Well, I guess I am going to throw in the towel and take my truck somewhere. It hasn't ran since sometime in January, it's a 2003 F350 dually flatbed. I filled up at a filling station in my hometown and got the "bottom of the barrel" a lot of mud and rust. I have since drained and cleaned the fuel pump/filter housing, replaced the filters (twice) bled all the air out of the fuel system, cleaned and installed a new O-Ring kit on the EGR, replaced the ICP and pigtail, and replaced the IPR. The HPOP and discharge O-Ring where just replaced in November.
I thought maybe a bad fuel pump, since after you crank on it for a bit it will hit and run for a three count but I don't have any thing to test that theory, thought about pressurizing the fuel tank. Any thoughts?

 

Maybe a bad (or clogged) fuel pick-up tube?

 

To correctly diagnose a problem you have to know what is going on, is there any way you can get a fuel pressure reading at the upper fuel filter port? If you certainly received a tank of mud it may be best to drop the tank, clean it, inspect the pickup tube for cracks.

 

BINGO! ^^^

 

I am actually in the process of dropping the tank to clean and inspect, just haven't found a big enough jug to hold the 30 gallons of fuel that is in it yet, lol. This was going to be my last act before taking it somewhere.

 

Keep us informed and Yes, 30 gallons is quite a bit of fuel. You could Harpoon the tank while your at it.

 

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I found this problem when I checked the water separator and mud came out. Both fuel filters were red. I cleaned the separator and changed filters twice afterwards. And it ran about 60 miles after that, hasn't ran since though.

 

Richard, Did you ever pursue this with either the station owner or even your own insurance co if you have comprehensive coverage? Last time something happened to me like this it was a gasser and there was water in the fuel -- I made it about 1/4 mile from the station. Owner of station denied any water could be in his tank (which actually was true). But dealer verified it was water in the gas.

In our state we have a Dept. of Weights and Measures. They routinely inspect and stamp every pump in every station in the whole state (CA). Many states have a similar thing since anything from tons of sand to you name it must be measured legally some way for retail sale. I called this agency and they tested the pump right away and found that water was in fact coming out the pump in the gas and they shut that set of pumps down.

It turned out there was a crack in the pipe from the tank to the pump that allowed water in. The station owner paid for everything from the tow to the rental car to the dealer purging the whole fuel system.

You may be too far down the road since you've taken on the work yourself. Just thought I'd share in case you might still have any recourse. Oh yeah, and this would fall under comp on your auto insurance...

Good luck.

 

I am, unfortunately, one of those "if it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all" kind of people. The day I filled up was a holiday so the gas station was closed and the receipt machine was out of paper, so they kinda said in a kind way "prove it". I haven't bothered withe the insurance companyfor the same reasons.

 

Bingo! So this was an electronic transaction? Or is it some set-up you actually feed bills into? (don't think I've come across that, and that's a lot of cash these days). So you know where I'm going with this: if it's electronic your debit card or whatever you use (fueling card?), credit card, etc. has the exact time and amount of purchase, you just need to get the statement to "prove it" to them.

They wouldn't get their money otherwise

Again, good luck to you...

 

*UPDATE* So I pulled the tank, it was amazingly clean inside, I blew out all the fuel lines from the frame filter back to the tank and from the front filter to the frame filter. I installed a fuel pressure gauge at the prescribed location and I'm getting a 50 psi reading. But still no luck.

 

You may be beating a dead horse. The damage is allready done and that stuff may have the injectors and fuel rails plugged. You will need to pull the rail plugs in back of the heads and flush the rails and then change or inspect your injectors.

 

to dannyboy950's point: the crap would have had to make past both filters. I'd think you'd have to have a hole in both to get physical junk in past them. Water might be another matter.

To others: dosen't the Ford or Racor upper fuel filter have a water block in the media? And Richard: you are/have been running factory filters, correct?

 

Yes they are ford fuel filters.

 

Besides the fact I have never been happy with Fords Micron size of their filters I am worried about what we call the {fines} particles that are so small they pass thru the filter like they weren't even there. Individually they are too small to cause much trouble but a characteristc of Fines is they easily cluster together and then become big enough to cause problems. To me 10 microns and 3 are just too big.
Just my own personal bias tho.