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Although you solved the problem with Jack's advice, another option is to go your neighborhood pick-ur-part (over off Jefferson in GP there's several) and hacksaw the end off of one, the clamp your hose to it.
If not the pickup in the tank, I would check if there are any kinks in the line supply line from the HFCM to the secondary filter. I would check in the HFCM if it's an older unit in the water drain chamber. I would check the white air bypass orifice to make sure it's there. Finally, check the regulator to make sure the seal is OK and all the components are in place. They changed the configuration, but I don't have full data on that.
I'd check voltage at the HFCM to make sure it's getting proper voltage, no drop.
The white air bypass orifice: Is that in the HFCM or the regulator?
You might be able to inspect from the filter size. I remember one case where someone forgot to but it in and another where it was chipped. It’s rare, but viable failure mode.
Its there to bleed out air, accumulated or released from the fuel. It bypasses fuel going to the regulator completely, it’s the gurgle heard after filter change.
That's what I thought you were talking about but wanted to confirm.
I think I found the culprit, old fuel and a failing fuel pump as a result.
The HFCM that came on the truck is cleaner than the one I put on the truck. The rusty sheet metal check valve retainer is supposed to have a blue oxide finish.
The fuel...well, that's a story. Let me start by saying It came from my fuel storage tanks. Somewhere I read that diesel keeps for two years if you use a stabilizer. I used diesel formula Sta-Bil, with the full faith that it would work as successfully as Sta-Bil for gasoline has for me in the past. If you look at reviews people say it's all they ever needed bla bla bla. Plus I was storing the fuel in a dark environment so I wasn't worried about algae formation. So two years later I started cycling it through my truck. I noticed dark clumps of junk, bacteria I suppose, at the bottom of my tanks. I ran it through a screen as it went into the truck. I figured any little particles that got past the screen would be caught by the filter and changed it after cycling all the old fuel. I also treated the fuel in the tank with a biocide, Biobor JF, which got great reviews, bla bla bla. I changed the filter a month later for good measure. When I filled the tanks back up I used the Sta-Bil and Biobor. So now it's been a year and I already have clumps of junk in the tanks. I'm not sure what to do with it now. I don't want to cycle it through my truck again, after this headache.
I don't know that I can read any more of this - a freakin' nightmare! I have OLD fuel in my shop (6 gal jugs) and most definitely in my Bobcat. We run the Kubota enough that it gets new (OLD) fuel somewhat regularly. I have never put anything but Diesel Kleen in the fuel. Just reading this means those two pieces of equipment will now die (the forum hex is on)...
And I thought this forum was just about making me paranoid about my 6.0...
I think there are many factors, and you may not have the ones needed for this. I have a 50 gal tank on my A-C HD-9B dozer, and that fuel can get pretty old. Admittedly, that's a Jimmy 2-stroke of the '50s. but it still has injectors of tight tolerance. It does OK with the additives I put in there. There are a number of videos out there of dozers and other diesels started up after sitting for 5, 10, 20 years, and not always is the diesel drained, but maybe new mixed in to reduce the percentage. My Vermeer chipper with a Perkins has been run for 2 years.
I would not have expected Chris's stored diesel to be an issue, but when you have clumps in there, and funky coloration, I tend to not use the fuel. I didn't read the link, but when bacteria start to munch away on diesel, and I've always found it interesting that there are bacteria that can do that, there are the waste products also introduced into the fuel, including acids from my understanding of years ago. While I would expect the additives to neutralize, for me I would be skeptical that I got it all.
When the newer diesel trucks started to get denied warranty coverage by Ford (not other manufacturers to the same extent), that got me more concerned about fuel quality. And that's really hard for a consumer to judge, you never see what's being pumped at the station. And there are a few stories by the transporters of what gotten at the refineries, what was in the tanks, etc. You might have more insight into that. Chris's issues may not be from his storage; he may have been handed a problem that grew.
Ford's handling of the fuel situation when they had an obligation to provide filtration is another hard place. While the source has an obligation to provide acceptable fuel, the consumer should not have to have a lab in the bed to check fuel from the nozzle before the fill-up.
As a side note, I posted a link before to my prior work over on TDS, where I worked with George Morrison and his company AV Lubrication when he was doing a study of manufacturers' filtration on the vehicles. The quick read is that despite my local Texaco having new tanks, the fuel I was getting was the dirtiest he saw from all the samples he received. And the Racor secondary filter on the 7.3L was the best he had seen in the lab work. I would suspect the 6.0 carried the tradition, but it will not take out the chemical problems in bad fuel.
The real key is to keep the diesel as free from water as possible - the water layer/interface is where bacteria flourishes. If it is essentially water free, it should be fine IMO (at least for a year) - assuming it was of decent quality to begin with. Unfortunately fuel containers have a finite life w/ regards to a proper seal - especially plastic ones kept in the sun.
I just read Chris's link. It is a good article, but we just need to remember that (as stated in the article) large diesel fuel tanks are allowed to "breath" with diurnal temperature changes. That introduces water, and a well sealed container doesn't necessarily experience that.
It used to be during my before running of my dozer and using the water tap drain at the bottom of the 50 gal tank I could release some water. But just as we see now when draining our HFCM of water, there is not that much water drawing off anymore. I've seen the discussion of how the newer low sulfur fuel is hygroscopic, absorbs the water rather than stratify. I'm tending to believe it's made water in fuel potentially worse.
That is one reason Ford (since the early days) has specified a "demulsifier" for a fuel additive rather than an "emulsifer". The other is to make it easier for the primary filter's water-bloc membrane to remove it.
Fuel kept in a engines fuel tank that is allowed to breathe will no doubt collect water over time. Not so possible in a smaller sealed container. Keeping the O2 exposure down also helps.
In all of the draining of my WIF system, I have never seen more than a drop of water. My HFCM was practically as clean as a new one when the pump went out at 215k miles. Clearly our local fuel has been pretty good quality. I know that many areas are not as fortunate. Biodiesel has also added to the potential issues. We are seeing that content going up ... and while it is good for the cetane number, it is not so good for fuel storage (and lower BTU content as well IIRC).
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