Fat1111

Hi guys I have been trying to fix my truck reading your posts for awhile now and cant seem to locate the problem. At first my truck (97 CTD), while cruising on the freeway at approx 70 pedal dead and white smoke, I pulled over and truck died. I sat for a minute fired right back up and took off, symptoms continued. Had fuel pressure checked Idle 20+ half throttle dropped to 15 buried throttle 0. Put a new lift pump on $180 no help, changed out the overflow valve $60 same thing no change. I am out of ideas. Problem is continually getting worse now goes dead around 35-50 mph+ blows white smoke just when it looses power. Thanks for any help.

infidel

Since you have changed the OF valve and pump the only other thing that can cause low fuel pressure is a restriction to fuel flow. One of the three filters (tank, fuel heater and main) could be clogged or a hose or metal line kinked.

Unusual but OF valves have been bad from the get go before.

TIMMY22

by any chance, when you remove your fuel cap (just after running the truck) does it make a loud sucking sound?

a little gasp is normal.

if so, try taking a little ride with the fuel cap off. this will eliminate a venting problem. (vapor lock)

Fat1111

I replaced to main when I did the lift pump, do you have to drop the tank to get at that one. And where is the heater filter located at? I don't know how it could be a kinked line because I didn't recently do any work on it prior to the problem. Thanks for all your help.

TIMMY22

fuel heater is here

http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/Facts/12Ve_locations-l.gif

there is a screen in the module (in the tank)

tilt bed or drop tank.

infidel

Instructions for cleaning the heater filter
http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/filter/pre-filt_clean.htm

If you need to keep your truck running and not down waiting for parts suggest you get a filter service kit. Sometimes the sealing quad ring falls apart when you open the filter and is hard to come by except though Cummins.

The tank filter tends to be self cleaning due to fuel sloshing around in the tank unless things are really nasty in the tank.