About 6 months ago I bought my first diesel. It's a 96 F-350 7.3 with only 106,000 miles. This truck had been sitting a couple of years so one of the first things I did was run KleenDiesel through it. The fuel transfer valve did not work at this time so I had front tank only. About a month latter the engine light came on while in a parking lot and the engine ran very rough for about 2 seconds and would shut off. Turn the switch off and restart and the same thing. Changed pump and filter and still did the same thing but finally got to where it would run longer. Was finally able to get it home after quitting many times on the way. Next day went over what little I knew and couldn't find anything. Had some more fuel treatment in the bed and thought what the heck and poured some in. Sure enough it ran fine. For the first couple of months it would idle rough sometimes but that finally went away. Without fuel treatment the engine would not run. Figureing that was something in my tank I FINALLY got around to dropping it and did find a fair amount of trash in it. During this I decided to see what was wrong with that fuel valve. Guess what? Started working. Guess it was gummed up. Put tank back on and filled both tanks. Put fuel treatment in rear tank only figureing it needs cleaning. Truck ran fine until I switched to the untreated front tank. Started cutting out. Any ideas on this? Hope it's something simple and appreciate all the help you can offer.

 

Did you do anything with the 2+ year old oil?

 

Sitting that long, I would rebuild the fuel bowl and replace the fuel filter, at least replace the filter. Have you checked the resistance of the glow plugs ? Is the glow plug relay in working order ?

Try searching the forum at the top of the page for answers. Solved many problems for myself and have learned allot about maintenance by using it among other things LOL.

Welcome to FTE ! Great bunch here with mucho knowledge.

 

Oh yes. Gave the truck a complete routine going over the first week I had it.

 

+1 on what Redman said. He pisses excellence......lol

 

The very next morning after I bought it it wouldn't start. The glow plug relay was bad and was replaced.

 

I did try a search. Didn't find anything close to my problem.

 

Any fuel leaks in the engine valley ? What is your fuel pressure ?. 60 - 70 psi is what you want.

 

No leaks. No idea on pressure. Fuel bowl? Could there be something in there maybe?

 

I say the engine runs fine with treatment in the tank but this is the first diesel I've ever drove. To me it seems weak. Is this normal for this engine?

 

So it runs fine on the rear tank but not the front?

 

Runs fine on the front tank as long as there is treatment in there. Just got rear tank working and haven't ran it yet without treatment but suspect it'll do the same.

 

For some odd reason it seems it won't run without fuel treatment.

 

I'm confused here ...

 

Ok. Up until about 2 weeks ago I only had the front tank. Been driving it everyday. Tried running without fuel treatment a few times. Always the same result, would cutout or quit. Pour in some treatment and away you could go. Always had some in the bed. Just got rear tank working and since I'm sure it hadn't been used in at least 2 years I've been keeping treatment in it. Thought after cleaning front tank I would see what would happen with untreated fuel. Still the same. Switched back to the treated rear tank and was ok.