Originally Posted by bustedbenz

A couple years ago, I ran my 300SDL completely out of fuel. Sucked the tank dry, air in every line, filter canisters empty, sitting on the side of the road, *empty*.

They brought me about 10 gallons of fuel from home in containers. Dumped it in the back, got in, and cranked. This was compliant with the recommendation of the owners' manual -- and it was dark, and we didn't feel like pulling filters off, etc. We always keep batteries in top condition so it was relatively pain-free.

Obviously starters aren't designed for continuous abuse. However, we figured once or twice in its lifetime probably wouldn't kill it, esp. since the book says to do it this way. The owner's manual says to floor the accelerator and crank for up to 60 seconds until the engine is running, and doing so will self-prime the system.

They were right. My dad timed it while I cranked consistently -- we were afraid that stopping to let the starter rest might cause us to lose ground -- I've forgotten the time but somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds, the thing lit off and kept running.

My point in posting is that if the IP is delivering fuel properly, which it may well not be -- one 60-second crank will do all the "priming" good that can be done. If everything works as it should, I've demonstrated with my personal engine that 60 seconds of cranking or less is sufficient to prime a completely dry system.

If there are methods (filling the filter canister in advance, etc) to minimize the starter wear, then that's all to the good. I encourage it. My point is that 60 seconds is a good worst-case "it would have started by now if it was going to" mark. In my opinion. I'm sure somebody here has proved that it doesn't work but that's my experience.