I think it's my turn

[Beedee]

Well guys, i think that it is my turn.
I'm working out of town now, don't get much time at home, my wife got a new car so hardly drive the truck any more. the other day my wife had to use the truck and she had a real hard time to start, it was only a few degrees below freezing, then on Saturday, my son was going to use it to go up the ski hill.
He made the 25 miles to the base of the hill no problem, but only got about a mile up it before it quit. thought that it was out of fuel, but there is fuel at the bleed valve when cranking. $140.00 later the tow truck delivered it to my drive way. My wife tried to start it the next day, it flashed once then died.
I won't get home for 2 more weeks and will only have a couple of days to fix, I haven't got much time i can use on the computor (Diesel Pages) while I am at work, so would be greatly in your debt if some of you guys with more experiance with these kind of problems could throw out a few suggestions of what to check when I get home.
I'm really hoping that it isn't the dreaded PMD, do they die like this, I thought that it was a slow and painfull death. Last time it was a ground problem.
Once again, any and all help would be appreciate
Brian
PS, just for a kick, enter Juskatla, BC into Google maps to see where I'm at. ;)

[Mark Rinker]

Hard to tell, based on the little information available. Is there a SES light illuminated? Was it cold enough that day that it could be a fuel gelling problem?

The PMD is always suspect with stalling problems, and a relatively inexpensive part to throw at the problem to rule out many others that come with R&R labor. (If yours isn't bad, at least you then have a spare on the pump.) In the meantime, I'd have them plug the truck in, or better yet get it inside a heated garage and see if it will re-start at all.

My wife and I are dreaming of retiring in the Pacific Northwest coast area someday - would like to see Juskatla. What brings you there?

[Tough Guy]

Fuel (lift) pump?

[a5150nut]

Mark, if you Google in to Juskatla, BC I think the place with the brown roof has a For Sale sign in the front yard! Got to use the Satalite veiw to see it..........

[JohnC]

If you don't drive it much, could it be as simple as summer fuel in winter conditions?

[Beedee]

I thought that it might be the fuel, or the lift pump, but if that were the problem, would there still be fuel at the filter bleed screw. My son thought that he had run out of fuel at first, so I went through the bleeding procedure with him, he said there was fuel there right away, even before he put 5 gallons in. If he has fuel there does that rule out the fuel pump???
I don't think that it was that cold, but you never know. that is the problem with the west coast, they never think that it is going to get cold, so i don't know if they have winter fuel, and there is no sense in asking the attendant cause they wouldn't know.
Mark, I don't know if there were lights on, my son said there were all kinds of lights on, but unless the truck can text message him, he wouldn't know what they mean. As for what i am doing in Juskatla, I'm a heavy duty mechanic, working for a logging company. Lots of old junk, so they need guys like me that grew up with this junk to keep it running.
I don't know if you would want to retire here, very isolated, you have to like the rain. It is an island so you are at the mercy of the ferry to get on and off unless you fly. All our food and freight come on the ferry and this time of year it can be delayed for days for the weather.
Gotta go get ready for work.
Thanks for the help

[Mark Rinker]

Sounds wonderful to me...the wife might not agree.

Let us know what happens when you get home and can troubleshoot the truck. I understand getting 'symptoms' over the phone...

"Dad, its going RUMPH RUMPH RUMPH then died...what do I do now?"

[Beedee]

I had my wife go out and try to start the truck. She said that it started but was making lots of noise and smoking (sounds about normal to me), I'm starting to think that maby it was just the wrong fuel and when he started to climb the mountain he must have hit a temp change. Only another week and a half till i get to go home, then will see.

[Beedee]

Okay, finally got home. Here is what i have found so far. I haven't had much time to get into it, other things have to be taken care of first but here goes.
1) Got it to start no problem but lots of smoke, I mean LOTS of smoke and a pretty good miss. It's not cold a few degrees above freezing. The glow plugs were changed last spring, Glow plug light on and cycling but just looking there might be a couple with melted wires, but it did start.
2) Smokes like an old worn out Jimmy until it warmed up, would not respond to the throttle very well, lots of smoke, noise missing ect.
3) after a few min of running it cleared quite a bit then was mostly water vapour but still would not rev over 1500 with out lots of smoke and it sounds like a fuel knock.
4) I let it warm up for several min, i can get it to rev up but LOTS of smoke, mostly blue.
5) I took the induction tubing off the turbo, there was the usual oil from the crank case vent thing (can't remember the proper name DCR?) but nothing unusual, ran up engine again, same problem.

I havent changed the fuel filter or checked fuel pressure or any of the simple things yet.
It doesn't miss at and idle, only once you start to rev it up. Thought at first that it might be a bad injector but with no miss at idle, it has me confused.
Is there a simple way to check the timing on these beasts. I haven't gotten around to picking up any kind of a book since this is the first major problem that I have had with it, I might have to get one on order. Problem is I only have 8 more days to get it running then back to work again.
So any ideas from you guys that have had this kind of a problem before
Thanks again for any and all help
Brian

[Tough Guy]

Did you drive the truck? How does is run down the road?

I would look at the batteries, glow plug relay and glow plugs. Make sure you have good winterized #2 in the tank, and add some fuel additive.

Chris

[Tough Guy]

Plug the block heater in!

[Beedee]

Its not cold here, in fact it is fairly warm, way above freezing, have never had a problem with it before at this temp, as for driving it down the road, I can't get it to rev up in the driveway, don't want to take the chance of driving down the road, cost $140 last time to get it home so am a little leary of taking it out, my drive is to steep to push it back into if it quits again ;)

[DieselMonk]

I would look at the filters (air and fuel), check for water in the fuel filter, glowplugs, glow plug wires, injectors then compression...
All of my diesels are smoking blue while reving with no load on the enginge. That is unburned fuel. Drive the truck around when she warmed up and see if there is any black smoke, still misses, power and so on.

[Beedee]

So I finaly got a chance to get some time on the truck. Thought that the first thing I should do is change the fuel filter, open up the fuel cap and all I can smell is gasoline.
Turns out that when my wife got the 5 gall of fuel she thought that all the hoses at that island of the gas station were diesel, we don't go to this station very often, don't like their prices that much, so she bought gas by mistake and put it in.
Needless to say that after a day of draining the tank, changing filters bleeding the system, the beast is ready to roll again
Just goes to show you, back to basics. If I had checked the filter right away i would have saved myself a few sleepless nights.