Detroit won't start

That was the question that first popped into my head. Why is everyone jumping straight to the ECM without asking this?

 

Yeah - if it ran fine when parked I’m thinking lost Prime.

Remove filters, change if possible, fill with fuel - crank with a little ether, should catch and run.

 

And just in case, stick the tanks to make sure they’ve got diesel in them.

 

He states it runs on either but not on its own. Exactly what mine did, when ecm fuse was bad. Easy to diagnose key on - no yellow light, no ecm power. Easy to rule out. I overlooked this and after screwing around with filters PS 911 and buying batteries. All while in a blizzard. Working at a tow yard, trying to get it started to avoid further charges. Turned out to be a .10 cent fuse. $550 tow bill $300 batteries, 4 frost bitten hrs later, It could have been worse, I suppose, But I overlooked the simplest of thing, thinking the worse.Apparently I had blown the fuse earlier while trying to jump it. Had just closed on a house, and bought new car, Ready to get back to work, and the New store Manager decided to have all 10 Trucks parked in back towed to the pound. Lol. What a mess it was.

 

Why would an ECM fuse be perfectly fine and then just blow from sitting? Unless a rodent was chewing on wires my money is on the fuel system having lost prime.

 

Check your fuel filter fuel level manually and if you have a manual prime pump crack the line and pump the fuel for a few minutes and make sure you hear the fuel pump when key is on

 

Just thought after reading @Rideandrepair - jumping dead batteries will cause some issues, like he said.

I’ve had some goofy stuff related to bad batteries with the large car and all it’s circuitry.

I’ll up the bet on fuel issue to 4cents.

 

Crack a line at fuel pump to confirm it is pumping. If all fuel drained out of head it can take a while to get it primed,

 

The most important question is, when it cranks and does not start, is there white smoke?

I had a 6-71 detroit that would not start because injectors rusted and jammed. It came off a scrap railway dragline crane and when I learned about it, I junked the engine.

 

I lost prime once after changing injector, no fittings on Truck to pressurize the system. I used a mini air crompressor, cut the end off of hose and clamped it onto the fuel tank vent, crimped off other vent and plugged it into accessory, only need 10 lbs or less to push fuel. I put 20 lbs in system, started up and died out. Had to wait till air bled off through vents. Once it got down to about 7 lbs on compressor gauge, I popped the fuel cap off quickly. It blew off,luckily it didn’t break my hand. Got to be careful a little pressure goes a long way. After that it ran fine.All the cranking in the world wouldn’t prime it up.