So uh... I got a buttload of dirt in my turbo

[Diesel42]

Exactly how cold is it there? Hard for me to imagine as it has been 115+ degrees here in sunny N.Californis lately. It sucks. But if where your at is cold a guess jeeling could be a culprit(although) you injectors are spraying). Get fresh,clean fuel. At least 10 gallons. Plug in your block heater, get this block up to temperature.Change fuel filter and drain sedimentor. Bleed inj. lines. Verify by cracking each at head. Charge your batteries to full charge. Glow system and verify with meter at bus bar for 10+ volts. Recheck/cursery search obvious areas for loose connections and unplugged vacuum lines,etc. Then start that sucker.

 

[crushers]

first for ALL the valves to be stuck open at once is extremely rare
you should get a good spurt from the injector line when the 17mm is backed off roughly one turn. if not then there is your answer...

 

[joshoisasleep]

you should be able to see if they are closing all the way, as you should have like .010 or .015 clearance, so you may be able to feel the tiniest bit of slop..

.

I like Cody's idea. Set the crankshaft as if doing a valve adjustment and see if there is clearance at valves that are supposed to be closed. It's a long shot but it might be worth doing though I can't see all valves being that tight.

Good point! I took the valve cover off earlier and there was clearance. I didn't turn it to check the rest of the valves, but it should at least stutter with even half of them shutting...? I did this before this was suggested but wasn't thinking.

Although at this point it seems like pulling the cylinder head off to have a better look doesnt seem like a bad idea, you should have a head gasket, and you could possibly damage something else, opening up another can of worms.

How close to the bottom of the fuel tank are you? Can you get a few gallons locally somewhere just to be sure your not sucking air? Maybe you just happened to stop for the night moments before running out of fuel?!?

Have you checked to see if the filter is still full of diesel? Pump the priming pump a few times to build up pressure then slightly loosen the bleeder and see if you get air or fuel. If you get air I'd bet a few gallons in the tank and bleed the system again and you'll be running.

I can get clean fuel... the head I really really don't want to remove, as it is a very very dusty location and having the truck towed somewhere less dusty would be a big pain.

I will do some playing with fuel today and hope for the best!

Exactly how cold is it there?

It's cool t-shirt weather here, and warm t-shirt weather in the sun. I have no block heater, but didn't need one at -15 nights recently...

first for ALL the valves to be stuck open at once is extremely rare
you should get a good spurt from the injector line when the 17mm is backed off roughly one turn. if not then there is your answer...

Gotcha.

 

[RufusTheDufus]

If you've run some biodiesel recently but never have previously used any your fuel filter could be plugged up. That's why I asked about the biodiesel.

 

[joshoisasleep]

If you've run some biodiesel recently but never have previously used any your fuel filter could be plugged up. That's why I asked about the biodiesel.

Yeah no biodiesel, but still a good point about the fuel filter. Still, I would have thought it would at least splutter a bit if it was a clogged filter... ?

 

[TOBASH]

Yeah no biodiesel, but still a good point about the fuel filter. Still, I would have thought it would at least splutter a bit if it was a clogged filter... ?

Clogged fuel filter can give anything from sputter to a clear and absolute no go.

Change your filter, prime it with new fuel, and let us know what happens.

 

[TOBASH]

Well? What is happening? Good things, I hope.

T

 

[cruiser_guy]

Yeah no biodiesel, but still a good point about the fuel filter. Still, I would have thought it would at least splutter a bit if it was a clogged filter... ?

I'd have thought so to. Also on the gelling, I've had that happen to me as well and all I could get was an idle but at least it ran.

At this point you need to start eliminating possibilities and a clean filter is probably a good idea anyways even if it is not bad. And clean winter grade diesel if it is available otherwise a liter or two of kerosene in with your diesel if you are unsure if it is winter grade. As I said before, stick with petro diesel until you have a running truck again.

 

[marting]

OK the bad fuel one is something I'm going to look more into. Since it hadn't been spluttering but rather just not started at all it didn't really cross my mind. However it is an optimistic thought... Over the previous 6 days all the fuel that went into that truck was bought in a remote region of Bolivia from two different fuel stations that were both at the dregs of their tanks... then it was stored in cheap jerry cans which by design must have caused at the very least some dirt to end up in the fuel when refueling (and filling the jerry's). Now, my truck is at the bottom of it's tank and sitting parked nose pointing uphill...
It sounds like a long shot at this point but a really happy one if it was the case.

I did crack the injector nuts and saw fuel seepage on each one after a crank or two earlier.

I don't have any ether or anything like that if that's what you mean by quick start... I doubt I could find some. Brake fluid says flamable on the can?

Cruiser_guy what do you mean don't take them off? When I "cracked" the 17mm nuts earlier I actually loosened them all the way off... I didn't pull the injector lines off of anything, but the nuts did spin free...

Looks to me you are saying there is a slight chance you might just be out of fuel? You have drained the tank and filled up atleast 20 liters of fresh diesel right? "seepage" from the injectors sounds to weak, should be little hard sprays or squirts..

 

[joshoisasleep]

Looks to me you are saying there is a slight chance you might just be out of fuel? You have drained the tank and filled up atleast 20 liters of fresh diesel right? "seepage" from the injectors sounds to weak, should be little hard sprays or squirts..

Oh gosh. On the one hand that would be wonderful, but would it be worth it for the embarrassment? If it turns out to be that I'll just claim later that it was scored cylinder sleeves and I had to replace them

Since it was running fine when turned off and did not even splutter once on trying to start, I kind of ruled it out... I mean if it was a gas truck I would say maybe since I parked on a hill... but the chance that all of the fuel at the IP loop emptied itself JUST as I turned it off... ?? Maybe I've made a false assumption there due to insufficient knowledge...

I did attempt to run the engine today from a 2L bottle full of clean diesel screwed onto the fuel-in pipe that goes from the filter to the IP... I held it vertical to gravity feed. No dice, but I only got a few cranks at it as my batteries have finally died down from all the cranking. I will try to find a battery charger, but most of the time this town seems to have no power and runs on generators anyway... hmmm maybe I could borrow a little one...


I took a walk down today to where people told me there was a mechanic to try and get a compression tester of some sort... there was indeed a work shop but his son said he's fixing a car in another town and won't be back for three days. Fortunately I had a genius idea today... I may in fact just call BCAA and have them tow us to somewhere where there is at least a mechanic I asked specifically when I signed up and they cover me in Chile as long as the car is my car from Canada.

At this point you need to start eliminating possibilities and a clean filter is probably a good idea anyways even if it is not bad.

I'm going to get one as soon as I can find one. Actually, I'm going to get three...

Oh and to clarify the place I'm in now is not hot but warmish... no fuel will gel here.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Oh gosh. On the one hand that would be wonderful, but would it be worth it for the embarrassment? If it turns out to be that I'll just claim later that it was scored cylinder sleeves and I had to replace them

Since it was running fine when turned off and did not even splutter once on trying to start, I kind of ruled it out... I mean if it was a gas truck I would say maybe since I parked on a hill... but the chance that all of the fuel at the IP loop emptied itself JUST as I turned it off... ?? Maybe I've made a false assumption there due to insufficient knowledge...

I had mine run out this summer shortly after leaving from Puerto Escondido in the morning. I knew it was low and was going to fill up but I didn't make it to the station that morning. It died on a slight uphill and it died pretty quick. It's always a pain to bleed and start it especially if it's cold. You generally don't get much notice when you run out. You may make it 1/2 km total while running from the first cough to being dead. It doesn't have to empty the whole fuel system, it's just enough to introduce air at the feed pump/primer and you're dead.

Get a jerry can of diesel, recharge your batteries and have at it.

 

[RufusTheDufus]

I did attempt to run the engine today from a 2L bottle full of clean diesel screwed onto the fuel-in pipe that goes from the filter to the IP... I held it vertical to gravity feed.

You connected it to the braided line and not the steel line?

I'm not sure if this would work because it will definitely introduce air into your fuel system. The feed pump pressurizes the fuel filter with 26 to 31 psi. Your injection pump won't work right without fuel feeding to it at this pressure.

If you've disconnected either of the fuel lines on the filter you must properly bleed the system of air otherwise it will be extremely hard to start it. You may need to bleed air from the fuel lines, the fuel filter and the injection pump housing.

 

[RufusTheDufus]

Maybe this will help....

joshoisasleep, maybe this will help. Maybe it's just basic info that you already know but just in case I figured I'd put these photos together for future reference.

If you think you have air in your injection system, which I'm pretty sure you do now that the fuel filter was disconnected, you will need to properly bleed the air from it.

If you want to rule out the possibility of bad fuel in your tank you can remove your fuel filter and drain it. Pour fresh fuel in the filter before putting it back on. This will usually be enough fresh fuel to get it started. If you want to completely isolate your fuel tank disconnect the fuel pickup hose on the fuel pump and stick it into a container with fresh fuel in it. (2 liter bottle, etc.) It's the red hose in this photo.

Then you need to start purging the air from the system. You do this with the primer pump. It's a manual hand pump on the fuel pump. Circled in this photo.

Just unscrew the plastic handle a few turns and the hand pump will free up so you can use it.

The next step is to bleed any air from the fuel filter. To do this open the bleeder valve on the filter and use the hand primer pump to fill the filter with fuel until it's squirting from the bleeder. The fuel filter bleeder is circled in this photo. Some years look different but they are all the same principle.

When bleeding the fuel filter it's just like bleeding a brake line. It should be tightened closed with pressure on it. You should feel resistance on the hand primer pump while closing the fuel filter's bleeder.

You can try starting the engine now. If it doesn't start then the next step is to bleed the injection pump. You use the manual hand primer pump and pump it until there's nothing but fuel coming from the bleeder. If there's any air bubbles or "spitting" keep pumping until there's a steady stream of fuel. The injection pump bleeder is circled in this photo. (sorry about the poor image quality)

Your engine should start at this point after a little cranking. Once you get it started if it's running rough you can bleed the air from the injection lines one by one. You do this by opening the 17mm nut on the injector just slightly. Just enough to left fuel out. The fuel is under extremely high pressure, so be careful to keep exposed skin covered. The engine will stumble and run rough while the injector is open slightly. Just let it run that way for 20-30 seconds on each injector. (Only work on one at a time.)

Follow these steps and your fuel system should be properly bled. If it doesn't fire up and run smoothly then you've got a mechanical problem of some sort.

 

[joshoisasleep]

...I'd disconnect the fuel pickup line at the injection pump ... I'd get a clean glass jar, maybe a quart or so and fill it with fresh diesel ... The idea is to rule out bad fuel in the tank and/or bad plumbing from the tank to the injection pump.

This is what I did??? I disconnected the rubber line that goes straight to the injection pump. I held the bottle upright until bubbles stopped coming out of the line... I kinda thought gravity feed would do it?

And yeah I understand basically about bleeding... I actually just discovered my original 1981 owners manual in the glovebox which has the procedure in Toyota's own words!

 

[joshoisasleep]

Sweet thanks for the detailed explanation with pictures! That actually should help me a lot since I've never bled a fuel system before. Awesome!

 

[RufusTheDufus]

This is what I did??? I disconnected the rubber line that goes straight to the injection pump. I held the bottle upright until bubbles stopped coming out of the line... I kinda thought gravity feed would do it?

I wasn't real clear in my first post. The fuel pickup line being the fuel line coming from the sedimenter/tank to the fuel pump. (The red one in the photo.) I mistakenly used the generic term 'injection pump' instead of being more specific about which line on the pump. Sorry about that.

 

[RufusTheDufus]

If your engine doesn't fire after going through the complete bleeding procedure and you think you might have compression problems you could artificially increase your compression by dripping a few CCs of engine oil into a couple of the cylinders through the glow plug holes. You don't need much. Just a few small drops. (Too much oil could damage things so be careful.) This oil will temporarily fill the gaps between the rings and cylinder walls and possibly get your engine to fire.

When your engine is cold the compression numbers will be much lower than when hot. If your engine ingested too much dust and dirt and now has borderline compression problems they most likely would manifest when the engine is cold.

 

[TOBASH]

If BCAA covers you, their tow truck can charge the batteries. Also, you can always flag down a big rig Diesel and see if he has a 24 volt system, then pay him 20 bucks or so to attach to your batteries and rev his engine for 10 minutes.

You can also pull the batteries one by one and have the locals charge in their cars by starting their cars, pulling their batteries, and inserting yours for the charge.

The hotel where you are staying can probably do it for free.

 

[Joe Egolf]

Rufus the doofus , your fuel system bleeding posts should be transferred to a sticky or tech section for all new diesel cruiser heads to learn from,IMOP

 

[joshoisasleep]

yeah I just phoned BCAA and apparently I've been gone so long that my coverage had lapsed... so I renewed it but if I use it I'm going to have to lie about when I "had the breakdown". They said they sent 3 renewal letters to "my house" (I have no house)... apparently they only have my email address to send me spam.