What would happen if I were to run out of fuel in my 7.3? Say I shut it off as soon as I detected sputtering or whatever. What would I have to do (if anything) to get it running again?

 

I made that dumb mistake before with a working fuel gauge.
I put some diesel in the tank took it to the nearest fuel station and added some Diesel Kleen (optional) to help clean the injectors from whatever might have been sucked up from the bottom of the tank then topped her off. Nothing out of the norm and back on the road.

 

When you put fuel back in the tank and turn on the key, the fuel pump will end up pushing a lot of air into the lines from the fuel bowl. It will run crappy for 10-50 miles and then smooth out when the air is all gone. Before trying to start it up take the lid off the fuel bowl and fill it with fuel to reduce the time of no fuel to the injectors.

 

I heard it could require major "surgery". Re-priming the injectors and such. An extensive and expensive procedure!

 

I believe that would be for a mechanical fuel pump.

 

Just cycle the key several times to push fuel back into the system. then fire it up and run the **** out of it and all is good.

 

Nothing will happen...

On a Superduty...

Fill truck with fuel.

Turn key and listen for fuel pump. It will turn off in 10-12 seconds, cycle key and listen again... Do this three or four times and crank.

Truck will fire right up.

OBS trucks use a mechanical fuel pump, bit more hard on the starter but...

OBS trucks I would fill the fuel bowl, crank for 10-12 seconds, fill the bowl again and crank 15-20 seconds... It should fire up at this point.

 

These trucks self prime.

 

But there will be some left over air in the system. You may or may not notice some injector knock until it clears out, but it will start and run just fine.

 

Excellent! Whenever I get a new truck (2001 F-350) I like to run out of fuel to see where the gas gauge goes but had heard horror stories about running a diesel dry.
Thanks all. I'll keep a can handy!

 

I wouldn't recommend running the truck out of fuel cause you could suck up some crud from the bottom of the tank and clog an injector. Just not a good idea in my mind.

 

Not sure I agree with that, the pickup is always picking up from the bottom of the tank regardless of the fuel level and any crud would get trapped in the filter.

 

except for the part about running out of fuel, I agree that is a bad idea.

 

About 10 years ago when I was looking at the SD in my signature it was low on fuel. I wanted to take it for a test drive and it died on the way to the fuel station to get some fuel. It was running on fumes. We coasted into the station and the salesman put fuel in it. After a couple of tries, it fired right up and we went on the test drive. I ended up buying the truck.