1999 Peterbilt 385 with Cat C-12 No Start

I will give you all of the details as I know them and hopefully someone can give me some ideas of what to do and look for.

My truck has 680K for miles. I had to leave the truck at a neighbors when I moved out of state and he was supposed to start the truck and keep the batteries charged up. The key words were SUPPOSED to! Anyway that didnt happen and it killed the ECM. I figured it was a lost prime on the fuel system so I changed all of the filters, Filter Base and Priming pump. Which didnt help at all. I called over a Service guy and he said he couldn't communicate with the ECM that I needed a new one. Well I found a used one that was reprogrammed using the last known Parameters that were taken at 650K Miles from my truck. The only thing we don't know is what the Injector Trim Codes were used for the engine so a Default Code off 0000 was entered by the programmer (He says its the standard default used my Caterpillar). If I try to crank the engine it will spin to 280 RPM and puff black smoke from the exhaust but will not start. If I give the intake a small whiff of ether the truck will start and run like a champ (driven it 450 miles and it ran like a raped ape) but if I attempt a restart without ether I get the same results, No Start with puffs of black smoke out of the exhaust. On the 450 mile drive I got no fault codes and no check engine lights.

Here is a list of things I have done and checked.

1) New Batteries
2) Inspected Cables
3) Cam Sensor within OHM Spec
4) Crank Sensor with Ohm Spec
5) Starter Cranks to 280 RPM (checked out two other trucks identical to mine and they start at 200RPM)
6) Replaced all filters
7) Cranking Fuel Pressure from Lift Pump 50 PSI (I placed the pressure gauge at the Pressure Port on the Secondary Filter Housing). The pressure is at 55psi when I shut the engine off and it slowly bleeds down to O psi in about 5 minutes time. I am not sure if this is OK or not.
8 ) Very small amount of air bubbles in the Return Fuel Line (Suspect, but its such a small amount I am not sure what is permissable). The return line is just going into a 5 gallon fuel can. I am not sure if that is related to the fuel pressure bleeding down* See #7
9) Cranking Oil Pressure 20-22 PSI
10) Coolant Level filled
11) Oil Level is fine
12) ECM +- Wires have no opens or shorts to ground
13) No Air Bubbles present in DAVCO Filter
14) Changed Ignition Switch

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

I have no idea why that happy face is there. Its supposed to be 8)

 

Well, I guess an 8 with this ) next to it gets you this 8)

 

Thanks for the reply. I agree that can be the cause but what has me absolutely baffled is I can have the engine running, shut it off and immediately attempt a restart it with residual pressure at the pressure port of the secondary filter housing and still a no start. The pressure might start at 20psi as soon as I turn the key but as soon as the engine turns over, its instantly at 50psi.

Thanks

 

I'm going to do that today as far as getting the trim codes. The programmer is a 4 hour trip and we are playing hell trying to get together. He hasn't been available to come up my way and I'm doing other mods to the chassis of the truck so I can't take it to him at the moment.

 

I agree on the pressure bleeding down too. I'm just not sure if it's because I have the return line going to an open fuel can and bypassing a check valve in the return line somewhere downstream or not.