Truck died out of the blue yesterday getting on the interstate. It threw 4 codes P0251, P0252, P1693, and I think there was a P1602. I bought a Blue Chip SO pump just over a year ago and have put less than 50k on the truck since. It's fed by an Air Dog lift pump and monitored with a gauge.

As I was accelerating to get on the freeway my truck 'hiccuped' and I got a dead pedal while the rpms dropped to idle for a few seconds and then the truck died. Note: I had 18-20lbs of fuel pressure at the time with a full tank. The motor would turn over but it wouldn't start so I had to have it towed 2 miles back to my house.

I'm going to do some diagnostics on it this weekend to make sure it's the VP44 that failed. I bought a TIMBO APPS that's on the way just to cross that off the list. I'm also going to turn off my Powermax 3 and remove the smarty to see if one of em are causing the issue.

Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.

 

VP44 failures are normally slow and it didn't sound like you had any symptoms prior to your truck dying. I would call blue chip. They have excellent customer service.

 

Let everyone know what you find.

 

Sonds like you are on the right course. After your checks and pro active repairs are finished and if you still have the issue, make sure you get a hold of Chip, he will make it right.

There is a reason his stuff is more expensive and he will take care of you.

 

This afternoon I received the Timbo APPS. Threw that in. Took about 30mins. Really easy instructions. Calibrated it and everything checked out fine so far. Turned off my Powermax 3 and removed the Smarty.

Tried to start it for about 10sec and nothing. Then I let the Air Dog do it's thing, and tried a 2nd time for about 15sec...Nothing.

Note: Fuel gauge was reading 18-20psi the entire time and the sensor is mounted right at the VP44.

Next I cracked 3 injectors to see if I could get some fuel to spit out. 1st crank for about 15sec nothing....not a drip. 2nd 15 sec crank brought a dribble of fuel from the rear injector(closest to the firewall). 3rd 15sec crank was nothing.

After those tests I convinced myself it's the VP44 that is dead. I did check for codes after and none had come up.

I will contact Blue Chip tomorrow and see what he thinks. The only dilemma I have is I'm deploying for 6 months late next week : /

Anymore tips would be appreciated!

 

I also just did Blue Chips Electrical Test and everything checked out fine.

Now I'm 99% convinced his pump went bad.

 

It very well could be that the computer simply failed electronically. Blue Chip pumps aren't impervious to failure but his reputation is very good. Just for sake of curiosity, is there ANY history you can tell us about your trucks style of driving, usage, average weather, ever run out of fuel, type of fuel, any additive, etc... Anything you can tell will be helpful.

 

Did you get the blue chip with a new computer or a used computer?

 

Style of Driving - Average / Not Aggressive

Usage - Commuting 15 miles each way to work everyday with the occasional tow of my rockcrawlers....weight is approx. 10k with trailer. Also the occasional road trip no more than 1,000 miles both ways.

Average weather - Southern Mississippi along the gulf coast. This is one element I could see why the pump would fail. It gets nasty hot and humid over the summer months. But at the time of failure it was at about 4am and about 70F outside.

Never ran out of fuel nor has the psi dropped below 14psi. I fuel up with regular pump fuel with the occasional white bottle of power service.

I run my TST Powermax 3 on level 4 and the smarty is on a low setting as well. I have turned the PM3 up to 9 a few times but for no more than a few minutes.

I'll post up what Chip says tomorrow.

 

I was under the impression Chip put new electronics in all of his pumps.

 

Haha, ya like when I was trying to pass and the truck blew a quick puff of smoke with a bang loud enough to think I windowed the block and died. It died real fast.

 

I think that is stated on his site but if not he did tell me that a couple years ago on the phone.

 

Not saying this is your problem, but this is something that happened to me recently....

Originally Posted by swordfish View Post
Correct me if I am wrong, but won't a stock truck de-fuel and/or cut off when you hit 3200 rpm? I just had an experience last week where I got to about 3200 while in second gear and when I went to shift to 3rd and push the go pedal nothing happened. The truck had died. I pulled over, looked everything over, switched the fuel relay in the fuse block and turn the key back on and fired up. Hasn't missed a beat since. I have since switched the relays back to original position and still running fine. Do I have something else going on here? If so, I will start another post, but that is my experience.

swordfish
It sounds like your experiencing what I've hear about, where the VP literally runs out of fuel because of your aggressive fuel box. At least that why guys think its happening since there's nothing else to point to, and it only happens to guys with those boxes. I've read some threads regarding but maybe you'll want see what you can find out.

swordfish

 

Sounds interesting. I will try this after work today.

I did just get off the phone with Chip and I guess exactly one year ago today I had purchased the pump, so he is sending me out a new one right away.

 

Awesome. Still sucks if the pump truly did fail but Chip will take care of you.
I am curious if more about this comes about since you would be the first VP I've ever heard of that truly just "failed" while running all the right combinations. Most people have an untold story about how they ran out of fuel a couple times or they lost a couple fuel pumps before and are angry because their VP quit. This isn't to say that a VP cant just fail either. Its not impervious to that as is no other mechanical product. ALL.....let me repeat that.....ALL.....fuel injection pumps fail. Not just the VP, even though thats the drum everyone beats. The VP just has the reputation for the most common to fail. But also being honest and true, timing/fueling boxes will place more stress on a injection pump and injection pump electronics. Thats not to say this was the reason for the OP failure but I have to admit that I decided long ago I didn't want to tap the wire for that reason. I'd rather get some larger injectors.