300td turns, wont start

[kudasai]

i have tried a few searches, and the diy, and am currently working on the most likely culprit. but i am military home on a short leave before returning to theater, and time is precious. so any help i can get, i am asking for.

right before i left, my car would start losing power. at first it seemed like it was the wvo filter going kaput, but the power loss was different. instead of being able to flip a switch to go back to diesel and getting my power back, it would lose power till i came to a stop, and then stall. i could restart fine, and run it through first gear with no problems, but after shifting to second, it would immediately lose all power and again stall. after about 5 blocks of this, i was finally unable to start the car again to have it towed. being as i was a few days from deploying, i did not have the time to work on it

the inline filter was brand new, and showed no contamination at all. the wvo was water free, and had already given me half a tank with no problems, the primer pump also new.

i am now pulling and cleaning all the injectors and pressure lines with solvent and compressed air. however, the lines look clean as a whistle, and the injectors have very limited coking on the face. i have pulled four of five injectors so far, cleaned and then polished the face, and have inspected the seat for the injectors and have not found any buildup to explain the rapid descent into lawn ornament status my car now has.

if anyone has any ideas before i send my baby to a diesel shop, please let me know. i'm skilled in gas and turbine engines, but this is my first deisel so i am still learning about platform specific gremlins.

i only have two weeks till i redeploy, so hopefully i can get a few days of driving before i go. right now, i am riding a motorcycle in feb...and the suck factor is thru the roof to say the least!

thanks!

[kerry]

I would bypass all the existing fuel systems and put a jug of clean diesel under the hood and put the input and return lines into the clean diesel. I'd try to run it that way. If it didn't run that way, then the fuel system can be excluded as causing the problem and the problem has to be engine/pump related.
Have you checked the output of the lift pump?

[pizzachef]

Air leak maybe? Or a clogged tank vent? It would probably be best to leave it on diesel until you get the kinks worked out before trying VO again. Can you describe the VO setup? Two-tank I guess? You looping the return or sending it back to tank?

It it won't start after you've gotten everything back together and primed, try putting fuel in a bottle and put the diesel supply and returns in the bottle...maybe even by-pass the VO components all together, then add them back in gradually to try to pinpoint the problem.
Good luck.

doh...Kerry beat me to it...

[Lycoming-8]

This sounds like the symptoms others have had who later report that the tank screen is plugged or the tank vent is plugged.

[kudasai]

well, the screen, the lines and the injectors are clear with no idea as to what the problem is, and to boot, i busted one of the vacuum lines off the brake booster, right at the fitting. so now i conceed defeat. a freind uses a foreign auto place out in the boonies, so i grudgingly accepted defeat based on time, and will see what happens.

thank you though for the gas tank screen idea, i didnt even know there was yet another filter on the car.