To everybody: Please edit and reword this to achieve a debugged procedure to start a diesel on those nasty winter mornings when it cranks continuously but just will not start......

I will focus here only on the fuel bleeding and fuel delivery part. The other checks such as Glow Plugs; Compression; Air Delivery will be added later.

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT AS MANY AS POSSIBLE PROOF THIS AND EDIT TO MAKE IT AS PERFECT AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. MAKE YOUR CHANGES BY EDITING THE ORIGINAL AND I WILL POST THE UPDATED COPY AS CORRECTIONS ARE ACCEPTED AND INCORPORATED. PLEASE BE PRECISE AND PROOF-READ YOUR INPUTS. THE RESULTING WORK WILL SAVE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MUCH GRIEF AND EXPENSE IF THIS EFFORT PRODUCES RESULTS.


Low Pressure Fuel Supply Bleeding Procedure

1. Acquire a jar and place circa one inch of diesel fuel into it.

2. Disconnect the cigar hose from the fuel return line to the tank and seal with finger to prevent air ingress

3. Submerge the hose end into the fuel in the jar and release finger

4. Using hand primer and/or cranking continue until bubble-free flow is established

5. Reconnect the cigar hose to the return line keeping it finger sealed as before

The Injector Pump (IP) fuel supply line circuit should now be air free.

Confirm this by pumping the Primer Pump and listening for the characteristic check valve chatter sound. A vibration at the check valve can also be felt when this sound occurs. If this checks OK then proceed. If not troubleshoot the cause.



High Pressure Fuel Supply Bleeding Procedure

1. Crack the nuts at the injectors by loosening a couple of turns

2. Crank the engine whilst observing

3. Witness a small pulsing air free flow of fuel being emitted from each hard line

4. Tighten the nuts as this consistent air free flow is in progress

5. Engine will now start if other critical subsystems are operational

Note:
The other critical subsystems refererred to in step 5 are:
Glow Plug subsystem
Injectors
Clean pre-chamber
Copious supply of clean air
Compression greater than 221 psi on all cylinders
Less than 42 psi difference between cylinders
Operation block heater system if ambient temp is below 10 deg F

Nothing wrong with the except it could be written in plainer language - "Pressure Fuel Supply Bleeding Procedure".
On the "Low Pressure Fuel Supply Bleeding Procedure". I have never read this one before. It seems that they are worried about spilling the fuel.

When I change my secondary filter I installed the filter dry (I did not fill it with diesel fuel). Pumped on my hand primer 25-45 times. Loosened up all of the fuel injector lines at the injectors and crank the engine (you need a good charged battery) until I see a good stream of fuel comming out. I tighten the fuel injector lines and star the engine.
That works most of the time if not I repeat the above.
Filling the filter with clean diesel fuel before installing it saves alot of hand primer pumping but I always worry about getting some extra crap in the filter so I do not do it.
If it was a really big fuel filter or no hand primer I would fill the filter to save the battery/starter stress but I would still loosen the lines at the injectors.

I know there is other ways of doing it but I have had good luck with it.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I really like the ideal of submerging the cigar hose on the injection pump outlet and pumping until there is no air in the fuel stream coming out. Good troubleshooting method if one suspects they are plauged by suspect air in a system from an air leak for example.
My old ideal of looking for fuel flow in itself out of the pump does not deal with any quantity of air mixed in so this is much better. You know pretty well then your injection pump itself is full of fuel only and not a lot of fuel and perhaps air. Or that you are not constantly pumping up air as well.

You got the idea, Barry.

Do not be shy guys and gals. I am only pushing out my ideas and I want to run them by the experience base you all possess collectively to debug the you know what out of them.

Get in there, agree or disagree, reword, rewrite, edit. I want to make a fool-proof process that captures everything that has been dealt with in numerous threads and most recently in Funola's on when he introduced air by running out of fuel.

Seems logical, why haven't I ever heard of it?, I read my owners manual

When changing my primary filter I fill it with clean diesel or 'diesel Purge", always lights right off.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

This should say something like 61x fuel priming procedure..

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff