Top ten signs your mechanical fuel pump is failing ....

[OnDaRoad]

# 10 - hard starting when cold after ruling out glow plugs

#9 - intermittent rough running like you have clogged fuel filter and/or stalls out while driving

#8 - oil in crankcase a little lower than usual - no diesel smell

#7 - new leaks around oil pan/harmonic balancer/rear main seal

#6 - poor fuel mileage

#5 - smell of diesel fuel when you check oil crankcase oil level

#4 - oil viscosity seems thin on dipstick

#3 - crankcase seems to be overfilled

#2 - noisy lifters or valve rattle while driving

#1 - metal flakes on your magnetic drain plug or in your oil filter


If you have never changed your mechanical fuel pump .....

DO IT NOW ......

Mechanical lift pumps can fail slowly or all at once .....


By the time you diagnose a failing or failed mechanical fuel pump,
you could be pumping straight diesel into your crankcase which
will ruin your engine ........

If you replace your mechanical fuel pump - DO NOT buy an Airtex pump

If you want to change over to an electric fuel pump, there is a member
here who sells one and several threads on how to change over ....

I like this one @ http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47528



Jim

 

[rhkcommander]

i've got pics of my electronic pump in a album here somewhere too.

This might be a good sticky?

 

[wmoguy]

@ OnDaRoad

Is this what you think made your last engine fail?



Does anyone know of a good pump to run if you run WMO cocktails? The carrier pump is great, but I've read lots about it not doing so well with anything but diesel.

 

[OnDaRoad]

Yes .....

@ OnDaRoad

Is this what you think made your last engine fail?



Does anyone know of a good pump to run if you run WMO cocktails? The carrier pump is great, but I've read lots about it not doing so well with anything but diesel.

Yes ....

The warning signs were there, the mechanical pump was less than
90 days old and was an Airtex ....



Jim

 

[wmoguy]

Yes ....

The warning signs were there, the mechanical pump was less than
90 days old and was an Airtex ....



Jim

Yikes! I've got 9 & 10 going on as of recent and last night was able to rule out GPs. New LP put in, in September. I was going to start checking out injectors and IP next (both new at same time) I've been meaning to get off my keyster and make the move to electric pump. I suppose I best do some research asap about what pumps will work well long term with WMO cocktails.

Thx for sharing OnDaRoad



Edit: Come to think of it, I've got #7 going on (getting worse, it leaks a few drops, it didn't before) #7 - new leaks around oil pan/harmonic balancer/rear main seal

Why would that happen? Just if you had too much fluid in the crankcase, thus causing excess pressure on the seals?

 

[OnDaRoad]

In about 30 miles or less ...

Yikes! I've got 9 & 10 going on as of recent and last night was able to rule out GPs. New LP put in, in September. I was going to start checking out injectors and IP next (both new at same time) I've been meaning to get off my keyster and make the move to electric pump. I suppose I best do some research asap about what pumps will work well long term with WMO cocktails.

Thx for sharing OnDaRoad



Edit: Come to think of it, I've got #7 going on (getting worse, it leaks a few drops, it didn't before) #7 - new leaks around oil pan/harmonic balancer/rear main seal

Why would that happen? Just if you had too much fluid in the crankcase, thus causing excess pressure on the seals?

In 30 miles or less ...


Checked oil - 2 quarts low - added oil (no diesel smell)

Changed oil & filter after driving 10 miles - noticed small metal
shaving when I drained oil at magnetic plug (should have drained
oil from filter & checked at this point)

Noticed knock in engine a few miles later - then oil pan gasket
was leaking EVERYWHERE - checked dipstick & found overfilled

I knew then the Airtex pump had failed

Changed oil & filter again - filter was full of " GOLD " but
not the good kind .....

Changed the mechanical pump ....

Spent (10) days at a truck stop over Thanksgiving in
Southern Georgia .......

Had truck flatbedded back to Dayton - still runs but has
a rod bearing ? going out .....

I WILL NOT REPEAT - lesson learned .....

 

[Black dawg]

When I was a kid, my folks had an e350 with a 6.9. One year it started filling the crankcase with fuel and for some reason nobody could figure out the cause. The lift pump was replaced twice, and almost a year later somebody figured out it was the ip leaking fuel into the crankcase. We used that van another 5 years, and the company we sold it to got another 15 out of it (got run out of oil).

I am not saying that fuel in the oil wont hurt anything, just that it surprises me that yours died so quickly from this.

 

[Diesel JD]

I had an early 6.9 IP fail in the manner Black Dawg described and as far as I know it didn't hurt my engine...it did dump a ton of biodiesel into the crankcase but I probably only drove it for less than a tank full of fuel. On the other hand, a friend of mine killed an engine along with the same overfilling of the crankcase symptoms. It ran but it had a bad knock. I helped him check injectors, they were fine, changed IPs and that may have stopped the problem but there was still the knock. My friend gave up and sold the truck before we got to the point of tearing it down to check the bearings and internals. Maybe I was just lucky. Thanks for the warning.

 

[dagreendeville]

airtex thas an autozone special isnt it? i have 3 autozone specials fail non in this manner that i know of but mine kept tripping the fuel filter light the ip was pulling suction or vac cuz the lift pump was failing causing the light to come on!

 

[bayou]

i have a fuel pressure gauge on mine, makes catching one realy easy.

 

[gdhillon]

hmm so my hardstarts could be the pump? I regularly check the oil level (ive owned it for a month) and it seems pretty consistent, it does miss once and a while but i thought that wa sjust the high idle? fuel mileage seems ok to me for a 444ci engine. Does it blow blue if the oil gets in crankcase?

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

Edit: Come to think of it, I've got #7 going on (getting worse, it leaks a few drops, it didn't before) #7 - new leaks around oil pan/harmonic balancer/rear main seal

Why would that happen? Just if you had too much fluid in the crankcase, thus causing excess pressure on the seals?

same here.

after a few days of sitting in my garage i have a decent size puddle/spot on my floor under the lift pump. i originally thought it was coolant. then i investigated and everything that could leak coolant was bone dry. then i saw that the entire outside of my lift pump was wet. not soaking but kind of moist/grimy. then i noticed that i have some droplets of fuel on the crossmember under the engine. no mistaking the smell of diesel fuel. not sure if i need to tighten up the fuel lines on the lift pump or not.

the back of my oil pan is kind of wet to but since i changed my valve cover gaskets andput some rtv on my pan plug i don't use any oil. this wettness is definatly not black like the oil is.

i am on the original pump.
when ever my truck sits for more than a couple days it take a extra little bit of cranking to get it started. then it starts. idles a tad rough for a few seconds and lets out a decent cloud of white smoke. that sounds like air intrusion to me. most likely getting in near the lift pump.

this is all starting to make sense now.

 

[ellis]

man i wish would have known this early. i just replaced mine with a airtex. i guess ill be pulling it off this next weekend and putting a delphi on it. i like the machan pump cause it pumps wmo real well.my last lift pump was on there for 3 yrs and it did real good but i dont know what brand it was. thanks for the heads up.i am fixing to get a 92 dodge diesel that was my dads he passed away a month ago and my mom is letting me have it so ill have a ford and a dodge setting in the drive way i just hope they dont eat each other the dodge has over 300.000 miles and still going strong and has never had a wrench turned on it and it has the same automatic trans that still shifts good. i like both they both have there good points. i love driving my ford it runs good just needs some more tlc on the motor but now i have a spare truck too.

 

[Rot Box]

Is it safe to say ALL mechanical IDI fuel pumps (regardless of brand) will pour fuel into the crankcase when they fail?

 

[bbjordan]

Is it safe to say ALL mechanical IDI fuel pumps (regardless of brand) will pour fuel into the crankcase when they fail?

No. I had one fail. It just stopped pumping fuel.