the story:
bought a 84f250 turbo froma guy, ran fine and everything... 87 miles to get the truck home, about 10miles down the road thing seamed to just die out. 1 tank was full and we filled the back tank, the reseve tank we never touched cuz it wasnt suposse to be hooked to that one. got it home took to a shop, they got the truck running said they had to do get the air out of the lines... so it ran out, ok fine and dandy right? no!!! ran the truck about 3miles and the thing did the same thing. stalled, restarted, down the road 200yrds stalled, started and stalled never would start again...

im thinking theres something wrong with a: the tanks (i want to only have 1 not 3)... anther there bad tanks or the fuel line is clogging/ dirty.... so im thinking pull the tanks, get rid of all the all the lines and the switchs so i wont have problems later... plus i can get new return lines while im at it cuz i hear that line has so problems...

ok so that gets new lines and shouldnt have any airleaks , but i will need to know how to prime the motor to get it started again after i get all that done...

when u start a diesel and it blows white/blue smoke what does this mena?? cuz when i stated this truck this morning (before the 3mile ran then stall) and it blow afaint blue/white smoke then then started and blow the black and while it idled a lil bet of the white then just stoped...

 

OK, these trucks come from factory normally with 2 tanks in it....this one has 3??

Are you able to run off the second factory tank?

I wouldn't advise tearing anything out yet until you are sure of what the problem really is.

Also, I'm not gonna say that replacing the fue return lines is a bad idea, but those won't cause the engine to stall once you are rolling for several miles. If it doesn't stall within the 1st minute or so, its not the return lines.

Sorry to be asking an obvious question, but have you tried replacing the fuel filter?

Another possible problem is a clogged fuel tank vent in the filler cap. This can cause vacuum to get pulled in the tank as the fuel pump pulls diesel to the engine until the vacuum is strong enough to disrupt fuel flow.

Welcome to the forum, I hope we can figure this out.

 

yes i replaced the fuel fiter when it first broke down. the 3rd tank is on the right side its an extra... i cant switch the tanks cuz the electrics arint working, shop told me that.

so how do i go about unclogging the filler cap

 

The way to check if this is the problem is to just run the truck with the cap loose for a short distance to see if the problem goes away.

 

ok but i still need to get the truck started... do how do i prime it or purge the air out without goign to a shop?

 

Remove the fuel filter and fill it to the top with diesel. Put it back on, and crank away. Hold the pedal to the floor until it starts to catch, then feather the throttle as needed to keep it going until it settles into a stable idle.

You can also bleed the indivudual injector lines, but after working on mine for a while I found that to be unnecessary. The air will purge through the injector line farily quick, its the lost volume in the filter that will take too much cranking to refill.

Do not crank for longer than 20 seconds at a time and you must allow a minimum of 2 minutes for the starter to cool down after such a long cranking. These starters are not cheap.

 

alrighty.. so how long should i w8 after ea crank?

 

2 minutes....

 

dieselkid,
Welcome to FTE and the IDI diesel forum.

20 seconds cranking, two minutes cool down before cranking again.

Tank vents on the 84 should be on top of the tanks, not in the cap.
My bet on the location of your problem is the water seperator.

Look on the fire wall close to the drivers side hood hinge.
Do you see the stock water seperator there, it has a pull ring on top to drain it.

Some people have put a bolt in the drain line and stopped the air getting sucked into the fuel lines, others have replaced it with an aftermarket unit.

Replacing it with an after market unit is the best fix.

 

can u show me a picture of what the water seperator looks like?
the truck is in the shop getting the air purged cuz i already payed to have it done... so when i get it back ill check the tanks for the vent

 

ok so heres the update from the shop... apparently my full tank had ran out of gas, idk how 17gals coudl run out within 3miles. and they said they switch tanks (im guessing manualy, cuz yesterday they said they couldnt change em) and they had it started... now the thing wont turn over. u turn the key it turns barly, try again and it turns good. we stop and try again later does the same thing... the shop said the starter motor is gone but if it was gone wouldnt it no turn. after the motor stops turning u can hear it trying to turn.

what u guys think.. also i need to know were that vavle is so i can make sure there no water in the gas cuz the damn shop has no clue what im talking about