Spare injection pump storage. fail
 

I keep forgetting to start this topic for documentation.

Visited a friend last night.
He swapped out three good used injection pumps, and they all had issues.

He had them on the shelf capped, bagged, and full of fuel for seven years.

I am busy at the moment, more later.


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This is interesting......could they have been bad when they were stored 7 years ago?

Totally full of oil as in submerged is the absolute best storage long term. That is as long as it is a straight mechanical injection pump in my opinion.

Fill it and cap off the openings first so nothing can soak off the external casing and land up inside the pump. These pumps may have been sitting around dry before Roys friend got them. I preffer pumps still installed and with connections attached. Still as trhey were when shut down basically.

I would not risk an an old pull dry stored injection pump off of ebay for example.

Diesel Fuel has water in it.
The calibration Oil used in Fuel Injection Shops would be better for storage purposes but even they can get sticky after a year or 2 in storage.

What commly happens on inlne IPs is the Element Plunger will go up and the goo will hold it up agaisnt the return Spring Tension.

You can remove the Delivery Valve Holders and the Delivery Valve and use somthing like 1/8" Brass Brazing Rod with a rounded tip to go inside and tap down the Plunger.

Before doing the above you can spray in WD-40 or Marvel Mystery Oil to help dissolve the goo.

Yes it is always a possibility.

A few months ago I unstuck a Bosch / Zexel PFR pump on a 3 cyl Kubota by first marking all adjustments then removing the plungers. Spray carb cleaner is thin enough to soak in as the goal is to dissolve the gum.

With the flat part of the plunger in a vise barrel in a crescent wrench, a bit of wiggling and turning made the plungers come free. The trick is establish small amounts of motion and not jam it in any one direction.

The plunger barrel won't tolerate any scratches so be very careful. Also, the top of the plunger is slotted for the spill port and can be damaged if hit.

Answer
 

All of these came off good Running engines that where sold to repair shops.

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Spare injection pump storage. fail
 

My 603. Pump I have worked when I turned it by hand. Fuel spurted out of the valves so I should be fine. Woo

BTDT.

Many years back I test drove an '85 300sd for sale that had just turned up at the local wrecker. It drove great, motor ran purrfect, etc. Unfortunately when we took it to my buddy's shop, the rust underneath was too much, so I passed on it.

Fast forward three years and I lost the motor in the '83 30sd that I had purchased instead. The yard offered me that engine from the '85, which had been sitting on the lot all that time.

When it arrived at the shop they ran it out of the car and it seemed okay, maybe one sticky injector or so they thought.

Once it was in the car it ran poorly when fully warm. We traced it to the pump. The yard gave me the motor for half price. I lived with it until I sold it on to a friend, who replaced the pump. It now runs great.

Seemed like those three years of sitting killed the pump, or should I say the three years of sitting in whatever was inside the pump, killed it....

I wasn't on this forum back then... had I been, I would have probably tried to replace the pump myself.

i've had one submerged in new motor oil for about a year now; wonder if that's ok

Turning it by hand?!
 

If an injection pump is out of a vehicle, should you be able to turn it by hand?! I have one now that belonged to a friend's 300D that lost an oil chain and I cannot turn it... :(

yup. should turn with resistance by hand easily... to a point.

So, the consensus is that the proper way to store an IP long term is to submerge it in engine oil?

Comments
 

* Clean the exterior of the injection pump.
* Submerge it in light spindle oil.
* Twist and turn the assembly until it stops bubbling.
* Crank the injection pump cam 20-30 rotations.
* Seal the oil tank.
*** Once per year: Crank the injection pump cam 20-30 rotations.


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ugh, guess my 30 weight oil is too heavy....off to buy some spindle oil

If it has been sitting in the clean new 30 weight oil already for quite some time. I would just exercise the pump and leave it in there. I do not think normal car based oil has an additive that will be destructive in itself. The spindal oil is a bit of an unknown to me and may have some additive package as well. Or perhaps not. The viscosity is going to be a lot less though.

Runaway Fail
 

I found out the hard way a couple days ago that a pump that has been sitting for years can fail where instead of not delivering enough fuel it delivers way too much and results in a runaway. The rack is stuck and will not move to the shutoff position. Of course it never occurred to me to open it up and look before starting the engine. Fortunately I was able stuff a rag in the intake to slow it down and disconnect the fuel line from the lift pump before it got too crazy.

Lesson learned- If you are starting up a motor that has sat for some time, be armed to deal with a runaway. I've since started the motor again and killed it right away using the block of wood over the turbo intake method. Then I started it and position a thick layer of cardboard over the turbo intake with just enough of a gap to keep it at a high idle. The reason I did that was I hooked up the fuel feed and return lines to a jug of Marvel Mystery Oil, diesel purge style, to circulate through the IP. Now the IP has been full of MMO since last night and in the next day or two I'm going to see if that has loosened anything up. I would be tempted to store a pump in MMO for long term storage.

why mmo, why not use actual diesel purge? that's what its for after all, is cleaning out the fuel system components.

Partly because I felt that MMO would do better at loosening up corrosion and that it would have better lubricating properties. Mostly because at 11:30 at night I had a quart and a half of MMO at the shop and no Diesel Purge.

5 gallons of spindle oil goes for around $150. Not cheap by any means. I'm guessing you need 5 gallons to cover something the size of an IP.