You can learn how Flo got her name in the new book.
I'm getting better at this whole product placement thing.
Anyway.
I finally finished everything. I spent yesterday getting the final touches ready. Things like the battery tray and the airbox tray and so on. Once everything was hooked up, I got the batteries put back in and it was ready.
 |
| And no real leftover parts! |
So I hopped in and turned the key.
It turned over.
No big clangs or bangs, nothing exploded. No explosions in the cylinders either though. It wouldn't start.
I could tell by listening though, that the batteries had lost quite a bit of oompf sitting on the shelf in the freezing weather. I knew I would have to crank it for a while just to get the fuel back into the system. I cranked and cranked until the battery was essentially dead.
Nothing.
Sigh.
I had to go to the auto parts store again and buy a battery charger. I set it up for a slow charge and left it for the night.
Next day, today, I went out and cranked it over. The batteries were much stronger. Still no start.
Damn.
So I hopped out, strapped on the old headlamp and started investigating. I had done lots of research the night before about possible causes of not starting and almost all of them were because fuel pressure wasn't getting built up in the rails enough to open the injectors. So that's where I started the investigation.
I found a fuel leak. On the driver's side fuel rail, the line that crosses over to the passenger rail had a leak.
 |
| Right under that piece of tape I forgot to take off. |
How the?
Weird.
I fixed it, reassembled everything, and tried again.
The engine cranked and cranked and cranked and
Fired!
It started up! Nothing exploded or anything. The truck was running again. I shut it down and opened the door to look at the engine. That's when I heard the sound of lots of a liquid hitting the ground.
Shit.
I dropped down and looked underneath. On the passenger side, something was pouring onto the ground. I ran over and looked... Diesel. Damn.
I couldn't see anything actually leaking though. I hopped back into the truck, turned it on, it fired up, and ran back out to see. Fuel was spraying out of the end of the fuel rail, the opposite end of the tub I had just tightened.
I shut it down, cleaned up the fuel I could reach, and started looking at what had to come off. Unfortunately, it was a lot more this time. The line I needed to reach sat straight under the big fucking metal thing. So much stuff had to come off.
 |
| Yeah, that one in there. Right in the middle. |
Many of the things I had to pull to get to the rail were a pain to get in and out of place. I may have accidentally spilled coolant from the cooler into the crossover tube, contaminating the oil. I'm changing oil and filter again anyway. I just want an hour of runtime or so to corral any contaminants that may have found their way in while everything was open. But, I got it back together and started it up again.
This time it ran without any leaks I could find. It was late in the day and I had to go to the boy's jiu jitsu class. I will put the wheel shrouds in place tomorrow. I don't think the truck goes back into service until this weekend though. I want a full day to shake it down and check things out.
I think there will be one more post in this series: Lessons learned. Then, assuming nothing else comes up (HAHAHAHAHAAA) that will be it.
Whatever will I do with all my free time?
snicker.
If you have found this series helpful, please do consider buying my book. I priced it at $2.99, which is way less than a 16mm 12-point socket. Ask me how I know.
