Ran truck low on fuel, runs for 10 seconds at a time??

[AED F250]

Last night I was towing a customers car to my shop and was in an unfamiliar part of town. I couldn't find a fuel station with diesel until my miles until empty was at 10 miles. The last little stretch of road pulling into the station was slightly up hill, but the truck was running fine when I shut it off at the pump.

So I fill it up, start the truck and begin to pull away from the pump and the truck idles down and dies. After this it just cranks and wont start. I figured maybe there was some air in the fuel line. So, after cycling the key several times the truck fired up, ran for about 10 seconds, then died. I faught with it for about an hour, reloaded the tune, checked for fuel at the filters, etc etc.

The truck would not stay running, until with the tow truck on site I gave it one last shot and just floored the throttle. The truck started after some prolonged cranking and went to 3400 rpm. I held it there, it started to die again so I gave it more throttle trying to stay at a higher rpm. After realizing the I had passed up that 10 second mark I let the revs come down slowly to idle and everything seems fine. Drove the truck the rest of the way home with no problems.


What the hell happend?!

[SuperCrutyPS]

You're probably right - The last little bit of uphill probably sucked air up the line. Enough fuel was there to get you to the pump. Probably just took a little time for the air to push through and the system to prime again. That's my guess anyway.

Edit: Just noticed you're from Sacramento - What part? I'm in Orangevale.

[southern7.3]

Yea it took me an hour and a half to get mine going last winter when I ran it outta fuel

[po-po 5.0]

These things don't like to prime after running them dry. It was probably just that.

[AED F250]

Originally Posted by SuperCrutyPS

Edit: Just noticed you're from Sacramento - What part? I'm in Orangevale.

I'm actually up the hill a little bit off of HW50 in Cameron Park. I own a high performance automotive shop up here called AED. We specialize in late model Mustangs.

If your in Orangevale I'm sure you can pin point exactly where this happened. I was in Folsom pulling up that small hill from Folsom Bulv. up to the 76 station that is infront of the movie theaters and across from the outlets.

[AED F250]

Originally Posted by southern7.3

Yea it took me an hour and a half to get mine going last winter when I ran it outta fuel

Thats crazy. I have owned 3 different PSD's over the last 7 years. 7.3, 6.0 and now the 6.4. I generally never intend on letting them run low, but sometimes you just get stuck in an area w/o diesel. I have never had an issue like this with any of my other trucks and come to think of it, I have never heard of any of my multiple buddies with PSD's having any issue like this either.

Oh well/

[1stFORD]

It's not just the PSD's. My father is an excavator and I've been running heavy equipment since I could walk. I also have considerable experience with Duramax's since this is what he has owned for the last 7 years.

Any diesel is a ***** when you run it dry. If you think the 6.4 is a ***** when it gets air in the line, I've run diesels dry that are as big as your truck.

At least with the better heavy equipment and the Dmax's there's a hand prime pump usually located near the water separator. I don't think the PSD's have these. But they sure are nice when you need them.

[Airborne29th]

Hrm.. interesting.. Ive actually ran mine WAY below the empty line by accident mind you... its gone about 30 miles past it saying 0 miles to empty before, it starts to surge a bit on the throttle, but I've made it to the pump no problem, and had no issues starting once fueled up.. Granted I do have a 38 gallon stock tank, and I think that the computer is not programed correctly for the tank..

[AED F250]

Interesting. The fuel tank may have something to do with it. This is my first short box PSD.

[SuperCrutyPS]

Originally Posted by AED F250

I'm actually up the hill a little bit off of HW50 in Cameron Park. I own a high performance automotive shop up here called AED. We specialize in late model Mustangs.

If your in Orangevale I'm sure you can pin point exactly where this happened. I was in Folsom pulling up that small hill from Folsom Bulv. up to the 76 station that is infront of the movie theaters and across from the outlets.

I know exactly where that is....I work at Intel just up the hill from there.