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I have a 1990 F350 7.3 diesel. Does it have a cam sensor and if so where is it located.

 

grico777 welcome to FTE and the idi forum!!!!
the idi dont have much for sensors.lol what is your truck doing?

 

It runs fine for about 10 minutes and then the temp gage goes all the way to hot and back and eventually it loses power and stalls out and won't start for about an hour. The radiator and the oil is not hot. The parking brake light goes on and off just before it stalls and the engine light is also on.

 

wow uhhh i dont know about the wonky gauges but i would guess the injection pump is having issues as a first thought.how many miles do you have on the truck?has this truck sat for a long time?

 

Yes, the truck has sat for awhile. I just restored a lot of the rusted body. The motor has about 100,000 miles.

 

ahhh ok well that explains a little more.what i would do is take the fuel filter off and dump it out,then fill it with diesel kleen and reinstall the filter start it for 5-10 seconds and shut it down and let it sit for a couple hours or more to let the chemicals do their work.then put some sea foam in the tank.that may do the trick and it may not.as far as the gauges im betting you have a bad ground somewhere

 

That sounds good to me. I'll try it. The bad ground makes sense too.

Thanks for the advice, repejosh.

 

ya rupejosh sounds like he is on the money

 

Thank for your confirmation.

 

rupejosh, I used diesel kleen and sea foam as you instructed and the truck started right up and idled fine for about 10 minutes and then I drove it about a 100 yards and the engine spead up, then lost power and stalled. Now it won't start. What do ya think?

 

surging sounds like possibly air in the lines. Check all the return lines and look for wet lines. If they are all dry, crank it up and crack the lines at the injectors one by one to rid the system of air. Man after dealing with my buddies stock lift pump and hearing stories like this all the time, i am thankful for my electric pump with pressure regulator setup. Not telling anyone to do it but my system can prime itself, and be air free in about 8-10 seconds. And thats after being drained from an injector replacement. Just sayin!!

 

sounds like a bad lift pump.you can do a pressure test and flow rate test to confirm it.
the reason it doesn't seem like air intrusion is because it runs for 10 minutes.it sounds like the pump is getting weak.seems like its just good enough to pull enough fuel while idling,but not enough to supply it for driving.

edit;
yup im with wreckinball.like rupejosh and myself,we ditched the stock lift pumps,blocked them off with a plate and installed an electric down on the frame rail.
turn the key,and your primed all the time,regardless of future leaks (i have two leaks currently.but the truck will run fine until i fix them.wouldn't be the case with the stock lift pump trying to suck fuel.)

 

That is a classic case of running out of fuel. Diesels sometimes perform like a 2 stroke gasser in that they have a tendency to rev up slightly before cutting out (though not for the same reasons).

Things to check are:

Is the level in your fuel tank above half? Sometimes the fuel pickup tube can break off in the tank and cause you to run out of fuel before the tank is low. Its possible that there is enough fuel to start and run the engine when the truck is standing still, but as soon as you pull away, the fuel sloshes back and exposes the broken bottom end of the fuel pickup tube. The truck will probably run for another hundred feet or so off the fuel in the filter before stalling.

Do you hear any vacuum when you remove the filler cap from the fuel tank after a stalling event? Will it restart after removing the cap?

Inspect both of the main engine grounds, and refresh the engine to body ground at the back of the driver's side cylinder head. Sometimes they can get corroded and cause all sorts of electrical problems.

Also inspect all of your quick connectors on, or near the passenger side inner wheel well. The temp gauge pegging might just be an issue with the cluster gauge itself, but the brake light flickering has me wondering if its related to a possible electrical problem.

To test this (after verifying you have good grounds), Jump 12V power to the top of the injector pump at the connector labeled "Fuel shut off solenoid" in this image (courtesy of Dave Sponaugle):


Its the forward most connector on the top of the injector pump.
If its an electrical problem, expect to hear a faint "click" when you jump power to that terminal, and the truck should restart without issues.

 

Well mine has the stock intank pumps from a gasser. Yes thats right they do work through diesel, and with my 6-9psi regulator they kick along quite nice. I have a 6-9psi pump that i bought about a month ago but havent installed yet. I am nearing completion on most truck projects so i want to get it done. Currently i have a wet line on the rail where i did a crappy cut when installing the new injectors. Coming out later this week. Yes i know it has a leak but it doesnt stop my truck dead. If you want to keep manual lift pump you should get the racor electric prime or manual prime filter header. Its not too bad on price and would save a lot on battery bills. Just sayin!

 

Just did that if anyone remembers for that truck i was working on. momentary switch for the GP's and on off switch for the FSS. Works great until he can get the ignition repaired. It is not giving power to much at all but the starter. Friggin thing. lol