HELP fuel system

im at my wits end

for ages i have had a squeaking noise coming from my engine bay when it is cold, also blowing grey smoke until it is warm, also down on power, thinking it was the engine (had done 200k miles) i fully refurbished the engine, guess what i still have squeaking noise, even worse now, when it is warm it makes a ticking/tapping noise, so i turned my attention to the fuel system, i changed the fuel filter, cleaned out the sediment filter, and used my compressor to blow back down the pipes to clear all the crap from the pipes, still doing it, yesterday i tried replacing my lift pump, so im pumping away and nothing is coming up, i have just removed the inspection cover for the fuel sender unit (ESR1223) to find the top of it soaked in diesel, and the right hand side of the plastic housing surrounding the pipe is missing on the draw pipe, i have fitted a clear pipe from the filter to the fuel pump and there is no air visable,

could this escaping fuel on the sender unit be causing my lack of power, squeaking when cold, and the tapping when warm?

The squeaking is proably the belt tensioner wheel, they run off center the usual fix is a penny behind the body of the wheel to square it up, your lack of power could just be the air filter if its not been changed for a while, the tapping could be tappet adjustment.

My guess would be that you have a broken elbow on the top of the fuel sender which is allowing air to be drawn in, as well as fuel.

It looks from the picture like a bad break so I'm surprised it's still running !!!!

From that picture I would say you need a new fuel sender.


Good luck

Dave

The V8 man said:

The squeaking is proably the belt tensioner wheel, they run off center the usual fix is a penny behind the body of the wheel to square it up, your lack of power could just be the air filter if its not been changed for a while, the tapping could be tappet adjustment.

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already fitted new bearing on tensioner, had new air filter and tappets have been set twice

thebiglad said:

My guess would be that you have a broken elbow on the top of the fuel sender which is allowing air to be drawn in, as well as fuel.

It looks from the picture like a bad break so I'm surprised it's still running !!!!

From that picture I would say you need a new fuel sender.


Good luck

Dave

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i cant see any air in the clear pipe i have fitted between the fuel filter and diesel pump, im getting a new sender sent over and hopefully fitted this afternoon, but would this cause the squeaking, ticking and low power? i read somewhere that fuel starvation causes those 3 symptoms, would a leak there be causing fuels starvation?

mastersdave2 said:

i cant see any air in the clear pipe i have fitted between the fuel filter and diesel pump, im getting a new sender sent over and hopefully fitted this afternoon, but would this cause the squeaking, ticking and low power? i read somewhere that fuel starvation causes those 3 symptoms, would a leak there be causing fuels starvation?

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If there's a leak of fuel it means there's a hole -if there's a hole air can be drawn in leading to insufficient fuel at the lift and injector pumps.

ok... so i have fitted a new sender unit, bleed the fuel system the best i can, immediately the smoke on startup stopped and i have tons more power, the engine was squeaking still i sprayed the fan belt with wd40 and it disappeared so i guess the squeaking is the fanbelt,

however i still have this ticking, it seems to be higher up the rev range now, closer to 2k rpm rather than the 1500 rpm before, im thinking i will have to give it a few days to settle down and all the air to find its way out the system, unless anyone has any suggestions as to what it could still be, will check tappets once again this weekend

If it was air in the injection pump,this takes a while to clear itself-are you sure you did not see any bubbles in your clear pipe,they must have been there

biolandy said:

If it was air in the injection pump,this takes a while to clear itself-are you sure you did not see any bubbles in your clear pipe,they must have been there

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only time i saw air was when i bled the system, there maybe some air in the pump as i dont know if there is a way to bleed from the pump to the injectors

There is a way, just crack the union off the top of the injectors and turn it over. I do it one by one with the engine running, seems to do the trick!

Unless you have put the pipes back on the lift pump the wrong way around.

Not that I have done such a thing :doh: