Series 3 Fuel priming problems

Evening all,
I'm having problems bleeding my 2.25 diesel after getting it mounted back on the chassis and plumbing the fuel/coolant back in.

So I've had the engine running before pulling it out for the rebuild. Engine hasn't been touched other than new lift pump (working fine), new injector lines and clear fuel lines for low pressure. Injector pump hasn't been touched.

Lift pump primes and fills new filter, all air removed from low pressure (clear) lines. Cracked off injector unions and no fuel whilst turning over, so worked back from there.

Cracked off the bleed bolts on the injector pump itself, the one on the round portion of the injector pump is bleeding fuel through, no bubbles. However the bleed point nearest the throttle linkage/wing is as dry as a bone. Nothing coming out whatsoever.

I assume that's part of the problem, but no amount of turning over or hand priming would bring fuel out.

Stop lever in both on/off, no difference.

Any ideas chaps?

Actually that's a bit of a lie, the injectors have been refurbished and the valve clearances adjusted.

You only need to bleed the pump on the curved part of the body. Crack all of the injectors and then crank and crank and crank, once its starts to try to start tighten the unions then crank and crank ..... and crank. You may have noticed, there is a lot of cranking involved here. Your battery will have to be top notch a, to do all the cranking and b, to keep the engine turning over at a quick enough rate.

I've been cranking lots, no fuel at the injector unions whatsoever.

I've read that lots of people get away with only bleeding the one point on the injector pump, but surely there should be fuel at the 2nd bleed bolt?

WoodyO said:

I've been cranking lots, no fuel at the injector unions whatsoever.

I've read that lots of people get away with only bleeding the one point on the injector pump, but surely there should be fuel at the 2nd bleed bolt?

Click to expand...

I had the same problem with a 2¼ diesel recently, nothing at he second bleed screw, which like you I thought wasn't right but I read something on here written by @jamesmartin and he said only the round part screw needed bleeding. A good battery, very good, was what was needed in my case as my original battery just wasn't spinning the engine quickly enough.

Thanks, it's a brand new battery that I'll put back on charge tomorrow and see what happens.

Fingers crossed, but welcome to any other suggestions.

Make sure the 'fuel stop' lever is in the 'run' position. You could try spraying some WD40 (not easystart) in the inlet manifold to see if it kicks in and then drags the diesel through.

No cable connected at the moment to the stop lever, but down is run isn't it?

WoodyO said:

No cable connected at the moment to the stop lever, but down is run isn't it?

Click to expand...

Yes

FIP bled fully at the bleed bolt on the body and now have fuel at the injector unions, so thanks for the help on that.

However, still not firing... puffs of smoke from the exhaust and attempted to fire a couple of times but just not playing ball.

Still not wired the glow plugs up though so will try those before going into too much more fault finding.

WoodyO said:

FIP bled fully at the bleed bolt on the body and now have fuel at the injector unions, so thanks for the help on that.

However, still not firing... puffs of smoke from the exhaust and attempted to fire a couple of times but just not playing ball.

Still not wired the glow plugs up though so will try those before going into too much more fault finding.

Click to expand...

I would definitely wire up the glow plugs before trying to start a 2.25 diesel, they struggle at the best of times WITH glow plugs.

Engine running!

I wired up the glow plugs after changing one out for a new one. Definitely helped but the main reason for my problems was just so much air in the FIP.

A word to anyone reading this suffering the same problem, for me it really was just a case of bleed, bleed and more bleed.

Initially I could only get fuel from the bleed bolt on the pump body, but eventually after probably an hour of bleeding on the lift pump, managed to get flow from the bleed point on the control body.

It was still reluctant to start but once going it ran well with a bit of throttle and not too much smoke considering.

I've still air coming from the spill off back to the tank, but I think that's from the top of an injector and needs a new copper washer.

WoodyO said:

Engine running!

I wired up the glow plugs after changing one out for a new one. Definitely helped but the main reason for my problems was just so much air in the FIP.

A word to anyone reading this suffering the same problem, for me it really was just a case of bleed, bleed and more bleed.

Initially I could only get fuel from the bleed bolt on the pump body, but eventually after probably an hour of bleeding on the lift pump, managed to get flow from the bleed point on the control body.

It was still reluctant to start but once going it ran well with a bit of throttle and not too much smoke considering.

I've still air coming from the spill off back to the tank, but I think that's from the top of an injector and needs a new copper washer.

Click to expand...

Excellent news, glad you got it running