i ran my 04.5 out of fuel today... not paying attention to my gauge i put around 6 gals into the tank poped the fuel filter canister and cranked it 2 twice and let it set for 30 secs and tryed it again a few times... this is per the owners manual it states crank it let it set for a 25 secs so the pump will run then try again... ive let to get it started... any other ideas ?


any help is thanked


oh and its bone stock truck with 215k miles... thanks

 

Can you hear the fuel pump run when you bump the starter once? If not you probaly have a bad pump. If the pump is on the fuel filter housing then your better off replacing it with the retrofit pump. Fuel pump is moved to the fuel tank. If under 100k on truck should be covered by Cummins engine warranty.

 

i hear it kick on and buzz for around 30 secs

 

If there's fuel in the filter bowl the only thing left to do is crank it until it fires. It's painful to hold the starter for a full 15 seconds, but that's sometimes what it takes. Just make sure you give it time to cool down between attempts if it takes more than once to get it going.

 

yeah... looks like it will take 2 people... waiting for my dad to get off work and help me... hopefully the pump wont get killed in the attempt...

 

Should be able to do it yourself. Just pop the filter cover and look in the bowl for fuel. If you have any diesel around you can top off the canister, but the lift pump should fill it if you don't. If there's no fuel, turn the key to run and wait for the lift-pump to shut off, then check the bowl again. If there isn't any new fuel you've got a restriction on the low pressure side; either a bad lift pump or a block in the line (possibly against the screen in the fuel tank). Once you get the fuel in the filter bowl and it's all screwed back together it's a simple matter of cranking the starter for 15 seconds and then waiting 2 minutes before you try it again. If you've removed your grid heater you could try a quick shot of ether, but it's really not necessary and may cause as many problems as it fixes. The good news is that you don't have to crack any injector lines as the engine is self-bleeding.

 

i filled the filter canister up and tryed cranking for 15 secs then waited.. then tryed again not running fuel still in canister

 

If the fuel level is staying constant in the filter housing, it means your lift pump is working (good thing), or you've got a blockage between the filter and the CP3 (not very likely).

It will likely take at least 3 tries before you get anything, and then it'll sputter and die a few more times before it finally purges all the air out of the system.

 

so i dumped around 10 more gals into it and no help... canister stayed full tried like 6 tries ... then said the hell with it.. called AAA to tow it home.. working on it being 1 mile ish from home sucks.. the driver grabbed a can of enither and shot it into the intake and it fired right up idle normal after around 20 secs.. i was afraid to grab a can and try myself becuse the owners manual says no to but well being in AAA hands i thought worse case he blew it up and i make a claim and get it fixed on them. lol... but all seems well... thanks for the advice.

 

Biggest problem with ether is that it can ignite while it's still in your intake manifold or the air plenum, and when that happens it's a loud explosion and pieces go flying. If you disable the intake air heater it won't happen and some folks have gotten away with just being lucky for awhile, but I've seen the results and they aren't pretty.

The good news though is it worked for you, and you're up and running again. I can't imagine there's any long term negative effect to running out of fuel or using a shot of ether, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

Just tempory fix I would think. You most likely have excessive return flow from injector.