[Ole]

I’ve been starting my coach for the last few weeks and I noticed the Detroit 60 struggling few minutes after start up. It’s as if it fuel would slowly cut off, the engine start slow down at idle and eventually cut off. Now I can’t even get it to start. In doing some research, I understand it can be a multitude of things from the ECM to fuel
Pump or bad diesel. I was just wondering if anyone here had run into the same problem before calling out a mechanic? Thanks for any help?

[[email protected]]

I’ve been starting my coach for the last few weeks and I noticed the Detroit 60 struggling few minutes after start up. It’s as if it fuel would slowly cut off, the engine start slow down at idle and eventually cut off. Now I can’t even get it to start. In doing some research, I understand it can be a multitude of things from the ECM to fuel
Pump or bad diesel. I was just wondering if anyone here had run into the same problem before calling out a mechanic? Thanks for any help?

Sounds like a fuel delivery problem from your description. Typically an ECM issue would be it starts or it does not. 
I am thinking it could be clogged filter or it could be old fuel lines sucking air.

If you have a Davco style Detroit fuel filter, what is the level of the fuel in the filter clear housing? The fuel should be about halfway up the clear part, if its all the way to the top then the filter is plugged up. I just actually had this happen to me on my trip to Tennessee, noticed I was starting to loose power on hill climbs. Went back and noticed that the fuel was all the way to the top of the filter housing, changed the filter and all was good. 

The lines will suck air but will not leak diesel fuel so its not easy to diagnose. The fuel system is under vacuum from the fuel pump to the tank so it takes much longer for a leak to develop but they will start to suck air through the hoses.

[Ole]

I think the fuel is all the way up the housing. I’ll try changing the filter and see. Thanks Jeff.

[[email protected]]

I think the fuel is all the way up the housing. I’ll try changing the filter and see. Thanks Jeff.

Let's hope its that simple. How low is your fuel tank? I think that is what I did, I ran my tank pretty low on fuel and picked up the crud in the bottom of the tank. Reminds me I need to drain off the bottom of my tank and get all that crud out of there.

[Richard]

What Jeff said FIRST ! The stumble and quit sounds like a fuel starvation problem, not an electrical problem. Use the primer pump located at the fuel tank to prime the new filter. Newell installed a hose and quarter turn valve to make draining the Davco easy and less messy. The big plastic nut can be a bear to loosen. If you don’t have a Davco wrench, use a strap wrench.

On the ECM, when you turn the key to ON, do the check engine and stop engine lights come on for a second or two, and then go out? If they do, you do not likely have an ECM problem that prevent the engine from cranking.

Do you have error codes on the Detroit Diesel ProDriver display?

[Ole]

A little more history to my problem may help give more insight. So my fuel tank was at about quarter full and I thought that was what was causing it. So I drove it to gas station and filled it to 3/4. That didn’t solve the problem. My coach does have a leak/leaning problem. After a day or so, the copilot side drains all the air and the coach “leans” to that side quite a bit. Because of that I thought maybe the fuel wasn’t reaching the engine. I thought that because initially it would sputter and die, but then I would be able to get it running a few minutes later. Now, it will crank but not start. My filter is on the side bulkhead above chassis battery bay and I will check it later but I do believe I saw it filled all the way up.

[Ole]

Richard, the lights do come on and then turn off. I believe my filter housing is more old school than what I’m seeing. I’ll post a picture here.     

[DK on the road]

I had a similar experience. When driving, the engine ran, at best I can tell, OK, but hard to start and a bit of a rough idle. I really only had this issue for 2 starts and 2 rough idle experiences. I jumped to more deeper issues like fuel primer pump, not pulling or pushing the to the fuel pump. I knew it was fuel, for all the reasons mentioned.

Long story short, after 5 hrs in a hobby Lobby parking lot in Twin Fall Idaho, the fuel line coming out of the top of my fuel tank had loosened. just enough to allow air. At 1,400 RPM, cruising, enough fuel was had, but at Idle, too much air, and the filter would lose its prime back into the tank. It would take on those few restarts i mentioned, 10 to 15 seconds of engine turn over, to reprime the injector pump.

Keep us posted on your results.

Today, I go back to replacing more push on air fitting that I can access with DOT compression fittings

[Ole]

I was changing the primary fuel filter and I noticed the bottom of the plastic housing was cracked (or maybe I broke trying to undo). Any idea of where I can purchase one? I’ll post a picture of the filter and the plastic cap/housing that goes on the bottom. Thanks again for you alls help!                    

[[email protected]]

I was changing the primary fuel filter and I noticed the bottom of the plastic housing was cracked (or maybe I broke trying to undo). Any idea of where I can purchase one? I’ll post a picture of the filter and the plastic cap/housing that goes on the bottom. Thanks again for you alls help!

Looks like a Racor 400 series filter, definitely not a Davco style filter. So what I said about being full does not apply to this type of filter, it works different than the Davco/Detroit diesel filter I was talking about. 

https://www.parker.com/literature/Racor/...Series.pdf

According to this the bowl kit is:
RK21113-13-11
According to Racor Store, that part number is obsolete and the new part number is:
RK21113-01