03 Cummins No start
 

this is a buddy of mines truck.

truck stats: 03 3500 6pd, 133000mi and a edge juice with attitude.

the problem: one day out in a field the truck wouldn't start. he changed the fuel filter. it cranked for about a minute, then fired. I just got back from his farm after doing more tests that a local truck garage told me. what i did so far:

1) grid heaters getting power

2) brand new Deka batteries

3) fuel getting to CP3 with proper PSI

Now comes the confusing part...

1) the LP makes more fuel spray than if i loosen a fuel injector line and try and start the truck.

2) if i unhook grid heaters, and give a very brief spray of ether, it starts on the ether than u can hear the diesel take over and it starts and runs fine, no smoke nothing.

no codes, no abnormal running. when the truck is running he said it runs just like when he bought it and put the chip on. lots of power but not much smoke hardly none, even on power level 5.

hope someone can shed light on this.

thanks
Cody

if it still has the original lift pump I would bet money that it is bad.....I have seen where they make good flow to an open injector line yet they wont handle any restriction or build pressure.............get an Airgog or Fass and put on it

How does the truck start when the engine is cold? This sounds very close to the same symptoms I'm seeing

anyone running an 03 and above with the original lift pump needs one of these :ph:


serious men the OEM lift pump is junk :madd:

it only really did this after the batteries got down to a full charge of 12.6V. we put jumper cables to my truck (i have {2} group 31 batteries in the stock trays), the truck fires up like nothing is wrong.
but once u let the truck lose its voltage from the 14.7 it is charging at, it just wont start.

Also after an hour of sitting, the truck wont start. only by jumping or ether. i am gonna try and get the truck to my shop i so don't have to go to him and i can do some more diagnosis and make a new fuel line up to check F/P.

I am gonna get the truck up here and do the f/p check.

Also do you think it could be bad fuel???? he just got fuel 66 miles ago... and the f/f was brown/black when changed and it only had 3K on it. and they were doing work on the pumps when he got fuel.

cody

OH NO.....sounds like bad fuel, change the filter again, I have seen 8 filer changes within a hundred miles on a deal like this...................I stay away from stations that has a bulk transport in front of it or if they are working on pumps...............he prolly got a :edit: ton of crud :humm:

also when you pull a bad filter like this make sure to clean out the filter housing b4 ya go in with the new filter :madd:

Any updates??

yea i just got done installing a fuel pressure gauge. what are these trucks suppose to run at? i am new to the CR motors. i have 6 psi steady, no change. i checked the fuel, all is good, f/f clean i even used a holley blue we had laying around and siphoned fuel out the tank, clean.

what is so weird is if we hook another battery to it with jumper cables, it will start. it takes about 2-3 seconds longer cranking till it does tho.

https://www.dieselbombers.com/5-9-li...ling-test.html

8psi is what my stock lp (new) is running at.

Thats weird, just when i thought i found the problem, bang shot down again. i will check going down the road psi and the injector test.

so i geuss i am back to where i was stumped...

I have the truck here at my house now anyhow. so if i got something new to try i can walk to it...

hope i can figure this out...

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

It just got weirder...

i went down this morning, crank over 4-5 times and started right up. waited an hour, fired up...and it keeps starting. i cant do any voltage drop tests now because it starts.

i took it to 3k and let off, comes right back down

i am just going to tell him that if it happens again he is gonna have to take it somewhere that can diagnose it better.

i will keep y'all updated until it leaves here prolly tuesday. he wants me to do other stuff now.

thanks alot guys!!!:U:

:U:

how low is the fuel pressure suppose to get? with the edge on 5, and WOT, it gets down to 3 psi. at idle it is 6psi.

thats the only i see that is not good....

thanks guys,

Cody

Low fuel pressure, high and low side taxes the injectors pretty good. See what happens when he uninstalls the Edge.

we noticed by just turning the edge from 0 to 5 the fuel pressure dropped to 5 just doing that going down the road.

The Edge raises rail pressure, thus it takes more fuel pressure to keep up. Because it raises rail pressure, your injectors are not going to last as long. Eventually they will wear enough to cause a hard/no start condition. Or worse, lose an injector completely, resulting in possible engine damage.

Remove the Edge completely and see if it helps.

Please update.

hey this is the owner of the turck we put a little biger fuel like from the fuel filter to the cp3 with a gauge and now it starts its the weirdist thing eaver i still think it cranks a second too long though but at least it starts the gauge reads about 5 or 6 psi fuel pressure

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

correction i just went out to start the truck now it just cranks fuel pres when the key is turned on at 7psi then slowly goes down cranking about 5 to 6 psi i was reading 03 dodge hard starting and he said it was his injectors how can i test that or do i have to take it to the dealer

You can't check the injectors, it has to go to the dealer. Also, don't try to pull them unless you know what you are doing, there is a lot of high pressure in there and you could get seriously hurt. Not trying to be a butt, just don't want to read about you getting hurt.

no thats ok im just tryin to figure out what i need to do

If you do get it started, ramp the rpm's to 3000 and let off the throttle. If the rpms hang for 5 seconds or more, got injectors over fueling. Then it's time for the dealer. BTW, it's going to be around $4000 to have all 6 injectors, tubes, and rail pressure relief changed out.

if it is the injectors should i replace all 6 or just the ones that r bad

Any updates?

They can do a test to see which are bad and which are good.

Update please

its still having problems if it sits for a couple days you need to give it a little shot of eather and it will fire up and run good i took it to the diesel garage near me and shut it off and they went to start it cranked a couple seconds longer then fired with no either then they let it sit for a couple days now it wont fire this is giving everyone a headach

the lift pump sounds weak...........go after market man, Airdog or Fass will do ya good

the lp is putting out 6 pounds of fuel pressure. brand new i read it should b 8 lbs

Any updates??

If it's hard starting after sitting, you got injectors leaking down, or you got air intrusion somewhere between the lift pump and the CP3. Could also be the fuel limiting valve is shot, cascade overflow valve is sticky/full of crap, or the FCA is getting weak.

found out whats wrong with it it needs injectors

Thread starter can reopen the thread or start a new one. :U: