GreenKing

Long story short, my 2002 3500 ctd was stolen a couple weeks ago. She was recovered the next night. She was running pretty low on fuel when she was taken, and whoever took her did me the favor of filling her up. Near as I can tell from my log book and trip meter, they put about 150 miles on her. Problem is, when I started her up after the cops finished processing her, she took a lot longer to crank then normal. Sounded good after started though, so started driving. Made it about 2 miles and complete loss of power, a bit of surging, then absolutely zero throttle response. Guy following me home said it was puking some smoke, although he couldn't remember what color.

I towed her home, opened the valve on the bottom of the filter housing and bumped the key. What came out looks to me to be off road diesel, which I'm guessing was stolen from an above ground farm storage tank. Around here anyways, those tanks are notorious for being full of water, rust, dirty dirty fuel. Might be okay for an old farmall, but not my truck apparently lol.

So, it's time to get my girl back on the road. Based on the codes already thrown, I know the sending unit is bad (sending unit-no change with miles). I'm not as much of a diesel tech as I'd like to be, so looking for advice on what you guys would do to get her going.

Few more details that might be important.
Fass ddrp approximately 12mo old
Midwest diesel vp44 approximately 12 mo old
Factory everything else
Truck has 105,000 miles

I'd love to not have to replace the vp44 again, and I'm hoping I don't since there are no codes thrown for it yet. I'm a little concerned with the injectors, assuming they have such small nozzles that any seriously dirty fuel like this might create havoc with them.

I do have the additional in-line filter FASS sent with the ddrp.

I'd appreciate any and all advice on it, this truck is my workhorse and with snow season fast approaching I cant afford for her to be down much longer.

DodgeRam24V

typically them above ground tanks if used a lot are clean because they go empty often.
if there were crud in the tank the filter should have caught it.
remove the filter and examine it closely.
the off road part will not hurt a VP or the injectors. water will though, the filter may have a clue to the puzzle.

NE frmhnd

If your truck won't run on bad fuel, how would you expect an old farmall to?

Change your filters and see what she does. You might end up wishing you could run off-road fuel once you get it back onto ULSD.

Did you call the officer that filed the report and report that it also had been refilled with off-road fuel? That's a big fine if you get caught with it.

SIXSLUG

I would start with changing out the Filters, as suggested, even cut one open to see what kind of condition it is in and make your decision on the rest of the repairs from there....

Any codes?

DodgeRam24V

does it have lift pump fuel pressure?
do you have good fuel flow to the VP?

snowjoker

Dump a bottle of K-100 in the tank , it will allow the water to mix with the fuel and burn it. Along with changing out the filter, and keep a couple on hand till that tankfull is empty..

rickf

First off, does it smell like normal fuel? I have to wonder why they abandoned the truck, most that are stolen are stripped for parts and never seen again or driven until crashed and burned. To find it whole and in running condition I would not even try to drive it until I COMPLETELY went over the entire vehicle including an oil change WITH analysis. Drain that fuel and get rid of it, you have NO idea what it is. As was already mentioned, cut the filter and see what is in it but I would get rid of that fuel. You might mention to the police about the fuel just to keep yourself covered.

Rick

dozer12216

Don't go crazy on making up problems. Change filters and see if can get running. The red fuel is o"k.
You have enough filters to clean the fuel if it dirty. DON'T put water absorbing additive. Engine does not like alcohol either.
go from this point if no runny.

GreenKing

changed out all the filters today, along with replacing the fuel tank complete with sending unit. Had a stored code for the sending unit, figured putting in the whole new tank with the new sender would be easiest way to get rid of the bad fuel.

lot of small black floaties in the fuel (which is definitely dyed diesel, btw) but didn't see signs of any other fluids. Filters had some of the black floaties on them, but not as bad as was expected. After changing all that, she started up and struggled for a bit as expected when the fuel systems have been opened up, but as soon as the air was gone she evened out!

Test drove her for a bit, no codes came back, she seems to run great like before, and right now just have my fingers crossed.