Dresser TD8 sputtered then dies

[Groo]

The machine was well warmed up (had been running for about an hour), has fuel, on level ground, then just sputtered a bit and died on me.
I restarted, it seamed fine and went a few feet. Did that a few times and got about 50' before the batteries were drained. It would usually idle fine and rev up fine, but would die for some unknown reason before going very far.

The next day, (when I went to try and jump it with a car battery and dumped in some anti-gel) I opened the drain on the second fuel filter, and clean looking fuel drained out

a little Kubota is running just fine on the same fuel, plus the fuel that drained didn't look jelled at all, so I don't think its a jelling problem.

I pulled the batteries to charge them. I am thinking of trying new filters (if I can find some locally). any other suggestions?

 

[Bob Rooks]

What is your ambient temperature?
Have you ever used water-finding paste in your fuel tank?
Do you use dyed fuel, and does it comes out clear from the drain?
Have you ever had a problem with Cyanobacteria (diesel bugs) in your fuel?
How old is the fuel?

 

[Groo]

What is your ambient temperature?
Have you ever used water-finding paste in your fuel tank?
Do you use dyed fuel, and does it comes out clear from the drain?
Have you ever had a problem with Cyanobacteria (diesel bugs) in your fuel?
How old is the fuel?

single digits
no
yes, red
no
couple of months I think

 

[Craig Clayton]

When I took diesels in college some years back the instructor used this story. A construction site had a tracked loader?? and it quit. There was several to many workers waiting for the machine. The service company came in and the fuel filters did their job in that they were full of sand. It seems every day somebody had the job to get a pail of diesel and fill up the crawler. The next day there was a brand new 3/4 ?? ton truck with a brand new fuel tank on the site. The old sandy pail was retired.
Craig Clayton

 

[Bob Rooks]

@Craig: I would have retired more than the sandy pail I think. Good story.

@Groo: As Craig suggested, check/change the fuel filters. What kind of fuel pressure were you getting? Also check for air leaks in the fuel lines and lift pump. It's also remotely possible that your injection pump PRV has failed.

 

[Groo]

pretty sure there is no lift pump, I think its gravity feed with siphoning when it gets below a half tank or so. Fuel filters at the top of the engine and injection pump at the bottom with the bottom of the tank somewhere in the middle. I filled it up a bit after seeing how slow it was to bleed the air out of the lines after changing the fuel filters.

well, either way;
It took way too much work, but it is running again. I'm thinking it was ice in the fuel line, but I changed the filters anyways. To combat the ice, I dumped in a few bottles of the generic red Heet (says its good for diesel too on the bottle). trying to drain the tank didn't work. I think the petcock area was iced up. I had it running a couple of different days for a few hours each time with no hiccups.

The next step is to fix the ether injection. spraying it in the intake stack works, but spraying it in the intake manifold works much better.
actually, now that I think of it, it starts amazingly easy in the cold for a diesel without glow plugs. The last owner even made up a wing for it to plow snow with

 

[art]

I'd wonder about a restriction in the fuel tank of some sorts!