plenzen wrote:I'm wondering if the pickup in the tank is your problem.
That was a gasser truck before yes ? Wondering if the diesel has taken its toll on things involved with that piece of gear. It certainly sounds like a demand starvation problem. It's "sucking" but can't get what it needs. I think perhaps your next step is to try and get the pickup out of the tank and have a look. Sadly. That may be a bit of a "project"
I thought of that also on the drive I just took, just before the drive I blew air from the front of the truck to the tank and I heard air and seen smog coming out the fill tube when I really gave it a lot of air, then I put the hose back on and pumped on the hand primer for a very long time without results, that got me thinking that maybe the actual fuel pump has an issue, so I added an electric fuel pump back by the tank and wired it into the key and finally got fuel, I buttoned everything up and took it for a drive, I got 10 miles and right after I hit the second up grade it started losing power again, I turned around and basically stopped on the freeway entrance till it started running properly again and entered the freeway, it was a slight down grade, I made it to the next upgrade and started loosing power really bad about half way up, I got to the top of the hill on the side of the freeway(break down lane), and stopped just before the next exit, popped the hood and the pre-filter was empty but it was still running, so I took the exit and filled it to the top with diesel at a Shell Station thinking maybe the pick up tube has a hole in it or it broke off part way up, the filter filled up and off I went, it appeared to be fine until the next up grade, I made it to the top and back down the other side but it was running real bad, I stopped at the bottom of the hill, popped the hood and the pre-filter was full, but I had been driving down hill for a half mile but it was still running like crap, I let it smooth out, took the next exit(a mile) and drove the back roads home without any issues.
OK, I added the electric fuel pump when I could not get the hand primer to pull the fuel from the tank, there was no resistance when I was pumping that hand primer, but I checked it after the pre-filter was full of fuel and there was resistance, I am wondering about the fuel pump now, but my thinking says the hoses after the fuel pump are not high pressure hoses, they are just rubber fuel hoses, so I am thinking that the high volume electric fuel pump should supply enough pressure to help the stock fuel pump as it is not a really high pressure pump otherwise it would blow them fuel lines up.
I am also wondering if the electric fuel pump can force the fuel by the stock fuel pump, I didn't bypass that pump.
I am running out of things to point at, it's likely not the filters, the hand pump didn't pull the fuel from the tank after I blew the line out so I started it and that didn't pull the fuel from the tank either, next I put one of the new cheap filters in the line and started it again and ran it for at least a minute without any fuel showing up in the cheap filter, that is when I added the electric fuel pump and I put back the better pre-filter.
I filled the tank to the top and lost power again at the next upgrade around 3/4 miles from the station.
If the tube had broke off it likely would not run for long, let alone driving it miles and miles on side streets without an issue.
I don't see any bubbles in the pre-filter after it is full, can't tell before it is full as it is not a totally clear filter.
I suppose I could put a 5 gallon gas can in the back of the truck and run a fuel line to it and put the end of the hose in the can and try driving it, but one of these times it's not going to make it back home.
This engine never dies, it just loses power and I keep it just above idle to make sure it doesn't die/stall when not running properly, after it smooths out/doesn't sound funny I start driving it again.
I opened all the injection lines to see if any of them didn't change the idle, they all effected the idle the same.
Can the injection pump be the cause of this?