I have an 85 E350 6.9. The other day I lost power in a parking lot. Just shut immediately off. No stutter. Nothing. All of a sudden all is just quiet and I"m coating. Started right back up and got a few more hardware store runs out of it. Today, same problem. This time it starts up but within less than a minute after restarting it will shut down again.. Its happening at low speed (5mph?) and when i take my foot off the gas pedal i can hear the idle sort of dip or do some sloggy thing that is almost unoticeable to anyone who isn't used to hearing this thing roar in their ear all the time. Not sure if it will happen at higher speeds. I'll test that when I have time to deal with a possible roadside breakdown.

A few years ago I swapped the IP with a used IP from a 7.3. There is the mechanical fuel pump that I installed at that same point (although I seem to remember I had questions about whether or not it was having issues) and an electric fuel pump that I installed a few years ago that definitely works. Changed the fuel filter today.

Is this a problem with my IP? What should I try next? Thanks
Adam

 

upon further investigation i found a conversation in a different forum about stuck metering valves in the IP. no diesel kleen in stock so i filled fuel filter with ATF, ran it for a second and will let it sit over night to see if it lubes the metering valve. seemed like a quick and easy thing to rule out.

 

Good idea, but I think it will take at least 30 seconds to get the fuel out of the fuel filter and fill the pump and get to the injectors too.

I've had good luck with Lubri-Moly Diesel Purge. Seafoam gets good reviews too.

 

I've seen this issue mainly in tractors with the roosa master rotary pump which is basically a db2, all happened after sitting/not properly maintained fuel filters.

If the atf doesn't help please give the diesel klean a shot, stuff works miracles.

If neither does it maybe your not getting enough fuel, try deleting/replacing the mechanical fuel pump, if your electric has a prescreen, clean it

 

seemed to work...at least for now!

 

If it doesn't fix it, you are probably getting air with your fuel due to a fuel pickup problem.

A lot of fuel pickups('cone of failure') are disintegrating by this time, and sucking air(which results in rough running, low power, stalling, hard to start) is common enough.

Another thing you see a lot due to the fuel pickup disintegrating is running out of fuel at 1/4 tank - because the pickup is gone and it is no longer sucking fuel from the bottom of the tank.

 

well, the ATF worked for a while. but now i'm having the same issue again. i'm assuming its not the fuel pickup foot because it is happening on both tanks, and i do believe that i replaced the pickup foot on one of the tanks at some point.

for what its worth i am currently running bio-diesel in the van (history of running diesel, veggie oil and bio in it) but when the problem started i had only been running diesel for about 5 months.

should i try diesel kleen? same scenario...just put it in the filter, idle until its in the IP and then let it sit over night?

 

Yes same method,

When I stopped running wmo it took a year for all that craps to get off the sides of the fuel tanks,