water in fuel, started and shuts down when in gear

[halfbean]

I am a new member. I have a 99 2500 diesel automatic. a week ago i got some watered down fuel at a c-store owned by ( we won't even go there ). anyway i have drained the tank. the truck will start sometimes but as soon as i put it in gear it dies. i can hear the lift pump running when i bump the starter. if i loosen the banjo fitting on the inj. pump fuel sprays out while lift pump is on. i put ten gallons of clean diesel in and a few ounces of methyl alcohol for the water. the fuel system relay is warm to the touch after cranking it for a while. truck has 102,000 miles so it is out of warranty. i don't know how to check pressure of lift pump to see if that is problem. dealer said bring it in and lift pump is $395. 00 plus labor. i live near beaumont, texas. i just want it to run like it used to.

any help appreciated,

hal

 

[R Anestis]

Maybe this will help

I don't know how to completely fix the water problem, but if you want to change the lift pump, don't go to Dodge. You can get one from Cummins for 139. 00. Summit and JEGS sell them also for 79. 00, but you have to change a couple of fittings on those. The pumps are the same, just the fittings are different. The whole swap out should only take about 35 minutes. Hope this helps.

-Ron

 

[Ron Bissett]

To check lift pump get a gauge in the range of 0to 15 or so not more than 0to 30 get one male 1/8 npt barbed fitting and onefemale 1/8 female barbed fitting (hard ware store) one pc fuel hose two small clamps . Remove plug on fuel filter keep handy put female fitting on gauge and hose with clamp , put fitting male on other end of hose ,screw into filter male end of hose with clamp in hole that plug came out of (no) tape , goo , ect needed pipe thred is tapered start watch gauge thats it . Plug near center after filter plug out side before filter . Your choise you can check both sides , or you can use this set up in truck see others post on this . Hope this helps P. S when first turn of key to run position pump will (should) run for a second ot two and pressure should come up then back to 0 further turn of key to start should show PSI until key is put in off position. replace plug when finished

 

[Ron Bissett]

Originally posted by HBean

I am a new member. I have a 99 2500 diesel automatic. a week ago i got some watered down fuel at a c-store owned by ( we won't even go there ). anyway i have drained the tank. the truck will start sometimes but as soon as i put it in gear it dies. i can hear the lift pump running when i bump the starter. if i loosen the banjo fitting on the inj. pump fuel sprays out while lift pump is on. i put ten gallons of clean diesel in and a few ounces of methyl alcohol for the water. the fuel system relay is warm to the touch after cranking it for a while. truck has 102,000 miles so it is out of warranty. i don't know how to check pressure of lift pump to see if that is problem. dealer said bring it in and lift pump is $395. 00 plus labor. i live near beaumont, texas. i just want it to run like it used to.

any help appreciated,

hal

Do not put any alcohol in tank no no no you can put a store bought cleaner like power service ect. LOL Ron in louisville ky

 

[Steve Campbell]

Did you change the fuel filter and clean out the housing when you had it off? There could be a lot of water trapped in there. I agree about the alcahol. You should get thet out of the tank too. Alcahol would be anti-lube for the injection pump.

 

[halfbean]

alcohol

the alcohol i put in was from autozone, it is lime green and made by a company named coastal to disperse water and it also prevents fuel lines from freezing. i'm going to get a gauge tommorrow and see if the lift pump is putting out. i did clean out the filter cannister.

hal

 

[Michael Hughes]

If you chamged the filter and the pump filled the filter housing with fuel, I don't think it is the lift pump. Have you let it idle for a while before trying to put it in drive?

 

[halfbean]

idle

I let it idle for about 15 minutes. it idled rougher at the end. then when i put it in drive or reverse it dies. this has happened several times today. each time i drain the fuel filter and reprime the pump and start it again only to have it die when i put it in gear.

hal

 

[MidwestMotorman]

lift pump

Does your lift pump do the priming? You can check to see if it is working right by slowly loosening the right hand brass plug on the top of the canister. You should see some fuel start to leak after a couple of turns when the engine is running. If you can remove the plug completely and not have fuel spraying, your lift pump is toast. I just went through this process a thousand miles ago, and thankfully I was a mechanic so I could tell what was going on, and more importantly, tell the D-C dealership what was wrong.



You can get the lift pump to run by just bumping the starter without actually starting the engine. You can also try and remove both negative battery cables for a few minutes to clear everything out of the computer and reset it.



Can your truck rev up? Do you throw white smoke out the exhaust? I would think the ISB would have enough torque to idle in gear, unless your trans lockup is stuck on. Even with a toasted lift pump, the VP44 can pull enough fuel for the truck to run good. Maybe your VP44 bit the dust???



Even out of warranty, Dodge/Cummins usually pays for half of the bill if you press them, providing you are within about 5ooo miles of the end of the 100k mark.

 

[halfbean]

lift pump

After the engine is warm and i shut it down, the lift pump sometimes doesn't cycle when i bump the starter. if pressure is released on cannister it will cycle and will spray fuel out of the brass fitting. maybe there is some water left in the bottom of the tank. i am going to drain the cannister today first thing and take a look for water.

hal

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

If the fuel had water in it then it could very well have started growing critters or algae in the fuel and your tank could be contaminated. Check out this post for what I went through with a bad fuel load - https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12655 . If I were you I would treat the tank with a shock treatment of Biocide and use a diesel fuel additive that will disperse water and add lubricity. I personally use Stanadyne performance additive - while running the Biocide I use a double dose of Stanadyne. You want to fill the tank completely when you put the biocide and additive in there so that you are treating the entire tank - the junk can hang on the walls of the tank. Once you get that fuel and additives in there change your fuel filter again - it could already be clogged. A fuel pressure gauge will help you greatly in diagnosing this - if you test before the filter and after the filter you will know if your problem is a clogged filter (can happen VERY quickly - in my case with 2 miles of filling up) or a bad lift pump, or something else. I ended up running the biocide and additives for 3 tank fulls and had to change out my fuel filter 4 times! I would also drain the tank at this point to get rid of the alcohol - I've read a number of times that you DO NOT want to use any additives that have alcohol in them in a diesel. I'd be willing to bet that the additive you put in is designed for gasoline. JMHO