cummins N14 has trouble starting

fuel related. solenoid sticking?

 

Lets narrow this down a bit. Is this a problem only when you use the block heater? Once you get it running and warmed up, if you turn it off and right back on will it start? Do you turn on the heater b4 the second start? My guess if your block heater is over heating something fuel related.

In my biodiesel days we had this problem on warm restarts (shut down engine while hot and restart 5 min later) It had to do with remaining methanol (a product used to make biodiesel) vapors getting over heated and doing something weird. We finaly determined it was extra unreacted methanol in the fuel and started better quality control to remove it. My guess is that there is maybe something in your diesel doing the same thing. Some winterize diesel with methanol. To much could be causing this. In our case the engines would start fine cold, and run fine. I'd recommend making sure your diesel isn't over winterized and try starting the engine a little colder.

 

You said sometimes you get a hot too the fuel shut off solnoid and sometimes your not. If your not getting a hot there the truck will not start.