Originally Posted by jay_bob

I am now experiencing the exact same symptoms on both my IDI engines. Bad enough it caused my son to get stranded in the wagon yesterday. He was afraid to crank it too much so I had to go rescue him. He was about 15 minutes from the house, and by the time I got there it had cooled off enough that I could start it after about 3 crank cycles.

I am also getting it to a much lesser extent on my CDI. It will take just slightly longer to catch occasionally.

All 3 of my engines have *never* had a problem starting. Even the wagon, when it sat at vstech's for 4 months while we rebuilt the rear end, started with a glow and 3 seconds of cranking.

I refueled all 3 of them last week at the same station near my house. It is the same place I have been buying fuel since I started driving Diesels in 2011.

I checked the fuel filter on the wagon, since it is the only vehicle of the 3 that you can inspect the filter without having to disassemble anything, and it is crystal clear. No scum, no particles, nothing. Fuel is a slight amber hue like you would expect.

The only thing I can think of is somehow Gasoline got introduced into the fuel supply. The reason I think this is because the problem only happens when the engine is in heat soak condition. The engine is acting like it is getting vapor locked. If I crank it enough it will finally purge the hot fuel with vapor pockets through the system and draw in cooler fuel from the lines and tank. Then once it draws the cool fuel from the tank it runs fine.

I am having no issues with smoothness, acceleration, power delivery, any other aspect of performance once the vehicle gets started and running. That and the fact that my wagon pre-filter is crystal clear is making me discount the clogged filter theory.

I just went out and took the cap off the ML and the wagon and I would swear I smell a hint of gasoline in the fuel.

I personally filled all 3 vehicles the last time and I know I put Diesel in all 3. I always stop and double check before putting in the nozzle that it is the Yellow (Diesel) nozzle and I push the Diesel button on the pump. The Gas nozzles on these pumps are black.

When I was filling the ML the last time I kept getting whiffs of gasoline but I wrote it off to someone spilling fuel near me. Made my heart stop for a second but I was definitely pumping from the Diesel hose.

I wonder if the guy delivering the fuel made a mistake and dispensed some gasoline into the Diesel tank.