Diesel Place banner

fuel issue STUMPED

2K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  heymccall 
#1 ·
Hey everyone, new here,thanks for the add, hope someone can help me. Here's the story. Customer has a 2005 Chevy C5500. They left it parked in -20's for a few days not plugged in and tried to get it going Sunday and killed the batteries. Tried to start it on site Monday, no luck, towed to our shop and let it sit inside to thaw out. Charged batteries and could get it to start when primed but stalls as soon as I quit priming. Replaced fuel filter, replaced WFI sensor, bought and installed the fuel filter housing rebuild kit, still no luck. Tried to draw fuel straight from a can into the filter housing, no change. Pressured the fuel tank and could not find any air or fuel coming out anywhere. I am stumped, any ideas where to go from here???? Customer said it was running fine when he parked it. It only has 76430 kms on it. Thanks for listening guys!!!
 
#4 ·
With your fuel pump supplying fuel, you did crack open the bleeder to remove air from the filter?? Just checking because that's exactly the result I get when I fail to bleed the air from the filter. Once you have a steady stream, it runs forever.
 
#6 ·
Hey guys, going back to it this morning. I took out the bleeder screw until I had steady fuel and primed it until the primer was rock hard. This all started way before the fuel filter was changed, nothing I have done has made any difference. What kind of vacuum should I have?
 
#8 · (Edited)
How full is your fuel tank? Sometimes it's ended up being a plugged up pick-up in the tank or pick-up in tank cracked
 
#10 ·
I had the lines off at the filter so I just blew a little air in the line and could here it bubbling in the tank, shouldn't be plugged but, shouldn't there be a check valve or something in there to stop the fuel from running back to the tank from the filter housing??
 
#11 · (Edited)
"What kind of vacuum should I have?"

For me 3"-7" is normal. Less than 2" is a leak, more than 8" restriction.

I have a bleeder port adapter (available from vendors/diesel shops) to check vacuum: M10 – 1.5 to 1/8 NPT with a vacuum gauge. I checked my vacuum a couple of weeks ago -- 5.5" on a Luberfiner LFF6012 installed almost 2 yrs ago. I'll change it at 2 yrs regardless of the vacuum.

I had problems holding prime, installed 2 rebuild kits in filter head - fixed it with new filter housing.

Maybe you're pulling air into the fuel line between the fuel tank and the filter head. You could try clear tubing into and out of the filter housing and check for air bubbles and/or take the stock filter head/filter out and install an inline filter with the electric pump.

After reading your posts again, I'd first try the electric pump with inline filter from can. then fuel tank since you tried electric pump with fuel-in-can through the stock filter head.

I'm pretty sure there's no check valve since fuel drains back into tank when you have a leak.
 
#13 ·
Simple thing, did you make sure the old o-ring from the old fuel filter came out? If you put new filter on with 2 o rings stuck in there you'll be sucking air. It's gotta be either the rubber fuel lines themselves, or the filter head itself.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Undo each hose from filter head, unplug water in fuel sensor, and remove the head mounting bolts (12mm head). With filter assy in hand, cover one port with your finger. Run primer. Depending on which port your finger is on, you have a vacuum or pressure. On the inlet, the vacuum should hold for over a minute. If not, you'll need find the leak in the filter assembly.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top