Wont start

[kollenh]

Hey guys, just bought an '88 F250 with IDI and 5spd for cheap. It wont start, though it spins over fine. PO says it was running just fine until a particular batch of home-brewed BioDiesel that he thinks was a little heavy on the glycerin. He'd been running "home-brew" in it for a few months without problems. When I went to look at the truck and he cranked it over, fuel was leaking from the water separator so I know it's getting that far.

Any suggestions on where to start investigating the problem?

Thanks!

 

[OkieGringo]

Take the fuel filter off and clean the crap out of the water separator part and fill a NEW filter with PowerService additive and replace on the head. Put some clean diesel in a clean one gallon milk bottle under truck and connect new/clean hose to tank side of the fuel pump and into the jug of fuel. You'll have to bleed the air out of the system. Hook a remote starter switch to the starter relay on pass fender well, turn on the key switch to activate the fuel shutoff switch. Crank engine while pushing on the schrader valve on the side of filter head until air stops coming out. Loosen the front/pass injector nut and crank engine until air bubbles stop coming out of nut, tighten nut quickly. Try to start the engine, sometimes it might try to start. If not proceed to next injector nut with the same process. Drain all the home-brew out of tank as best you can. Reconnect the tank side line to fuel pump. Add new diesel to tank. There will be some air in the line again, but if you let engine warm up until the gal. jug is almost empty, engine may stumble but keep running. Good luck, Okiegringo

 

[Exekiel69]

If it have biodiesel it could be gelled depending on the temps You have there. Bio will work fine down to 40f most times so if the tank is not full You could blend it with some extra diesel and of course replace the filter and fill with clean fuel and power service, that will provably do the trick and once the engine is running it can take the biodiesel. Now if the fuel filter is leaking I would check all the fuel lines, if he didn't clean the bio from glycerin then it could also be contaminated fuel and for that You may have to drain the tank.

 

[kollenh]

Thank you for the tips. I'll post my findings soon as I've had a chance to work on it.

 

[h2odrx]

what did you find???