when a 300Tdi - runs dry of fuel - what then?

[toc_bat]

Just an idle post, bit bored. If I run out of fuel with a 300Tdi, am just wondering roughly how many cycles of the hand priming lever on the pump are generally required to get the system primed again and ready to go.

Only other diesel I have had was a citroen xantia that had a priming bulb in the system and it took about 50 squeezes.

Also while on this subject, roughly how low does the fuel gauge needle go before you run out?

[uninformed]

when fuel runs out, all the pumping in the world wont help if you havent re fueled the tank........only one way to find out how far the needle goes on your rig it so take it for a "test drive" Kramer style.

btw, Ive never run out of fuel so never had to prime mine :confused:

[toc_bat]

when fuel runs out, all the pumping in the world wont help if you havent re fueled the tank........only one way to find out how far the needle goes on your rig it so take it for a "test drive" Kramer style.

btw, Ive never run out of fuel so never had to prime mine :confused:

hmmm, i thought the refueling part is obvious enough to be assumed to have been done, in any case yes after i add fuel, is it easy enough to prime?, i have heard people relate the difficulty of priming this or that particular system,

[slug_burner]

I ran out of fuel on the 300 tdi and after filling I just pumped it with the starter motor and it kicked soon enough. I rate that as easy.

[roverrescue]

as has been written many a time on aulro. 300tdi self prime on the starter.
Zero hand pumps required assuming your lift pump is in order.

S

[rick130]

I've always primed by hand (lever is on the lift pump, crack the bleed on the filter and pump until a continuous stream) rather than cranking on the starter motor as I don't like the idea of running an IP dry, but many people have had problems with lift pump failure after manually stroking the lift pump, so take your pick.

[bigcarle]

I've always primed by hand (lever is on the lift pump, crack the bleed on the filter and pump until a continuous stream)
it helps if you have a lever on the lift pump to do this and no matter how hard i look i can't find one on my 300TDi

300tdi self prime on the starter.
Zero hand pumps required assuming your lift pump is in order. thats the only way i can do mine apart from putting an air line in the neck of the fuel tank and pushing the fuel forward :o carefully! ;)

[rick130]

it helps if you have a lever on the lift pump to do this and no matter how hard i look i can't find one on my 300TDi
thats the only way i can do mine apart from putting an air line in the neck of the fuel tank and pushing the fuel forward :o carefully! ;)

:confused:

The OE one and the two aftermarket ones I have all have primer levers.

Not saying yours doesn't have one, but it's unusual.

[uninformed]

Bloody hell, how often are you guys running out of fuel? I know I can't see my gauge at night, but damn.....

[ade]

I ran out of fuel on the 300 tdi and after filling I just pumped it with the starter motor and it kicked soon enough. I rate that as easy.

same for my 300tdi never had to prime it, jst took about four turns on the starter and away she went.

[rick130]

Bloody hell, how often are you guys running out of fuel? I know I can't see my gauge at night, but damn.....

Once or twice about eight years ago running around the farm, but I re-prime after washing out the sedimentor too :p

[TonyC]

The lift pump runs from the cam.
It's my understanding that if the lift pump is on the cam lobe the the lever will just flop back and forth and not pump anything, you need turn the motor over so the pump is off the cam lobe.
Can anyone confirm this?

Tony

[Bushie]

Ran mine out of fuel twice, took approx 5 sec on the started to fire up.
Just start it after filter/sedimenter clean and change, never been a problem.


Martyn

[SimonM]

I ran out of fuel earlier in the year heading to Broken Hill, it ran out of fuel about 5 seconds after I said "I think the fuel guage has stopped working?". Luckily I had a jerry of fuel. Turned over almost immediately.

[PAT303]

Bloody hell, how often are you guys running out of fuel? I know I can't see my gauge at night, but damn.....

Serge,L322's have a gauge,a warning light,a warning chime,a warning message on the digital display and start turning injectors off to cause a miss to let you know it's running out of fuel.My sister inlaw still ran it dry. Pat

[isuzurover]

Bloody hell, how often are you guys running out of fuel? I know I can't see my gauge at night, but damn.....

I have never run the 300tdi (disco) dry, but both the 110 and the IIA have twin tanks and I have run both vehicles dry once or twice by forgetting to change over in time.

I have also run the IIA dry once because a passenger in the middle seat kicked the changeover switch to the middle position with her foot while getting in :D

[Blknight.aus]

The lift pump runs from the cam.
It's my understanding that if the lift pump is on the cam lobe the the lever will just flop back and forth and not pump anything, you need turn the motor over so the pump is off the cam lobe.
Can anyone confirm this?

Tony

correct you will get something BUT... if you are pushing the lever far enough to make it pump while the cam driven lever is sitting on the lobe you run the risk of overstretching and busting the diaphragm.

From bone dry it (which includes a replacement fuel filter that hasnt been pre primed) takes ~70 pumps... I know this because I suffered from a clogged pick up on the weekend my sequence of bleed (for a standard fuel line setup) is

fill the tank (this assumes that its not a blocked pickup)
crack open the bleed nut on the top of the filter head in the engine bay
pump till fuel comes out of the bleeder and tighten it up (this should take ~55-60 pumps)
turn on the ignition
crack the line to the IP from the fuel filter (this is to confirm that the filter is not blocked OR you havent left the plastic insert on the filter, yes, Ive seen it happen)
pump the primer till fuel comes out (should only take about 3 pumps)
tighten up the line from the IP
pump 10 more times
Disconnect the fuel solenoid (your about to be cruel to the engine)
crank it on the starter till the oil pressure light goes out
reconnect the fuel solenoid
hold the accellerator flat
crank it till it starts

you can disregard the bits in blue in most circumstances I do this as part of a full service because as part of a full fuel system service I remove and blow out all of the lines

[uninformed]

ok guys, it will be hard, but ill try and run out of fuel some time soon....

[slug_burner]

ok guys, it will be hard, but ill try and run out of fuel some time soon....

Do the Tanami on one tank and a couple of Jerries that should do it.

[toc_bat]

well i did it tonight, ran out of fuel, but by this time was carrying a 5L container of fuel as i knew it was gonna come at some point, anyway like a few other posters i found to my surprise it only took a few seconds of cranking, which cant possibly equate to 50 odd strokes of the lift pump, i was very happy as it was dark and rainy when it happened, my old xantia would go flat on the battery if i tried it without manually priming, Land Rover is good for one thing i guess although it has a massive water leak! as i had just discovered with all this rain, (have only done 400km in this car) i think it is the rhs curved roof window

[Blknight.aus]

well i did it tonight, ran out of fuel, but by this time was carrying a 5L container of fuel as i knew it was gonna come at some point, anyway like a few other posters i found to my surprise it only took a few seconds of cranking, which cant possibly equate to 50 odd strokes of the lift pump, i was very happy as it was dark and rainy when it happened, my old xantia would go flat on the battery if i tried it without manually priming, Land Rover is good for one thing i guess although it has a massive water leak! as i had just discovered with all this rain, (have only done 400km in this car) i think it is the rhs curved roof window

thats because if you just run out of fuel youve only drawn a little bit of air into the system the filter is still mostly primed

the cranking speed of the tdi300 is quite high, so it wont take long to pump it enough to fill just the lines from the tank to the filter and into the IP....

[Reads90]

as has been written many a time on aulro. 300tdi self prime on the starter.
Zero hand pumps required assuming your lift pump is in order.

S

Yeah as said the TDi are self priming so you do t need to do anything just fill it with fuel and crank it over

[bigcarle]

Bloody hell, how often are you guys running out of fuel? I know I can't see my gauge at night, but damn.....
i didnt run mine out of fuel but when i replaced the head on my 300TDi, it was parked in my steepish sloped driveway, rear downwards so i can bleed the cooling system better when job finished.
i also did the injector pump at the same time so i had the fuel lines disconnected and found out apon reinstall that the fuel had receded back to the tank, long story short i had to put an air hose in the neck of the tank to get the fuel back up to the injector pump from there it was pretty straight forward. it took a while to bleed properly but came good.this was on the starter as my lift pump doesn't have a handle, which is unusual