Air leak question...

[Jgreemo]

Hi guys, after recently replacing my starter, lift pump, batteries, cables, filter and some rotten fuel line, I appear to have an air leak somewhere in the fuel system. Cranking speed is excellent now, but instead of firing right away, it cranks for 10+ seconds, I get a cloud of white smoke, then it lights. I can then shut it down right away (engine still cold) and it will fire at the slightest turn of the key, so it seems the fuel is draining back to the tank when it sits. The engine runs fine and has plenty of power, so it doesn't seem like an injector pump issue.

I have Kennedy quick heats, an updated glow controller that's working fine and fuel at the filter. I checked the water in fuel probe for cracks but found none and have recently ordered a set of injector return lines from Kennedy, just in case. Other than that, with fuel at the filter, is there any other place I should be looking for leaks? I was under there again, checking lines along the chassis, but didn't see anything suspicious. I'm following the troubleshooting guide but getting nowhere closer to solving this.

Anyone know of anything obvious that I might have missed? The problem has been getting progressively worse and I want to eliminate as much as possible before looking at injectors and pump.
Thanks,
Jon

[Subzilla]

I've got the exact same symptoms except I've old glow plugs, old 130k mile injectors, 7-1/2 years use on my 7 year batteries and a GP controller that acts up. I'm in the process of eliminating the possibilities as all of these could be contributing to the problem.

Have you had your injectors pop tested & spray checked, lately? Good luck to both of us.

[Jgreemo]

Thanks for the reply. I have not had the injectors checked as they were new as of 45000 miles ago. I'm not putting a lot of mileage on the truck, but some of the fuel lines are original and the ones I replaced were pretty rotted out. I have heard that some of the injector return lines can be of lousy quality, so I am going to replace them.

One thing I am suspicious of is the fuel filter mounting bracket. After replacing the filter, it felt like the air bleed and drain valves were not sealing up very well. Unfortunately, it's a discontinued item at GM and even the gaskets are not available. So I might see if any off the shelf O-rings might work, but not there yet. Either that or just replace it with an updated version.

Good luck to you as well. Definitely want to get this settled before winter rolls in and it's time to head up into the mountains.

Regards,
Jon