so heres the story. last night i was moving my boat around my driveway. when the truck was put on a very slight positive incline, it just shut off on me and would start, would only crank. my fuel gauge was reading just above 1/4 tank. I primed the fuel at the fuel filter. when i loosened the black screw only air came out. so i primed it until fuel was spewing out. then i went to the valve on the front of thw motor and primed it there until i had only fuel coming out. sprayed a little bit of ether into the air intake, got in started cranking the motor and instead of "firing up" it cranked a couple extra second started and eased into idle (kinda like what someone doesnt wait for glow plugs to cycle). i let it idle for about 5 minutes, ran it to end of my driveway and came back. i shut it off again waited a few minutes and started it again and instead of "firing up" it eased into idle again. so i let id run for about 45 minutes then got in the truck to run to the store. i got about 1/4 mile up the road, going up a hill, and it shut off again on me. i came to a stop on the hill, tried priming motor again and all i got this time was a little bit of air to start then just foam. so i got a 5 gal. fuel can and went and got diesel fuel. there was about 4 gal of it. i poured that in my fuel tank, primed it again, got foam again but kept priming until the foam cleared mostly up and was mostly diesel fuel. i got into the truck and started it up, took off down the road, it sputtered real bad, then shut off AGAIN. this time i was on level ground..... and ONCE AGAIN i primed the motor until most foam was gone and there was mostly diesel fuel coming out. so i got into the truck and started it up(once again it didnt fire up, it eased into idle), let it idle for about a half hour, then got in it and drove it home. it ran great on the way home, i even layed into the accelerator and it took off. so when i got home i let it idle for another 4 minutes, then shut it off and went inside. i came back out, let the glow plugs cycle and turned the key, and just like it normally does it "fired up" first few cranks and didnt ease into idle.

Now i was told its more than likely an air leak, or i was out of fuel and my fuel gage is just broken. i would like to try and locate the air leak, does anyone whose been through this before know the best way to locate it or where specifically to look?

 

Did you ever find your air leak?