Losing cylinders, bad fuel?

[Tinker219]

Temperature: 7 degrees and heavy snow.

My first tow trip with the new headgaskets was supposed to be exciting. One hour into the trip, I was pumped! I could climb up hills with no fear of blowing coolant everywhere, making great time, and just HAVING a great time. Until I needed a quick top-off from half tank before I hit the freeway.

Left the truck running while I filled her up. About two gallons into the fill, I hear the exhaust whistle start to break up, like a cylinder or two dropped out. I thought, "Thats wierd!". It immediately cleaned up to a smooth exhaust note and I finished filling the truck(15 gallons were put in). Left the truck running while I went in to pay(old school truck stop). Came out and the truck was obviously down on one or possibly two cylinders. Shut it off and restarted it to a smooth exhaust. I proceed to exit the station and enter the freeway, and power dropped immediately when I began to accelerate. I made it 5 miles down the road before the truck would hardly maintain 40mph, at which point I exited and parked. I put two quarts of 911 Diesel Treatment into the tank and saw no improvement. We had a dyno appointment for my customer's car so we made that(and drove the car 2 hours each way from the truck/trailer), and returned to the truck six hours later.

Changed fuel filters which were actually pretty clean(only 5k miles on them), and no change in running condition. Loaded the customer's car up and limped back home at 30mph. We did stop back at the gas station that I filled up at and showed my displeasure. I also requested a piece of cardboard to block the grill thinking maybe the fuel is gelling before it can enter the heads. The truck came back to life for the majority of the trip! Only when I really got into the throttle hard did things get interesting. The cylinders would start dropping until I got out of the throttle, coasted, and slowly got back into it.

So, did I get a bad batch of diesel?

Symptoms:

Cylinders started dropping during fillup;
No power when giving any throttle;
Tried 911 fuel treament, no change;
Changed fuel filters, no change;
Blocked radiator, and some of the power came back;
No DTCs or warning lights.

Thanks!

[dieseldan2005]

That does sound like a fuel problem. it does sound like gelling. Maybe your fuel pump? Heres a bump for ya!

[Tinker219]

Thanks! I took the day off today to play with the truck some more and here is what I found.

14 degrees ambient
Cardboard still blocking grille
I'm about 5/8 of a tank right now, or 12 gallons of "suspect fuel".

Truck started a little hard on the stock tune(switched over last night to see if that helped, it did not). However, it fired on all 8 cylinders.

Once high idle kicks over, thats when I dropped presumably two cylinders.

Kick out of high idle by touching the gas, and she smooths out. When truck is fully warm, the idle is perfect. I slowly raise the RPM and things stay smooth.

Try to drive the truck with ANY load and cylinders and EGT's start dropping. WOT I only see 4-600 deg EGT's. Normally I'm 1000-1100deg.

Just more info. I don't want to hurt anything so should I pull the tank and drain the fuel?

[Tinker219]

Pulled the truck in last night to thaw off, and things started out OK.

Once I felt the truck was warmed up enough, I began to give a little throttle.

Sure as ****, the cylinders started dropping one at a time, then recovering.

I'm in the process of pulling the tank, what a PITA. I'm almost thinking the fuel pickup is clogged, or the fuel pump is on its way out. Always primes, but maybe it's losing power.

Bump, any tips?

[Granny]

Dang I don't envy you pulling the tank! Bumping it for you!

[Tinker219]

As posted in my Problems Thread:

Cleaned tank, diesel came out in great shape. NO water at all.

Refilled and the truck made it 1 mile around the block before it sputtered to a stop on the side of the road. Tried to restart, it sputtered, but didn't fire. Waited 5 minutes, and it puttered to life, though very weakly. Made it to within a half block of the house and just had the wife tow me the rest of the way.

HPOP fitting replacement fun tonight! I just hope the fitting took a crap and the rest of it is fine.

The Cummins are looking more and more appetising to me....

[mschn99]

Originally Posted by Tinker219

As posted in my Problems Thread:

Cleaned tank, diesel came out in great shape. NO water at all.

Refilled and the truck made it 1 mile around the block before it sputtered to a stop on the side of the road. Tried to restart, it sputtered, but didn't fire. Waited 5 minutes, and it puttered to life, though very weakly. Made it to within a half block of the house and just had the wife tow me the rest of the way.

HPOP fitting replacement fun tonight! I just hope the fitting took a crap and the rest of it is fine.

The Cummins are looking more and more appetising to me....

if you need to get ahold of me for any help...feel free. You can do that HPOP fitting without pulling the intake......there is a trick for that...

[Tinker219]

Thanks for the call of support Terri!!!

Thanks for the help Marc, you have been PM'd

[dieseldan2005]

Did you find anything yet?

[melmount]

what up with it?
hpop?or a bad fuel pump? If its a fuel pump dont give upon the sdd. The cummins lift pump is even weorse. However, a good motor.