Truck - 2003 GMC C4500, was parked outside during winter. Somehow water found way into fuel tank. Truck started fine and run fine for a few minutes on remaining fuel in fuel line. Then stopped, whole fuel system was filled with water. I disconnected fuel tank, managed to clean all fuel line till injection pump and fill fuel line with diesel. But engine doesn't start now. What to do?
Help! Duramax won't start after water in fuel
- Thread starter ranchero76
- Start date
There's almost no access to the engine on C4500 
. I managed to unbolt two injector lines. At first, one injector had a bit water leaking while cranking. Now there's no water, no fuel coming out of these two unbolted injectors. I have no access at all to other injectors or glow plugs - cab would have to come out. Any other options?
. I managed to unbolt two injector lines. At first, one injector had a bit water leaking while cranking. Now there's no water, no fuel coming out of these two unbolted injectors. I have no access at all to other injectors or glow plugs - cab would have to come out. Any other options?
There's almost no access to the engine on C4500
Not really an alternative to not having access.
Might be a dumb question but are you sure the lines are primed and there is fuel getting to the injection pump?
X2, this is not an old rotary pump that will spurt a bit of fuel each revolution. The common rail setup will throw a stream of extremely high pressure fuel (think pressure washer, but with diesel) that can be harmful/fatal if it goes through your skin.
Make sure you replace the fuel filter (should be under the primer), or at the very least drain it. That might be the problem: if it fills with water, it is supposed to block it from going into the motor. If you are extremely lucky, it did its job, and once you put a new one on, it might crank right up.
Expect to crank it for a while. Probably 4+ sets of 15 seconds before it does anything, and that's after priming it.
Thanks guys for advice. Yes, I've drained fuel filter right away, will replace it later. Had hard time locating primer button. Anyway, today after a lot of cranking it started. Run for about a minute, then died again. The good thing - hopefully there's no more water in the injection pump and injectors (fuel tank disconnected, run it from gas can). But air in the system not much better - it was extremely hard to start it again. Once it started, I shut it down right away - hope next time it'll be easier to start. I'm thinking to connect low pressure lift pump and run it this way from gas can so everything will clear out. Will deal with fuel tank later.