Hey guys,
My truck died on me Friday while driving.. It took forever to get it to start again but it did. As from my other post I thought it was my fuel filter being very restricted.. Well I replaced it with a wix one and it ran fine.. For about 10 miles.

When I tried to restart it, it sputtered about every other half second like it did when it struggled to start before.
I gave it a go with jumper cables on from another diesel to. Make sure I didn't kill my batteries.. And nothing..
My tach was moving, but I replaced the cps anyway with a Motorcraft one. After replacing that, I started to get bellows of white smoke out of my tail pipe (waited for WTS light every crank). I replaced my fuel filter heater again since the wire ripped off so I was thinking maybe that.
I don't have anything to test my glow plugs or so on.. But every wire looks fine.. I swapped the relay, it still worked.
My starter is now dead after attempting for so long (was on side of road so I just kept trying every 15 minutes).

All I can think of is maybe my fuel tank it clogged since I already have an issue with my fuel Guage, it's a new fuel filter, and I'm just sputtering.
My fuel bowl had fuel in it when I checked again.. But it seemed lower than normal.. So I took some diesel and put some in there just to see if it was too low to start, nothing except more white smoke with some black in the stuttering.

I'm dropping the fuel tank today regardless since I've been planning that for a while, and taking the starter in for warranty today as well..
If anyone has any ideas I'd be oh so grateful right now.

 

Doc, I reviewed a few of your posts but somewhat confused. Maybe you can clear that up to help us troubleshooting, mostly me. One post you indicated the fuel pump was working because you could hear it? Does that mean you have electric fuel system instead of the mechanical pump? You can't hear the mechanical pump because it only works when cranking or running as it's driven by the cam. Electric fuel systems you can hear the pump with key ON but they are not used with the original fuel filter bowl, or shoudn't be. Also have you checked the fuel pressure cranking and or at idle. Also I did review the video's and it sounds like just running out of fuel.

Assuming the mechanical pump in the valley, it's a two stage pump, very reliable but they eventually fail. The upper part sucks fuel from the tank and sends it to the bowl under about 7 PSI. The fuel is filtered and returns back to the lower stage on the pump where a small piston pressurizes the fuel to about 50 PSI and sends the fuel to the rear of the heads. That's why there are three hoses connected to the pump. The front ports on the heads return unused fuel back to bowl to the regulator and some of that fuel is recycled back to the bowl and the rest is returned to the tank. Bowl fuel heater just can't warm the fuel due to flow volume. It's only purpose it warm the filter itself as mentioned before and as fuel is cycled through the system the heat from the heads heat the fuel as it is cycled.

Sorry if you already know all this stuff but trying to understand your truck configuration on the fuel system.

 

If I said I heard it click before, I was just being dumb hearing the relay for the glow plugs or something (also not used to. Mechanical pumps) .. I have the mechanical pump for sure. I took down the fuel tank and noticed a LOT of crap in my showerhead. I also noticed a loose wire that may explain my lack of a working fuel gauge.
I know for sure I didn't run out of fuel, because I tired adding some fuel after I got stuck because I thought it may have been empty since I was trying to run it low to drop the tank.
I added about 2.5 gal and with the tank off I have a total of about 7-10 gal. I'm not sure if the amount of crap in the showerhead would stop it from getting fuel to my level though. Fortunately enough though, my tank is actually pretty clean on the inside compared to what I expected.

 

Here's the shower head and what not

 

Doc, shower head doesn't look clogged enough to stop fuel flow, IMO. Keep in mind the mechanical pump is a two stage pump. The upper portion sucks the fuel from the tank and seldom fails and will fill the bowl just fine. It's the lower portion of the pump where the piston is that supplies high press to the heads, after the filter that fails. The seals wear over time and the lower portion has a weep where fuel will leak into the valley. Once you get it back together measure the fuel pressure on the drivers side of the bowl pressure regulator. That is the return lines from the heads and will be high pressure. You can do this with a cheap tire stick type gauge and should be ~20 PSI or more while cranking and ~50 PSI or more when idling. A bit messy with tire gauge, so use some rags, but you can get a reasonable reading and go from there.

I have some pictures on a disassembled pump that explains it better if interested. No, you can't disassemble it and repair, but new ones are around $100 plus depending where purchased. Glad you found the broken wire for the fuel gauge issue.

 

So I bought a new fuel pump and installed it, the truck ran great of a jug of diesel.

When I took the tank down I had to dump diesel in jugs because I have a shoulder injury and there was no way I'd get the tank back up with anything in it lol.

So I dumped all the fuel back in after I let it idle for 25 minutes and it ran fine and got the tank up etc etc.
But now I'm getting my fuel filter light back on under any acceleration and my truck just died and it does a weird clack/sputter start but starts.. It's like just enough that the battery isn't completely draining when it does.. But it keeps dying.
Am I stupid and missing something?

New fuel filter, new fuel pump, cleaned the tank and sender unit etc.. New cps, icp is good based off numbers on my tuner scanning


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Testing the fuel pressure again, and return of more symptoms that I previously had.. I believe I got a defective fuel pump.

 

is that fuel light for pressure or water?

Did you clean the FPR screen?

 

It's just the one that says fuel filter, but I just purged my lines last week and put fresh diesel in an empty cleaned tank last night.. Drove 37 miles now issue.. This morning I was running a little late so I was accelerating out of lights a little faster than normal.. Fuel filter light came on.. I drove carefully when it did and it bogged down and had super low pressure the first try 12psi running.. Then 31 next try after idling 25 minutes and now not readable (using a Guage with min of 10psi to read)

And fpr screen is completely cleaned. Fuel pump defective is all I can think of since it ran good.. It was a parts store pump.. And now it's low on pressure with no leaks in the system.. Because it does hold the pressure it gets too, just won't build up

 

possible you have a bad pump, if the new one does the same then you have another issue lurking

 

I picked up a new fuel pump from napa this time since advanced auto was an absolute pain with exchanging it... So got my money back and went with napa. It's a Carter pump as they told me and I verified the stamp on it.. I hear mixed results on the forums here, either pretty bad or long lasting so I guess I'm taking a risk lol.

I also decided this time to replace all three hoses that connect (minus the hard line to banjo bolt) even though my hoses looked fine. Hopefully this works and if not I guess I'm looking at my fuel pressure regulator. I'll probably try the BB mod, fix, Jerry rig, whatever you want to call it. At least to rule out issues if this pump doesn't solve it.

Here's to hoping gents.

 

 

Really? Well, I guess the better part is napa with the warranty and lack of being a pita with it. I didn't notice any markings on my advanced auto one. They look similar, but not too much more than obviously shape, but color. Otherwise the napa one seemed to have a better o ring. That and it came with new washers/gaskets whatever you want to call them for the banjo bolt which was nice.

Installing pump right now and getting ready to try and start it so I hope it lasts.

 

You are chasing your tail . Your scan shows what is expected & what is actual . ICP has nothing to do with FP . You most likely have a sticking IPR .

 

I'll take your word on it, I bought a new ipr and should be installing on Wednesday. I guess I didn't think it was that due to only a few of the symptoms match to what I find online. But either way I don't mind replacing it if there's a chance , and it's for the fuel system which may at least keep her strong for quite a while