Hard starting troubles, rear tank issues, and a front tank leak.

[94IDIT]

So latley my '90 has been a real pain to start. Sometimes purging the schrader valve seems to help and other times it doesn't. Usually after 5 min. or so of messing with it, it starts and kinda idles poorly for awhile and fills all the air within a 10 mile radius with greyish colored smoke Now something I've been doing in the past day or two is giving it a little bit of throttle once and awhile when I'm cranking on it, like you'd do to a carb'd setup. I know you're not supposed to do that to a fuel injected rig but I was told in an idi that was ok? It seems to help anyhow. I've also been told that this is a timing issue and I need to advance it. But since purging it seems to help that makes me lean kinda toward air intrusion. Both maybe?? Also I put a new lift pump in the truck in july but I didn't start having these issues till 'round late aug. Ok next issue, my rear tank for some reason can't really be used when it's less than half empty, once it gets down that far the truck starts starving for fuel and then usually dies. Because of this, I have been using only my front tank but now the dang thing has started leaking! Just a slow drip coming of the bottom of the skid plate. Could either of my tank issues be contributing to my starting problems?? I know I need some new gp's since my gp relay goes "click click click" when I turn the key on. I don't really think that's contributing too much to my starting problem however. But what do I know. Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any help!

 

[94IDIT]

Anyone???

 

[94IDIT]

Bump.

 

[Mulochico]

In my experience (limited I admit ) it sounds like a possible air intrusion issue for the hard starting.

Rear tank could be the pickup is deteriorated and broke off.

Front tank leak could be a line loose or old and deteriorated. This could cause the leak and possible air intrusion.

Rear tank pickup means drop the tank and replace the pickup with new line. Be sure to cut a "V" in the end so that it doesn't get blocked by the tanks sides, etc.

As far as the leak, I would probably start with it and try to track down where it is coming from. Could be as simple as tightening a clamp or replacing a line.

 

[damac]

Trying to start it without glowplugs isn't really cool to do. It was designed for them and not on just cold days. My old vw is the same. Sure with a fast enough starter I might be able to get it to spin to life in the summer but why be so ******* it?

We have pretty much the same issues on ours since we got it. We have been too lazy to pull the bed and deal with all new lines, fuel pickups and a tank changing valve.

Those broken pickups are wierd things. You can try and see how much fuel it takes to run down to the new bottom on flat ground. But get on the wrong hill or park nose up on a nasty driveway and you might not be able to restart

Having some clear fuel lines in the engine bay would tell you a little about what is going on but the start and stall is a pretty clear sign of air intrusion.

We recently put in a carrier electrical pump from a user on this forum that sells them and its helped a ton. I like it allot better for purging on startup, changing fuel filters, running out of fuel, etc.

That is what I would do for the time being to save some headache. Get some new glowplugs and put in a manual switch and your truck will be totally different. I now turn on the key for 10 seconds, then hit my glowplug button for 10 seconds then start the truck on the first cycle within 5 seconds

Before the first cycle of glowplugs would actually be wasted because you are trying to purge the air on the first start of the day and the engine might try and chug to life, etc.