danalex

Hoping not the VP, but preparing... try to keep this short...
Truck is in shop. Don't have code check results.
Saturday a.m. Left the house pulling an empty 16ft dual axle trailer. Had recently (last couple weeks, pulled loaded trailer about 70 miles; no problem).
Sat. got 15 miles from house and engine died. Fuel gauge showed 1/4 tank with 80miles remaining. Tried to re-start; good strong cranking over, but won't fire-up.
VP44 replaced 3yrs ago at about 110kmiles; now have about 150kmiles. Also had one injector bad at that time; replaced it (just one).
RAPTOR fuel pump. (can hear the pump running several seconds after each attempted crank-over)
After-market fuel psi guage dial mounted directly on top of the fuel filter cap...at cranking it shows about 9psi..maybe few more.

Again; awaiting codes (I know I need codes, but thought I'd start getting some ideas)... Hoping not the VP, but prepared for worse...

danalex

P.S. ...the Quadzilla commander stopped working couple yrs ago...no help...

johnh

put some fuel in it ,bleed the injectors and start it

patdaly

John, I was going to post the same thing, then I re-read it, he has 9 PSI on his gauge, not out of fuel.......

To the OP, hate to say it but sounds bad for your VP.

Not sure if the position sensor will kill the engine or not.

BigIron70

Check power and ground to injection pump first, if good then most likely injection pump. Did you try swapping injection pump relay yet? Any codes?

danalex

Thanks yall--appreciate any/all suggestions. Unfortunately, my mech is swamped with major oil field customers (here on the edge of the Eagle Ford oil country in South Texas). ,... plus, I absolutely love the American-grown oil 'n gas coming out of God's green earth; might be the only thing keeping our economy alive (sure aint those folks in D.C..)

Meanwhile, I have alternate transportation.

Here's couple other things I've heard (asking around).
--try taking the air hose off the turbo intake. then hold a diesel soaked rag against the turbo opening and crank it. if it starts, it's the VP. ((sounds bizzare to me but...)
--take the intake hose off. spritz some 'brake-cleaner' fluid in the hose (not starter fluid). if it doesn't start-up, probably the VP...

I'm not a mechanic (obviously), but I no-comprende either of those suggestions.

Fortunately, I trust this mechanic...he has several different code-readers, and actually told me he "hates throwing money at 'possible' culprits". I called him late today...my truck is next on his to-do list, so should hear something tomorrow.

p.s. Spoke to the guys who rebuilt the VP that is now on it (3yrs ago, 30Kmiles or so). He told me to bring it in and they'd also check it out. Probably worth a $100 tow charge to get it to them if my guy is stumped.

Again, thanks for the suggestions--welcome any/all/more! D


p.s.s. keep your eyes peeled for those FEMA buses...protect your kids and country!

patdaly

Danalex, a diesel soaked rag ain't going to do it, but you can take the intake tube off of the manifold and make it run on WD-40, all that really tells you is the engine has enough mechanical compression to fire, which we are pretty sure yours does. I have done it to get a recalcitrant fuel system to bleed out, but that's about the extent of its usefulness.

Sounds like you have a couple of good options, let us know what codes if any are present, and make sure your mechanic knows to swap out the relay, if there is anything that doesn't seem right, ask us......

danalex

Thanks. Tell me more about "the relay"...not sure what that is (or where it is either). Is there a technical name for it? Is it a fuse in the big box under the hood? Inside the dash-panel on driver side?.... ?


//update from early today...still not running... mech added some more fuel, just in case it had run out and the gauge wasn't working. Nope, that didn't fix it. //

patdaly

I'm not much of a 24V guy, but have learned to listen to big iron 70 about the 24V......

I did get this from my 2001 service manual, looks like it is in the PDC under the hood.



Maybe someone a little more familiar can chime in....

leeboy

Mine did exactly what yours did last week ... VP unfortunately for me. I did all the blue chip tests, all pointed to vp...then the code reader confirmed it . Hope yours isn't the VP

danalex

UPDATE (confusing)
My mech used two different code readers.. NO CODES.
Measured pressure from LIFT PUMP--- 14PSI
Cracked the banjo-bolt on the VP44... only a trickle of fuel comes out when cranked. ...

He did not check the relay . (late in the day....will call him tomorrow)

Any other ideas?

patdaly

Time to do a bunch of reading and printing out for your mechanic.

Bluechip is the gold standard.........

http://www.bluechipdiesel.com/

They make one of the best pumps out there as well.

pind

I'm going to run with this. take the inlet line off your lift pump, rig a hose into a can of clean diesel, crank it over, and check the flow at the VP again. I think johnh is on the right track here.

the give away is low flow at the banjo. yes it's pressuring up, but at 14psi, it should spray from the banjo, not trickle.

danalex

UPDATE
Truck is home and running again!
Turns out it was the lift pump (RAPTOR 150)....wasn't pushing enough to get to the VP. Also, the fuel pressure gauge mounted on my fuel filter cap was broke (error reading).

After I got her home, I confirmed the fuel psi to the VP (12psi at idle, 11psi running steady, 10 psi on uphill climb from deadstop). Used a manual oil-filled gauge attached to the shrader.

//disappointed with the Raptor...3rd one I've had...fortunately they stand by their life-time warrantee. Not sure why I can't keep one running...purely stock set up...works great; as long as it's working//

Now to find a good quality fuel psi monitor/gauge... will post separately for recommendations.

Thanks for all the suggestions!