additive. My dad uses it in his Peterbuilt/Detroit and gave me a bottle to try. You can supposedly fill a gelled filter with it and start it up. Only in an emergency would I try that though. He lives in eastern SD, where windchills can be -30 for weeks. Swears by it.

http://www.fppf.com/liquidmuscle/liquid_muscle.asp

wannadiesel

Fuel heater is stuck to the filter. Hold the heater carefully and turn the filter, there is not room to spin the heater/filter off as a unit. Once you get the filter off, tighten the filter spud and hopefully you won't have a leak up on the fuel heater. A new fuel heater gasket would be a good idea since it's leaking already.

Benjamin b2

definetly sounds like a waxed filter, or iced up, same thing happened to me, drivin on cheep fuel, passin a powerjoke at 70 on the freeway, then half power, pulled over and she died, put a new filter in half way full of anti gel, blead the system including injectors, fired right off. cold weather, diesel can gel at 35 degrees F. keep that in mind

97catintenn

That does sound exactly what happens when your systems gels over. Mine has done it a few times here in Tennessee when the temp is around 18f. Sometimes it lets get a few miles down the road, and shuts down. I'm older and wiser and now, I just keep it treated in the winter.

leadvilleram

Ah yes, with age comes wisdom. The fuel I dumped from the old filter had lots of wax visibly suspended in it, so I changed it out, added some treatment, bled air from filter, no go. Oh yeah, bleed those injector lines and bam! She stuttered and coughed for a few seconds and off we go like nothing ever happened. I now have a very firm understanding of how the fuel system works. Learning is fun, I'm just glad it happened close to home. It's unusual to gel up around here, as most stations have switched to winter diesel by mid-october at this altitude. I've never treated fuel in this truck, even with -0 temps. Oh well, I guess I'll be treating from now on.Time for some.

leadvilleram

I bet that was emberassing, though the powersmoke knew that was his only chance!

Benjamin b2

yeh it was, lesson learned though, treat your diesel wheather its winterized or not. antigel is cheap compared to repetitive filter installs.

BearKiller

The ULSD fuel is much more susceptible to gelling than the old fuel, and does so at much warmer temperatures.

Also, at around 15*, ULSD does what the industry calls "wax drop-out" where the parrifin structure within the fuel just drops out of suspension, thus clogging wherever it happens to be.


ULSD must be much warmer to re-constitute itself after gelling, above 50* in most cases; whereas, the old fuel would begin to re-establish itself at around freezing.


Antigel companies are still trying to find a formula that works reliably with ULSD.