did a boneheaded thing....

[musclehead]

my diesel truck ran out of fuel. actually it didn't, I have an inclined driveway and this pushed the diesel to the back of the tank and away from the pick up tube.

I parked it the other day after work intending to go back out for some chow and fuel, but got side tracked by the dinner wifey made.

so now I need to fill the filter, crack the injector lines to get it running and then back it out quickly to level land before heading to a gas station.

life sucks sometimes 

[old2soon]

Simple-DO NOT let it get that low again!!  RIDE SAFE.

[Patrick]

Thats probably something everyone with a smoker has done at sometime. But, thats something that usually only happens once. Once is enough ! Once your little fingers get dirty and stinky you won't do that again.
When the engine started running poorly and tried to quit, you couldn't immediately back out to level ground and keep it running ?  Bringing in a few gallons and dumping it the tank is a lot easier.

[cookiedough]

yet another reason not to spend tons more money to just get a diesel engine.

I can see the need if you regularly tow over 5,000 lbs. but most 1/2 ton gas V8 trucks nowadays can easily tow 7000 lbs. without breaking a sweat, even pushing 8-9K lbs.   I know the tow capacity of most 1/2 tons are around 10K, but that would be pushing my comfort zone for sure.

In this bitter cold weather we recently have had,  I know of 2 co-workers with diesels and if it isn't the darn gas geling (even with some additives), it is the fuel filter going to heck, both causing the trucks to not run.   

[alph]

I have an older brother that did the same thing....  He was driving to work, he knew he needed gas but wanted to get it at the station close to where he worked 'cause it was 2 cents cheaper than where he lives.  He came to a stop light that was just before a decline in the road, when he started to go the car sputtered and quit.  He knew he needed gas so he had his wife bring a gallon, he put it in and nothing happened.   He had the car towed back to his house.  He thought the fuel pump went out so he bought a new fuel pump, he and I installed it and just for giggles I wired up the old fuel pump to a car battery he had in his garage, and lone behold, it worked fine.  So I told him it wasn't the fuel pump.  We put the old pump back in, you can hear it making noise, but there's no fuel at the fuel rail on the engine.  So I tell him to jack the front end of the car up as high as he could raise it (his driveway sloped down also, and the front end was lower than the back), and guess what!  His car started!!  We then put 5 gallons of gas in his car, lowered it back down to the ground and she ran just fine!!


Moral of the story; it's better to waist 40 cents on gas next to your house than to waste $250 for a tow truck, and another $200 for a fuel pump!!

[BF]

Wait.  You have an inclinded driveway....in FLORIDA?    

[Big Mike]

I ran out of diesel once a few years back. We were traveling to NC from MI. We were just talking and having a good ole time. I forgot to switch tanks. I heard the engine stall, looked at the trip meter and knew right away what had happened. We were on a level road at the time. I pushed in the clutch, switched tanks and let the clutch out and prayed. It fired on its own after we got from about 60mph to about 25 mph. and we were on our way again. WHEYYYYYYYY, that was a close one. This was my blue 94 F250.

[Daniel Meyer]

Check your manual...may be easier than that.

Ran my 94 Dodge Diesel out long ago...add fuel (there IS an electric pump in the tank), there is a little push-lever thing on the fuel pump...pump that a few times and zingo! Off she goes. No cracking lines/etc.

As to why diesel? Mine was simple. Longevity and mileage. It got twice the mileage of an equivalent gas motor, and needed ONE maintenance besides oil-changes in 350,000 miles.

If you figure out gas costs, even with the higher diesel price at that time...I paid for the truck and a had a couple thousand extra in my pocket just in fuel savings...

So, yeah, if you drive much or tow...Diesel truck = Free truck.

[Daniel Meyer]

Oh, yeah...the only reason I quit driving it was some sneaky little chevy thing ambushed me at a traffic light...

http://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2005/11/17/crunch.html

Engine was still running...truck frame was bent though so they totaled it.

[musclehead]

Thats probably something everyone with a smoker has done at sometime. But, thats something that usually only happens once. Once is enough ! Once your little fingers get dirty and stinky you won't do that again.
When the engine started running poorly and tried to quit, you couldn't immediately back out to level ground and keep it running ?  Bringing in a few gallons and dumping it the tank is a lot easier.

nope, didn't sputter didn't cough just died.

[musclehead]

Wait.  You have an inclinded driveway....in FLORIDA?    

you betcha! (I'll post a pic later)

[musclehead]

yes the moral of the story is  "DON'T RUN IT THAT LOW EVER,EVER AGAIN!!!!"

it's cool it's back up and running, my neighbor owns a towing company. the other day he told me he knows a diesel guy. he gave me his number today I called he said don't need to do anything other then keep pumping the primer on top of the filter housing.

I pumped it up so that it was hard to push, had the wifey crank it for a few seconds. I kept pumping to beat the band and on the second crank it took off! 

[wiggydotcom]

Oh, yeah...the only reason I quit driving it was some sneaky little chevy thing ambushed me at a traffic light...

http://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2005/11/17/crunch.html

Engine was still running...truck frame was bent though so they totaled it.

As the Black Knight in Holy Grail would say, "It's just a scratch!"

[gregc]

  You should be able to start it on some spray WD40.   Have somebody spray WD40 into the air intake hose while you crank it over. That's how we start over the road trucks that quit all the time.
It will run like hell till all the air is gone but it is much easier then priming and cracking open some of the injectors.   Just make sure your fuel pickup in the tank is able to suck up new fuel.

[Daniel Meyer]

  You should be able to start it on some spray WD40.   Have somebody spray WD40 into the air intake hose while you crank it over. That's how we start over the road trucks that quit all the time.
It will run like hell till all the air is gone but it is much easier then priming and cracking open some of the injectors.   Just make sure your fuel pickup in the tank is able to suck up new fuel.

Do not do this on the ones that have air-intake charge preheaters instead of glow plugs (Dodge/Cummings). Don't use ether/starting fluid. It will explode in the intake.

[KG]

We had ford vans for service trucks and everyone kept asking why we didn't drive vehicles with cummins engines in them. So they bought us these.


First week we had a couple of guys use the pumps that have one spout for gas and one for diesel and manage to put 50 gallons of gas in the tanks.

Had to drain the tanks and change the filters and flush the lines but it didn't cause damage they got lucky.


Starting an engine with wd-40 or either is bad on modern  pickup motors. They will either catch fire  when it hits the intake air heater or it will cause the engine to runaway and overspeed.

[gregc]

  Never use ether on any motor with intake air heaters.   Never heard not to use WD 40 on those motors.  Learned something new.

[HayHauler]

Oh, yeah...the only reason I quit driving it was some sneaky little chevy thing ambushed me at a traffic light...

http://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2005/11/17/crunch.html

Engine was still running...truck frame was bent though so they totaled it.

As the Black Knight in Holy Grail would say, "It's just a scratch!"

"Just a flesh wound"

Hay
Jimmyt