Long time cummin!
The day is finally here, I drove the big blue beastie off the lot at LCNW after almost 3 years into this project......
I've been without internet for a couple weeks trying to get this thing running, a bunch of hold ups, the main one being a rusty diesel tank.
I got word the rig was complete, painted and test driven, so I flew out from NY to pick it up. What I found was less than complete, big alternator issues. We got one working, started the truck, and heard a load of shuddering from the motor, as if it was running out of fuel, or full of air, Matt from LCNW flipped the veggie switch and it calmed right out, purred like a kitten, I was a bit skeptical. Then we tried switching back to regular diesel, shuddering again, we thought it was out of fuel.....I had a spare five gallon in the back so I poured the 2.5 gallons in the diesel tank and we tried again. Same story........maddening after waiting so damn long.
Ended up running on veggie not sure what to do cause I didnt want to shut it down, i thought maybe I could get a block heater to keep it warm if I had to kill it on veggie so i could start it in the morning and figure out the problem.....the alternator burned out again and the truck shut off, battery dead....
Towed back to LCNW and we find out the original tank is full of rust, all the way up in the fill neck, the service station out in Linton must have a crack in theyre tank, there was a wipeable rusty almost claylike residue even in the last drop of the flll neck, even though there was only maybe 10 gallons in the tank.
Personally I was pissed, I cant believe they didnt drain the fuel tank after it had been sitting for two years before starting it, that blows my mind. But we figured it out. So i got to work pulling the fuel system apart.
We replaced the fuel filter, full of rust, the lift pump just as bad so i replaced it, the rubber fuel lines from the tank were weepy and soft so we replaced those, bipassing the veggie system to eliminate all possibilities of electrical/fuel discrepancies. I pulled the veggie tank, pumped out 35 gallons of svo, and the original tank, so full of silt and rust its a wonder the rig ran at all. The fuel pickup lines were equally as rusted, Lynchmob pulled through with a replacement, thanks again Chris!
LCNW had a BJ60 parts truck in the back of they're lot i went to check out and found a clean, diesel full fuel tank i drained, pulled after wrastling the fused canadian rusted studs from the frame, hoping when I got it down it would be worth cleaning and using.
It was! I wire wheeled the beast, primed and painted it candy red, loaded it in, reinstalled the veggie tank, replaced all the vent lines on the tank and got over excited i was in the home stretch......
veggie tank
bj60 tank
primed
painted
installed
we put in a 160 amp alternator and disconnected the veggie system power
still nothing
The motor would crank, bleed, then turn over with injector 2 cracked slightly for a few seconds then die. I figured the svo had clogged the injection pump and lines, and hoped it wasn't full of rust as well.....We plugged in a block heater overnight but still we were stumped, so i called the veggie system folks and found out we had to hook up the diesel through their modifications or we'd be bringing air into the system.
We re-hooked everything and finally, after many injector bleeds we were back in business, cruising with no powerloss or stalls! We cruised out to the dalles and picked up a roofrack, then up to Mount Hood for a night of camping and celebratory wiksey! She rides like a long awaited dream, a little warm and loud, but i have no carpet or sound proofing, which should be installed soon. I'm putting the rack on tomorrow, spent the weekend refinishing it. I'm looking for a kaymar RH tire swing out too if anyone has one.
Thanks for keeping up with this post, its been a long haul, finally rolling!
