New Project 6.9 E350, what did I get myself into.

That priming process is pretty ingenious.

Yes, I think so too.

Glad to hear you got her running! I like your dad's shop BTW...I want one! But nice work and I agree that oil priming setup is really good. Smart.

As for the glowplugs they pull 200+ amps so the voltage will drop quite a bit. I haven't looked it up in a while but the number in my head is 8 volts so between 8 and 9 should be quite normal. It not starting could be timing or just air still working out of the IP or both, sometimes it takes a while. 30 mins is a long while but hey it's running now!

Little update for you guys,
I had a pretty eventful day with the van today. I was able to take the van on the maiden voyage today and start to do some shake down. I started flushing my cooling system at the same time. I got the system filled with distilled water and went to leave, threw it in reverse and had nothing. Threw it in to drive and nothing. Then I remembered that when I pulled the motor the tranny tipped a little bit and some tranny fluid spilled out but it didn’t seem like a lot so I figured that was it. Ended up being a lot more than I though. Had to use my hand pump again to put about 5 quarts in (the tranny dipstick is really inconvenient on vans) and was able to get it to shift into gear.

I had put about two gallons in my front tank to get it fired so my first run was going to be to our small town gas station about 2 miles away. I had ridden in this van multiple times with the previous owner never paid too much attention to some of the details it had going on. Couple new things I need to add to my list that I noticed.

Turn signals: I had intermittent turn signals on both sides. It seemed like it would cut out at certain steering angles so I’m going to pull the steering wheel and dive into that once shake down is done. I’m thinking the connections underneath are blown.

Steering: steering was all over the place, I felt like I was driving on water, similar to the feel of a boat. Never messed with power steering so going to have to do some research.

Suspension: all four corners of shocks feel blown, going to replace shocks and absorbers then dive into the steering because I have a feeling that will help it handle a little better.

Heater: I have no heater whatsoever. Don’t know what’s going on, have to research.

Gotta love 30 year old vehicles.

BACK TO SHAKEDOWN:
Got into the gas station to get fuel. The motor ran and sounded good the whole way. I checked for leaks and the only things I saw were at my oil filter and one of my transmission cooling lines at the radiator. Filled the front tank all the way up and then made some rounds around town to get her to heat up a little more and leak some fluids on a couple buddies driveways.

Got it home and felt the temp was pretty good so drained the first round of distilled water. Fluid was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. While it was drained I pulled the dog house and filter housing to check for any other leaks. I noticed also when I got back that my fuel pressure was reading 0 PSI, but the truck was still running. I noticed one of my injectors was leaking so I snugged it up. Got fresh water for the cooling system with a cooling system cleaner filled up, tightened my filter and replaced the tranny cooling line. And went for another run to heat it up.

This one was shorter than the last, I made it about a half mile and the van was starving for fuel and eventually died. I was able to sitting and let the pump prime some pressure and got it running again, I went back to the same gas station and threw some fuel in my rear tank because I wanted to bleed the air from those lines also. While idling at the station I was getting 0 PSI still. So I think I’m dealing with some air intrusion.

Got it home and start to look around for any leaks in any of the lines. I was able to find one at the manifold on the inlet side. Tightened that up and still was losing fuel pressure.

Ended up running out of light and the old lady told me it was time to be done so I’m going to have to dive into it later this week and finish my last flush also.

All in all, stoked to be making progress, hoping the next time I work on it I can get the fuel pressure issue dialed in so I can take it for a little longer spin.


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If the van had set for an extended period of time before you got it and you didn't clean the tanks during the rebuild, check the sediment bowl on your fuel filter. It's entirely possible that algae has grown in the tank while sitting and is clogging up the filters now.

Change out the filter and run it from a diesel can. See if you still have fuel pressure issues.

[mention]aggiediesel01 [/mention]/ [mention]genscripter [/mention] I was able to clean the tanks before I did all my lines. My next step was to reseal my manifold and then pull fuel from a bucket to check and see where the leak/air was getting in.

[mention]genscripter [/mention] do you have timing tools by chance?


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Was able to do some diagnosis today,

I still can’t find out why I don’t have fuel pressure. I’m starting to think my facet pump took a **** or can’t handle the motor. The first test I did after I resealed everything was:

I took a line from a gas can to the pump and with the pump priming I still wasn’t getting pressure above 5 PSI, with the motor on my PSI dropped down to 1 PSI. The motor didn’t die but I also didn’t drive it like that.

I replaced both my fuel filter and water separator in case my tanks had anything left in them that clogged them up. Took it for a drive and it was okay, starved a little bit at 55 MPH. Don’t know the RPM because I don’t have a tach.

The only other test I can think of is plumbing a gauge straight from the outlet of the pump to see if I’m getting decent pressure from the pump.

I’m thinking my pump can’t handle all the volume I added with the junction Y and bleeder tube.

Anyone got any thoughts? Would issues on the return side cause any of this.

The pressure gets lost after five minutes if I prime the pump to 6/7 PSI and then shut the pump off. Could it be both air intrusion and pump strength?


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Think I’ve narrowed down some of my fuel issues guys.

I systematically checked the fuel pressure with the pump on first. What I found out was that the pump would prime and hold pressure everywhere before the IP at around 7 psi. As I worked my way back the pressure really didn’t change.

So would that mean I have a bad IP or something like a leaking injector?

I was also able to find a couple other issues that I addressed. My midship tank vent line got crushed between the crossmember and the tank when I reinstalled it. I replaced the line and my tank popped back to its original form.

There was also a couple leaky return lines. Fixed those.

But when I went for a test drive my fuel pressure gauge in my system was still reading 0 at all times and the van would starve for fuel any time I was over half throttle.

So my next step was to check the fuel tank selector valve. I removed it completely and capped the rear tank feed and return lines. Once I had the system set up like this I wasn’t losing my prime and with the motor running my fuel pressure was reading around 4 psi. But after a test drive at idle it was reading zero again.

Does anyone have any ideas they could weigh in? I feel like either I have too much stuff going on with my system and the pump can’t keep up or the pump is just ******.

The other question I have is regarding return line routing. Here is how I have mine setup currently:


Is this a current configuration or do I need to separate the IP return line and go to the T at the back of the injectors?

Because it seems like I’m having a return air intrusion issue.

Other than that slowly getting this thing running better and better. The next thing on the list is to get it timed then I can move on to interior ****.


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That's how the return lines are set up on my truck. I don't think that you should be having any trouble with yours this way. Those Facets aren't what they used to be so that may be your problem. It seems fairly common for them to fail in under a year any more. Your may have been NFG right out of the box.

This thing is up on the chopping block if anyone is interested. Been running flawless since I’ve done everything. Get yourself a idi van boys!


https://www.oilburners.net/threads/e350-idi-for-sale.88833/


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