Which Pump? Which Supplier??

[chrisk1500]

You may want install new battery cables.....13 years is a lot of time for them to corrode inside the insulation....seen it many times....

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Have you checked all the grounds? These trucks seem to be especially sensitive to grounding issues.

Thanks TC! The ground connections for each battery on the engine heads are clean and tight. The third ground (a lighter gauge wire for lights?) is missing. I'll look for it this morning. The starter connection is also clean and tight. Ya know, while I'm at it, I think I'll run a separate ground cable from the block to the frame. My F250 does this at the back of the engine from the bellhousing. When I was working under the truck, I don't remember seeing such a thing. What the heck - couldn't hurt. There's no such thing as TOO many grounds!

You may want install new battery cables.....13 years is a lot of time for them to corrode inside the insulation....seen it many times....

Good idea! While I'm following up on TC's idea about grounds, I'll also run a voltage drop test across the cable to check for internal resistance. 13 years is a long time and the side post cables were always famous for wicking corrosion down the cable inside the insulation. From the outside, the cables look great; inside, you're trying to pass current thru concrete.

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Haven't gotten a lot accomplished over the past three weeks; workload, lotsa rain, and a potential job change have pretty much put a stop to tinkering on the truck. Here's what I'm doing so far:

1. I'm using top post/side post batteries, new from Sam's. I've connected the top posts of both batteries with 1/0 welding cable and solder-on lugs and heavy crimp-on terminal connectors. I used #2 welding cable for individual ground straps to each side of the intake manifold, solder-on lugs at both ends. The grounds connect to the bolts on the negative battery connectors. From the passenger's side battery, I ran an 8 gauge ground wire from the negative side terminal to the body connector behind the headlight. All grounds were disassembled, scrubbed clean with Scotchbrite, smeared with dialectric grease and reassembled. Initially, I made the starter cable from 1/0 welding cable, but I don't like the way it fits next to the block. Very tight, and if it ever rubs thru, I've got real problems. (I'm remaking it using #2 cable. More clearance between the solenoid lug and the block.) With all this in place, my cranking speed increased to 125rpm. Kind of a letdown - I was hoping for close to 200rpm. However, my interior lights are REALLY bright now! I'll continue to mess with this and see if I can get any further increase in rpm.

2. I seem to have a LOT of air in the fuel system. I continually get bubbles when I bleed the injectors. I also notice that there are hose connectors (on the filter and on the IP), but no hoses on them. I have a supply hose from the filter to the pump, and a small diameter return hose from the pump to the injector return lines, but it seems like there's a hose missing that should run under the intake manifold from the filter to some point near the IP. If it quits raining this weekend, I plan to pull the intake manifold and replace all the flexible fuel lines. I'm also thinking pretty seriously about pulling that goofy filter unit off the intake manifold and replacing it with a firewall-mounted Racor two stage unit. Much larger, much more effective, much easier to drain and service. If I can get rid ot the air problem, I can get a realistic view of how well the IP is working. Since I seem to be getting SOMETHING at the injectors, I'm hoping the IP is OK.

3. Remote mounting the PMD seems like the way to go. According to the PO and the two shops that looked at this truck, it has 'pump issues'. It'll start and run down the road, then die. After sitting for 20 - 25 minutes, it'll start right up again and run down the road some more. Sounds an awful lot like a flaky PMD. Soooo, I've ordered a heat sink from SSDiesel, and I'm building a 6' extension harness so that I can mount the setup inside the front bumper. I have a used PMD off an old pump - no idea if it's even any good. Plus, three years of sitting hasn't made troubleshooting any easier. We'll see.

4. The turbo downpipe arrived from Auto Jet. Beautiful piece of work. I'll get it on this weekend. When I first saw the OEM pipe, I thought the engine mount had broken and the block had fallen and crushed the pipe. Then I realized that there was NO way the engine could have fallen that far and not busted other stuff. The crimping/crushing is unbelievable! When I get the OEM pipe off, I'll post pics of the two pipes side-by-side.

OK. It's stopped raining. I'm gonna go out and at least LOOK at my truck. Maybe sit behind the steering wheel and make engine noises.

 

[chrisk1500]

On the filter housing you should have the inlet at the back from the lift pump....then there will be two oulets - one runs to the IP and the other runs to the brass petcock located near the t-stat housing (this serves as both the water drain and the LP pressure test port)...hope that helps...

 

[chrisk1500]

About the old PMD - take off the plastic diamond caps covering the transistors, loosen the nuts on the transistors and then re-seat them FINGER-TIGHT - this will freshen up the connections and hopefully extend the service life of the PMD

I have resurrected a few PMDs with this technique...

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Chris -

No more brass petcock - I'm sure that got lost at the first shop. That would explain the fuel fitting at the bottom of the filter that has no fuel line on it. Doesn't seem to leak, but I'll know more when I get the manifold off.

I'll try the 'resurrection procedure' on both the spare OMD and the original. Might get lucky....

Thanks for the ideas!

 

[chrisk1500]

If that fitting is not leaking there is something wrong with the filter housing...

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Yup, that's been my concern. When I was initially bleeding out the system (and taking fuel samples), it struck me as pretty odd that I never saw fuel from that fitting. To help with the flushing/bleeding, I had the electric lift pump hooked directly to a spare battery that I had set on the ground next to the truck. The lift pump put out enough pressure to blow fuel past the upper o-ring on my freshly-installed new filter. So, I discovered three things: the lift pump works; the o-ring can be screwed up if dead-headed; and, the fitting never even got damp. I'm going to pull the filter body when I remove the intake manifold. I'll disassemble it and take a closer look at it and see if I can find the blockage. Realistically, I'll probably just go ahead and install the Racor unit. I've used them on my other motors as a primary filter, so I'd have no problems with running one of their two-stage coalescing units as a combined primary/secondary filter.

I'm hitting this project from multiple points - electrical, mechanical, fuel. The electrical side involved the battery/starter/ground cables. I also installed new ACDelco glowplugs. During the install, I noticed that on the pax side, only the two center plugs were connected. No wiring for either the front or back plugs. Something else to look into. The controller works, but only seems to stay on for 5 - 6 seconds. Kinda short. We'll see.

I completed the PMD extension harness last night. In reading different webpages, I've heard different opinions on where the ground must be installed. One group insists that it stay attached to the top of the IP. Another group advises that the ground MUST be relocated to attach to the PMD. I figured I'd ride the fence - I added a jumper ground wire to the harness that connects the ground from the top of the IP to the heat sink/PMD. Figure that oughta cover all the bases.

It's raining again, so I'll hafta wait to do any further 'investigating'. Man, I gotta tell ya, this waiting is TOUGH!

 

[chrisk1500]

Leave the ground wire on the IP...we are grounding the solenoid - not the PMD....

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Right. I'll reattach the IP ground wire back to the top of the IP. The jumper wire that I soldered to it is loomed with he rest of the PMD extension harness that runs to the front bumper. I figure it can't hurt to be sure that everything is well grounded.

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Well, no rain, and I actually got home before dark. Seemed like a good opportunity to do something constructive on the truck. I got the intake manifold off and got a good look at the pump ID tag - it's a 5288. I also got a good look at the fuel filter and the fuel lines. Turns out that all three fittings have a hose hooked to them. The drain line ends underneath the IP; no brass fitting anywhere. Instead, someone plugged the open end with a brass bolt and a hose clamp. Tomorrow nite, I'll replace the drain line and the line that runs from the filter to the IP, bleed the filter and pump once more, and try spinning it over to see what kind of fuel flow I have at the injectors. And with the manifold out of the way, it'll be easy to unbolt the PMD and try Chris' PMD Ressurrection Procedure (PMDRP).

 

[chrisk1500]

I think you might have the wrong IP installed.....

 

[Dave Barbieri]

That wouldn't surprise me. That was one of the things the PO said to me - that he didn't think the first shop put the original pump back on. Not sure how critical it is. Justin (dieseldummy) had this to say in post #2:

The old pump will have a tag one the front of it. It should say DS4831-5068, DS4831-5067, or a few other variations. Unless it is a 5068 you can put the latest greatest pump on with no problems. If it is a 5068 is you put a new pump on you will have to have the Eprom reburned with later specs.

Seems like as long as it's NOT a 5068, then I'm in good shape. The higher the number, the further up the IP 'food chain' I'm moving. Something else to check on.....

Also noticed a couple of odd things when I pulled the manifold off. First, I took out the six bolts and pulled off the turbo elbow. Looking down into the intake plenum, I saw a bunch of crumbly black stuff, sorta like burnt up gasket material. Sorta clinging to the floor and walls. Hmmmm.... Ok, so next I pulled the manifold itself. Looking down into each of the intake ports, I see a trace of oil. Put my finger down inside the port and run it along the floor and out. I've got this brown gritty stuff on my finger. SAND?!? It's in every port! Time to take a look backwards, so I pull the compressor housing off the turbo and check the compressor. Looks perfect! No wear or erosion on the blades, no oil ****, that sucker looks almost new! Seems to me that the only way that sand could get in to the intake runners without going thru the turbo, is if the manifold wasoff for a while and the ports were left uncovered. So now I gotta clean all the grit out of the ports before I can put the manifold back on. Once everything is clean, I'll pull the glow plugs and then turn the engine over by hand. As I look down the intake port and see each intake valve open, I'm going to shoot one squirt of engine oil into each cylinder. Then I'll use the starter to spin it and see what my no-compression cranking rpm is. I think I really need to see 200rpm.

OK, let's see.... The checklist so far:
1. Install smaller gauge starter cable (#2 instead of 1-0)
2. Replace stock turbo downpipe with Auto-Jet mandrel-bent version.
3. V-E-R-Y gently clean all the sand out of each intake port.
4. Pull the GP's and squirt oil past each intake valve.
5. Install new fuel lines.
6. Hook up the (freshly charged) batteries and check cranking speed.
7. Bleed fuel system again.
8. Reinstall the GP's, find two missing GP wires and reconnect them.
9. Turn the key, crank this puppy over, and listen to it fire right up!

 

[chrisk1500]

You have a HD truck....you NEED the 5068 pump UNLESS you have an updated PROM chip installed...what are the numbers on the PROM?

 

[Dave Barbieri]

Got it! I'll pull the glove box tonite, take a look and let you know.