bad IP??

[Farmer Rock]

Evening folks!
So lately the 88 6.9 has been having a little trouble. It will start immediately then billow white smoke that doesn't go away (burns the eyes and smells like fuel for sure) then dies and I have to bleed the lines a bit and it eventually starts. I haven't gotten around to fixing the air intrusion problems just yet, and there are 3 or 4 leaky return lines. I drove it the other day, and gave it a really good running, and the smoke was gone completely afterwards, but today I went to start the truck, it started up started smoking again then died and wouldn't start for nothing. Lift pump is pumping good, no air restrictions, 12v to the fss which i can hear click when I tested it, batteries are new, starter spins fine. It won't even fire on ether. I haven't changed the fuel filter yet, but I still feel like it should've started on ether (yes the key was on). Before all this happened today, once I got it running initially it ran flawlessly besides the smoke and would start right back up when hot no problem. I am going to start with the fuel filter and air intrusion, but I wanted to run this by you guys. It just seems like the injectors are not getting fuel at all. This truck was sitting for quite a while before I bought it. Thanks in advance.




Rock

 

[IDIBRONCO]

It just seems like the injectors are not getting fuel at all.

I would confirm this first.

 

[Farmer Rock]

I would confirm this first.

I agree. I didn't have any more time to fool around with the truck today, so I will check for sure tomorrow, but I noticed that no fuel was coming out of the injector lines when I had them cracked, and it definetly sounds like it's not getting enough if any fuel. It sounds like it wants to start, but won't budge as it is even with ether.




Rock

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Well I guess you've got your first sign since you have no fuel to the injectors. Just be sure that you actually have fuel to the IP before you condemn it.

 

[Farmer Rock]

Alrighty, so good and bad. I had a few minutes to work on it this afternoon, and I first wanted to see if by some chance it would start today. Nope, it did exactly the same as yesterday. Being that the truck has been sitting for a few years, I knew the fuel was questionable to begin with, so I pulled the line after the lift pump and turned it over. A bunch of rust colored WATER came out of the lines. At that point I pulled the top cover to see if the water had gotten so far as the IP and was possibly the cause of all this. After pulling the cover I saw a whole bunch of water and algae in the top of the IP, so I cleaned all that out and dumped ATF in there. By the way, the metering valve was kind of sticking a little bit but it's all good now. I am guessing this is the whole problem. I am sure the fuel filter is not the best either. I am going to try draining most of the water and replacing the fuel filter maybe tomorrow or over the weekend.



Rock

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Good luck. I hope you can get this running good again.

 

[gandalf]

If you have algae in the IP, chances are that you have it everywhere back to and including the fuel tanks. Cleaning the whole system will be a big job. I'd drain the tanks or you'll be running the algae there up to the IP.

Some one will give instructions on tank cleaning. Once the tanks are pretty clean I'd treat the whole system with Biobor.

 

[Farmer Rock]

alrighty, I pulled the fuel filter earlier today, and while I wait for some new ones to come I just tried using a good one I took off another truck when I serviced it. I was quite shocked how bad the old one was.

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I filled the newer filter up and threw it on. Now I got fuel to the injectors, and it was just about to start when the starter went out . I am going to pull the starter and bench test it tomorrow. I figured this was going to happen because the starter looks like it's almost as old as the truck. I was very careful to let the starter cool and not run it too long. Either way, I will definitely be draining the the entire fuel system and running kerosene through it for awhile. I am just glad I am getting fuel to the injectors now, and it seems like it is just bad fuel and a bad filter.




Rock

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Hopefully this is all it is and you'll be driving the truck soon.

 

[Farmer Rock]

ok, so it turns out it was a bunch of stuff working against me. bad filter, bad fuel, lots and lots of air in the lines, bad connections on starter and a short in the system that kept cutting power to the fss. All in a days work I guess. I pulled the starter out to bench test it, and it turned out to be good but the short cable from the solenoid to starter motor was very loose and corroded. I cleaned and tightened it, and it worked good so I bolted that back in. For some reason that starter is so much tighter to get in and out then my other trucks, it took so much longer. I had checked to see if I had power to the fss before I started, and it had power, but later when I was bleeding the lines there was no fuel after the IP so I checked again and there was no power to the fss now and the GPs weren't working for some reason(7.3 style GPs). After running a jumper wire to the fss, it started right up pretty quickly, and now doesn't smoke at all, it just keeps shorting out and killing power to the fss and GP system. This happens after the ignition is on for 5 minutes, running or not. I didn't dig into it yet, because at that point in the day, it would have been with a fire axe. I am not looking forward to tracing all these wires in the harnesses to find the short. Unless it is something obvious, I will probably end up running new wires but I am hoping I can let it be. I am just glad the IP is fine, as well as the starter.




Rock