Air in fuel line?

[Goosey]

I think I may have a fuel leak/air in the fuel line of my 300TDi disco. I had the head gasket done just under 1000km's ago and everything was fine after that. It's only happened twice but after having my car parked for a few hours i've gone to start it and its just cut out as soon as it turns over, after a couple of key turns and it cutting out after turning over I gave it a bit of throttle and it started but very chuggy and dull until I got the revs up to around 2000 and then it just started idling like normal. I haven't had any change in performance it's just the two times in the past two weeks that it's happened. Any ideas?

[justinc]

Yes definately sounds like air. I would check the lift pump, the sediment bowl and for chafing between the inlet pipe to the lift pump and the A/C pipework near the bulkhead.

JC

[Blknight.aus]

check the seals on the fuel water seperator and the tank pick up line joint at the tank first.

if they are all ok. seal remove the line from the tank and seal it then use a facet pump to push fuel backwards into the lines back to tank, you'll soon find any leaks.

[Goosey]

Okay cheers, that doesn't sound too bad. I'm pretty new to this still so where can I find the sediment bowl and lift pump?

[justinc]

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/Stretchie_/Disco/PICT1728Medium.jpg Under the vehicle, drivers side chassis rail inner toward the back.

The lift pump http://www.globalbritish.com/images/images_oem_new_parts/err5057.jpg

Is located drivers side (RHS) of engine behind injector pump.

JC

[SamC]

Hi Goosey,

Did you end up tracking down the problem? Mine seems pretty similar to this so just wanting to see what you ended up doing.

Cheers

[gazby]

Could be the Injection Pump (IP) throttle shaft seal leaking, which allows air into the top chamber of the IP causing fuel from the IP to drain back through the excess fuel line to the fuel tank, that in turn causes the IP high pressure circuit to loose prime and suck air.
When you keep cranking the engine the lift pump can gradually top up the top chamber and the IP high pressure circuit will re prime.
Have you noticed when the starting problem occurs? Could it be when the fuel tank level is low,say, under half, or the Disco parked nose uphill or all the above.
Do this test, fill the tank completely with diesel, park the Disco nose downhill on any moderate slope, this will keep the fuel where it needs to be.
If the throttle shaft or IP top chamber is leaking fuel that is the problem as described above, but it is not a big deal to fix, easy cure, about less than $10 worth of gasket and "o" ring and a bit of time if you are handy on the spanners.