Hey everyone. I absolutely can not believe it's been 5-ish years since my last post here. Happy to finally be able to post an update.
Long story short, the truck is running! I've only driven about 20 miles so far, but everything seems good. Posted some pictures on imgur.com:
http://imgur.com/a/KrltYThings done:- Disassembled, cleaned, resealed, and reinstalled injection pump.
- Had to replace the fuel cut solenoid.
- Changed timing belt.
- Changed oil filter and oil with a regular 30w thinking I’ll do another quick change soon.
- Changed fuel filter.
- Flushed and filled brake fluid.
- Drained coolant. Have water in there now with the intention of doing a flush soon.
- Replaced vacuum pump oil hose.
- Re-foamed/upholstered seat.
Questions:- Truck has been sitting for maybe 7 years now, any recommendation on what I should do before driving it more?
- Do the transmission and differential fluids need to be changed? There are no noticeable leaks anywhere, but wondering if either fluid degrades just sitting there.
- Should I do any sort of engine clean? Like putting a few oz of SeaFoam in with the oil?
- When I change the oil again, what oil should I use? It looks like people on these forums like the Shell Rotella brand. What grade would you recommend? Should I stick with the 30w or go to 15w-40? The temp here in southern AZ during the summer ranges from 60’s to 100’s. Also, how important is getting diesel grade oil? Asking because I just have regular 30w in there now.
- Thank you!
Here’s the long story if you would like to read:After another several years of the truck just sitting there, I finally decided to do something about it. Went ahead and did everything myself (with the help of my brother) instead of sending the pump off for a rebuild. Hoping to get that done at a later date, though.
So I studied up on diesels, and the injection pump especially. Found a source for seals, an exploded parts diagram, and videos/write ups about the VE type pumps and got to work.
This pump parts diagram and list was most helpful:
https://fuel-inject.com/zexe/1047491190/We pulled out the injection pump and took it apart, cleaned it all up using Simple Green, brake cleaner, and acetone, with a toothbrush and put it back together with new seals. In order to do this you have to buy or make some special tools. I used a Dremel to modify a 6-sided 12mm socket to fit the two 3-sided hinge pins. Then I used a hacksaw to modify a 14mm (I think) nut to fit on the governor shaft locking nut. I measured the positions of the governor shaft, full load screw, top speed screw, idle screw, and control shaft before taking anything apart, then did my best to put everything back to those spots on reassembly.
There was a slight issue while tightening the distributor head down into the pump housing...I failed to make sure the spring seat was fully seated around the plunger aaaand the seat cracked. Thankfully I was able to order a replacement from Oregon Fuel Injection. They appear to be a good source for parts and they were very responsive too. Everything else went well. The cleaning took a while alternating between soaking and scrubbing with that toothbrush, and because we were doing it piece by piece trying to remember where everything goes. The pictures show how full of crud the pump was. And the cause of the high idle and no throttle response issue was the metering sleeve was glued stuck in the full load position, covering the relief port on the plunger.
With everything clean and assembled, we tossed the pump back into the truck doing our best to line up that timing mark on the pump flange, and replaced the timing belt. Put everything else back on, primed it, and she started right up! The throttle response was back and everything sounded good. The only thing was the idle still seemed a bit high. I bought a cheap laser tachometer to measure the crankshaft rpms and it was going about 1200 rpm if I recall correctly. I found the issue was I installed the throttle lever one tooth too tight onto the control shaft. A simple in-truck pump adjustment. Then a slight adjustment of the full load screw and I was able to bring the idle down to 750 using the idle adjustment screw.
I changed the oil and thought everything was all set. Wellllll, not quite. We had the truck idling while we looked everything over and all of a sudden a bunch of oil dumped on the ground (onto a large piece of cardboard we had there just in case). After some research on here and isuzupup.com I figured out the oil hose that feeds the vacuum pump cracked near where it connects to the engine when we moved the alternator to take off the belt. Saw that JLemond might keep some stock of that hose, or there was a post about someone making their own using a 6" length of 4AN braided stainless hose with one M8x1.25 and one M10x1.5 banjo fittings, reusing the original bolts. I went the stainless route for the longevity and it looks good.
Nowww I'm thinking everything is all good. Took it for some short drives in the neighborhood and it seemed fine. Then I decided to go a bit further, grab some more diesel at the corner gas station, and drive around the block. I had just turned off the main street into the neighborhood when my brother and I heard a "pop" in the engine compartment and the truck just shut off. It seemed like the two happened at the same time. When I opened the hood I thought I smelled something like burnt plastic, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Thought maybe it was air in the lines so we tried to prime it and start again, but no go. So we towed it back to the house using my brothers Civic+rope, and stopped for the day. The next morning, I googled the symptoms and found people talking about a blown fuel cut solenoid being a possible issue, so that was on the list of things to check. The popping turned out to be the cap on the coolant overflow reservoir popping off. I think that just happened because I had mostly all water in the radiator and maybe some air, so the pressure backed up into the reservoir forcing the cap off. Not 100% on that but everything seems fine since then.
First, I checked the fuse box and noticed the 15 amp "regulator" fuse was blown. Replaced that and tried to start the truck, no go. Just to be clear, the starter is cranking but no ignition. Pulled the oil filler cap off and checked the valves were moving while cranking, just to make sure the timing belt was good. Then I took a jumper wire and tried to jump the fuel cut solenoid to listen for a click. There was nothing there. But I did notice the connection on top looked damaged and smelled a little burnt so I pulled it out. Used a voltmeter to test for resistance between the connection on top and the body of the solenoid (ground) and got nothing. So that was busted. Not positive why, but we could have damaged it while cleaning. Can’t remember doing so, but maybe I submerged it in the and got some water in the coil area? Anyway, I found a replacement on ebay, installed the new one, primed the system, and it started right up! To this point, that was the last mechanical issue I had to deal with. Driven about 15 miles since with no issues.
During all of the waiting for parts to arrive, I flushed and filled the brakes, did some miscellaneous interior cleaning and a quick seat reupholstering. For the seat I got some hog rings, hog ring pliers, and Dap contact cement, and used some carpet padding, burlap, and 3” foam (not sure what density, feels medium) all from Home Depot. Tore off the old stuff, washed the frame and springs, laid a piece of padding down with a few hog rings, glued the foam on top, and covered it with the burlap pulling that as tight as I could. Finished it off with an inexpensive bench seat cover from O’reilly. I think it came out looking and feeling pretty nice. Maybe should have used 2” high density foam, and not sure if burlap was the right thing to cover it with, but it was inexpensive and is comfortable so we’ll see how it goes.
So that’s that! Still have several things on my to-do list. Should probably make sure everything is lubed, flushed, filled. I don’t think the heater works, nor do the reverse lights. The turn signals and emergency flasher works but that multi switch is pretty well worn. The horn piece that touches the back of the steering wheel doesn’t make proper contact, and the windshield wiper part of the switch is totally broken.
Any thoughts/recommendation on what’s most important to do next? Or is it pretty much just all of the above?
I want to say thank you to everyone here and at isuzupup.com for being so helpful and creating such a great resource for people working on these things! Very much appreciated.