3304 cat fuel pressure

[barbender]

Well, it does sound like a low pressure dude bleed off of some sort, if you have good supply. I had an old 5.9 Cummins  with a rotary pump, it would bleed pressure off and I would have to hand prime it to get it to start. If your hand primer won't build pressure, and there is fuel to getting to it, then it would have to be a faulty primer or something else on that low pressure side like the return lines and other items these guys have mentioned.

[barbender]

I've also had times where I blew air back to the tank, but the debris would close the line right back off. Are you sure fuel is physically getting to the pump? I had a machine where a piece of rubber came loose inside a line, and would eventually choke off the supply. That was fun to track down. Ponsse used to use regular hydraulic hose for fuel lines and they would fail this way.

[moodnacreek]

I've also had times where I blew air back to the tank, but the debris would close the line right back off. Are you sure fuel is physically getting to the pump? I had a machine where a piece of rubber came loose inside a line, and would eventually choke off the supply. That was fun to track down. Ponsse used to use regular hydraulic hose for fuel lines and they would fail this way.

Eventually most any old machine will do this. In my current case There is 'dried peanut butter crumbs' in all my diesel tanks. That's from years of using waste vegetable [blended] for fuel. When you cut open an old fuel oil tank you get quite an education. Worst case may be putting a stand pipe in the tank for the suction line.

[mike_belben]

No matter how much starting grief it gives, if its got full power all day once you get it running, then we are dealing with a priming and air purging scenario from losing prime one way or the other.  Any fuel starvation is gonna come with a power starvation.  



Let me back up a stage.  How long have you been working this machine?  Is it your first cold season with it?  



Advanced injection pump timing will always be hard to start, nearly impossible in the cold and would act similar to a lost prime malfunction.  In my experience pulled pumps rarely go back where theyre supposed to and a very small percent of the industrial population truly understands injection timing at all.



So if its a new to you machine i am rethinking things on this issue.

[Caseybow123]

Well everyone here is an update. I bought a $10.00 check valve and installed it as close to the transfer pump that I could. Between installing the valve and fixing 2 glow wires that were broke, problem solved. Now she fires up in -30 Celsius without being plugged in. Thanks for all your input.

[mike_belben]

Simple machines and simple solutions.

[Iwawoodwork]

On my D3 cat about 1975 model, with3304 there is no lift pump but has the hand primer bolted to the side of the injector pump and the inlet fuel line is mounted to the underside of the primer/pump with a banjo fitting that has a screen in it (smaller than a pencil) that easily plugs as mine did, Seems that especially if you run fuel low.  I now often use one of those cheap  Ebay 12vor 24v electric fuel pumps as primer/lift /transfer pump when I have problems priming after working on the fuel systems, that seems to work for me to get fuel up to the cracked injector line,   My 3304 in he D3 has done the banjo screen clogging twice, both time the engine died completely after a loss of power then running rough,