Yesterday after work I had a hell of a time getting my 1HDT started. Normally I manually glow for about 10 seconds (it's cold here) and crank with the skinny pedal on the floor. It takes a couple tries when ambient is really cold. Symptoms seem to indicate no fuel.
Anyway, yesterday I drained my batteries trying to get it to start. I had to keep getting out and pumping the primer like mad before cranking. After doing this about 15 times (and getting a boost), it started.
It dawned on me that I had low fuel in the tank - below 1/8. I filled up on the way home and it has started as usual ever since. I've been having fuel problems all winter with some improvements after replacing the fuel hoses and clamps. I'm thinking the feed pump is very weak, and even worse when it's cold.
So my question is: would a low fuel level in the tank have an effect on a weak feed pump not being able to suck fuel from the tank? The weight of a full tank of fuel should in theory provide a bit more "pressure" on the fuel lines. I'm not familiar with the fuel suction inlet, but I would assume that it would still be submerged even with a low fuel level. The tank was not empty.
Any thoughts on this? I haven't quite been able to correlate truck front-to-back slant on my starting problems. But it would seem that a nose-down attitude would gravity feed the fuel much better than nose-up. Maybe the same kind of scenario as a near empty tank? In all my investigation into my cold start problems, I had not taken into consideration fuel level. I am using winter diesel and antigel. Maybe there's a problem with the inlet?
Anyway, yesterday I drained my batteries trying to get it to start. I had to keep getting out and pumping the primer like mad before cranking. After doing this about 15 times (and getting a boost), it started.
It dawned on me that I had low fuel in the tank - below 1/8. I filled up on the way home and it has started as usual ever since. I've been having fuel problems all winter with some improvements after replacing the fuel hoses and clamps. I'm thinking the feed pump is very weak, and even worse when it's cold.
So my question is: would a low fuel level in the tank have an effect on a weak feed pump not being able to suck fuel from the tank? The weight of a full tank of fuel should in theory provide a bit more "pressure" on the fuel lines. I'm not familiar with the fuel suction inlet, but I would assume that it would still be submerged even with a low fuel level. The tank was not empty.
Any thoughts on this? I haven't quite been able to correlate truck front-to-back slant on my starting problems. But it would seem that a nose-down attitude would gravity feed the fuel much better than nose-up. Maybe the same kind of scenario as a near empty tank? In all my investigation into my cold start problems, I had not taken into consideration fuel level. I am using winter diesel and antigel. Maybe there's a problem with the inlet?