So I did a bunch of work on the van today. There were two fuel system related projects on the list while I had a bunch of stuff off the engine: 1.) Install new R&D injectors, and 2.) Install one of his IP inlet elbow fittings, which deletes the stock POS metal line.

Everything installed fine, and I thought it was going to be an uneventful restart.

I was wrong. After an hour of sporadic cranking, I'm baffled on what is going on.

First off, my e-pump is working great and I'm getting fuel and pressure out of my schrader valve. My filters are new and flow fine. I'm getting fuel to the IP inlet. My FSS clicks when I test it.

I cracked four injector lines to see if I'm getting fuel to the injectors. At first, it was ZERO fuel. Then maybe after 30 minutes of on-and-off cranking, I started seeing my first drop. On my 7th injector, I pulled the line completely off the injector, just to see if it would flow at all. Nope. Maybe I would get one drop in a single 20-second crank.

After an hour, I had maybe 3 injectors that had the slightest drip liquid on the tops of the injectors, so I capped them in the hopes that maybe it would have purged the air out. But no matter how much I crank it, it never catches.

I opened the IP to inspect the metering valve. I wiggled it around a bunch. The IP is FULL of fuel, so I know the e-pump is getting fuel to the IP chamber... My metering valve seemed pretty free in terms of movement, nothing obviously stuck. But I'm no expert in metering valves, so I have no clue what I'm looking for.

Any ideas? I know the IP was empty when I replaced the IP inlet fitting, so no fuel can make my IP kind of finicky. But this is getting ridiculous.

 

One extra thing I noticed, is when I crank the engine, there is a repetitive hiss sound that happens at each cycle. It appears to be coming from the IP. It sounds kind of like a vacuum system leak. Might or might not have anything to do with my no-start issue. Just something to add.

 

Are you flooring the accelerator when cranking?
You need to, or you won't get any real fuel out.

 

I've always been flooring it.

Still won't start. My next plan (tomorrow morning) is to reopen the IP, and move the metering valve all the way to the rear, then crank it. If that doesn't help, I'll move the metering valve all the way to the front, then crank it. I put it in the middle because I didn't know which way the valve should be (front or back), so I figured middle would be safe.

Also, I'm hoping through the night that by having the IP full of diesel will hopefully unstick whatever is stuck when it was drained of fuel during the inlet fitting replacement. But I'm thrashed, so I'm done for the night.

Any other suggestions would be great. I'm cranking with my battery charger set to "start" so my batteries and starter are not an issue. Just fyi.

 

Well. I went out this morning to keep wrenching on the van. I figure I'd open up the IP and fiddle with the metering valve.

But before anything, I just decided to try and start it. Cranked for 3 seconds and it started right up. WEIRD.

 

I've been driving the van all day without any starting issues. Really weird. Don't know what caused the IP to stop pumping diesel, but it appears to all fine now.

 

Here's your problem!!!


At least that's usually all it takes for me! I've got crappy luck! Glad to hear she's running again!