I think my truck has covid

[Wrknrvr]

   Today was a rainy day so only a few minutes on looking at the truck. I need to remove the return fuel line. Worked on that yesterday. But it does not want to come out of the compression fitting.

 

   But I was informed of two other situations that needs addressed.

 

  One was I need to go to the mail jail office. My wife has been saying that our mail forwarding has timed out.     So I went in to the mail jail  office. Today I talked  to them, smiled explaining what needed to be accomplished.       I past the exam.    Even the new ones that were implemented on May first.

    The next situation is my wife suggested to put the Jeep in front of the truck and she will tow to Montana.      She is getting frustrated, but not as much as I am.

[Wrknrvr]

Yesterday I was doing more investigation on the air leaks in our diesel fuel system.

   This been extremely frustrating, confusing, irritating, embarrassing and interesting.

 

   I have never spent more time on reading and testing on anything I have ever worked on before. Well maybe, but it has to be close to it.

 

    I have had this seal out before and looked at where it goes. It is a seal in the filter housing on the rear of the fuel pump. The fuel filter housing was replaced. And the two square rings that seal the filter housing to the pump were replaced. This seal is to smooth out the fuel pressure in the system as it has a flexible stainless plate behind this seal.

    To me this seal looked good. So did not get a new one.     That is a big, big stupid subject.  

   There is air entering the system at the filter area?  I have a clear fuel line hooked to the filter at the back of the fuel pump. There is no air in the clear supply line when the engine is sitting or running.   So looking at this photo of the ( fuel dampening seal) you can see imperfections on the surface. And there are about 4 hairline surface cracks across the surf. Also you can see the shiny area where I think this seal may have been passing gas. Air is a gas isn’t it.

 

    I did have a new seal and installed it yesterday.

     The truck runs much better with this new seal installed. I needed to state that because I have had the seal for a few days.  One lesson I have learned yesterday is with modern cell phones, surface imperfections show up so easy.

   Since we are in a campground I could not run the truck for a test yesterday. But it takes throttle as it should. The fuel pressure is almost even when the engine is running. Before it was moving up and down a few psi as the engine was running. It still has a mild miss when hard throttle. Only did that twice.

   The wife suggested I wait for the weekend to be over, so the weekend campers will be gone.

 

   It needs to be turned around as the front of the engine is sitting up hill. Tomorrow I try and moving.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Wrknrvr

[Wrknrvr]

[Wrknrvr]

    Today I will provide some news on this subject.

 

     To put this situation in a simple, laughable thought. I have been chasing my tail, like a puppy that just figured that thing back there is so close.

      It appears I finally caught just a few hairs of the puppies tail.

   The supply fuel line would not hold a vacuum at the check valve on the ecm. to hold fuel very long. I put a new one in several years ago. But it made no difference. That may have been there for a long time. The engine never started real fast as compared to other Cummins n14s. It finally holds fuel for 24 hours.

 Then I believe there was a leak from the ecm to, or back from the first filter on the engine to the engine filter. So I installed new fuel lines.

   The wrong fittings that were provided was a mistake.  That was a learning experience, in its self. JIC to SAE fittings are not the same.

   Then the engine fuel filter mount, was a small amount of my problem. I am sure that could be debated.

    Over this event I have been communicating with several people, by phone, text and email.   Darryl has been of great help on this adventure, along with several other people.

   Last week Darryl suggested to install a vacuum gauge on the system. With a gauge between the fuel pump and the filters it immediately pointed to a problem. While idling it was pulled 12” or so of water column.

   The engine will run at a idle, just only rev  up a very short time. Lots of details are in the postings of the subject previously.

   That pointed to a restriction between the gauge and the tanks. The system should be half of that. Then I separated the supply line from the ecm cooling plate. Had my wife watch in the tank. So I blow on a tube connected to that line. Air flows freely. Hook the supply line up to ecm cooling plate. Blow on the tube that was attached to the plate. No restrictions in the ecm plate.

   What else could the restriction be. With a clear tube installed from the tank to the engine filter the engine would idle, but it still will not take throttle. Shut the engine off. While draining the clear fuel line I seen black things flowing out of the tube with the fuel.

    So it was it was down to the filters. I sawed one apart. It’s plugged with black stuff.   How could that be. I have only driven the truck 1000’. That’s a estimate.

    So yesterday I contacted Power Service fuel treatment company. They talked me through what to do to help with this problem. And he said to carry several filters with me.

    Yesterday I operated the fuel polishing system in each tank, with only a screen in the sediment bowl. Yep there is black stuff in the fuel. Today I will install a filter element in the transparent sediment bowl on the polishing system. after I put treatment in. Was instructed to leave treatment sit 8 hours or so.

 

    Will report on subject tomorrow am. This is a real learning experience for me. I have heard of this happening before, but never had first hand experience with it.

   

Edited May 31, 2023 by Wrknrvr