No Smoking Pt. 2

Getting the Injection Pump Serviced.

The guys at South Eastern Power Product recommended that I get the Injection Pump serviced, that meant that I have to pull it out and take it to a local pump servicing company. Because we keep our boat in Fort Lauderdale Florida, there are lots of Marine companies around here. I selected RPM Diesel on State Road 84, that's about 15 minutes away from our boat.

Removing the Pump

Here's a pic of the pump with the Fuel Tubes removed. To get the pump out I had to disconnect a few things. There's the Bleed Valve (on the left side of the pump in the pic), The Lifting ring to the right of the pump and the Air Intake Manifold which is at the top of the pic. Getting all of those bits off only took about 20 minutes which included little things like loosening the Glow plug connections and removing the #1 & #3 glow plugs.

Next I just had to remove the 2 nuts and 2 bolts that secure the pump in place. 

To get the pump out, I just had to move the Stop lever fully aft and that allowed the pump to lift out of its housing in the engine block, that trick is important, the pump will not come out until the Stop lever is moved aft.

Installing the new Pump

RPM completely rebuilt the inside of the Injection Pump and had it ready for pickup within 24 hours, and about $400 and, of course, other things happen, so I had to delay picking it up until my truck was out of the service shop. Installing the pump was pretty straight forward and went quickly, a little too quickly! While re-installing the Air Intake Manifold, one bolt sheared before I even got to use the torque wrench. Another trip to South Easten Power Products, I called them asking if they had that bolt in stock, they did, so I drove over there the next morning. Tommy was quick to give me the bolt ready and waiting. They never cease to amaze me about the level of knowledge, service and just plan 'be nice to the customer'. I'm so glad they are nearby - there may be more trips to their store in the future. I can certainly recommend them to any of my buddies that have Kubota engines.

With the new bolt in hand, Peggy & I went down to the boat after lunch today, it took about 20 minutes to complete the manifold install, connect all of the glow plugs and the fuel tubes & hoses, then we were ready to see if it all worked.

Bleeding the Fuel System.

Over the past week I have read dozens of articles and watched as many YouTubes about how to bleed a diesel engine. Turned out to not be much of a deal. Peggy sat at the helm by the Engine Control Panel. We ran the fuel pump for 10 minutes with the bleed valve on the pump open and then a couple more with the bleed valve almost closed. Engine bay vent motor for a minute, then start #1. The engine turned over just fine but did not fire up, as expected. Check drained the muffler so that we don't get back flow into the engine during a long crank period. This time Glow Plugs on for 20 seconds then start #2 - Engine turned over and coughed then died. Start #3 - Glow Plugs 10 seconds, Start - Engine ran a bit rough. I cracked open the 3 injector tube connections on top of the Injectors. and let a small amount of fuel escape from each tube. Engine kept running. Increased RPM to 2000 and let it run for 4 minutes, sounding sweet. Cranked the engine up to 2800 RPM, WooooHoo! Back down to 800 RPM, minimum and it ran just fine (not it's best idle speed, we typically idle at about 900RPM.)

Last test. Shut down the engine and try a restart. Peggy pulled the Stop level, engine shut down. Ignition off for 3 minutes. Ignition on, Press Start - WoooHooo! started without hesitation.

So, what started out as a simple Injector replacement ended up costing about $800, but at least we know that the Injectors are New, pump is as good as New, New Fuel tubes & Intake Gaskets.  Last job is to clean and spray paint the parts of the engine that don't have a protective coat with some look good gold colored paint.

I have to tell you, it was a huge relief when the engine started up. Sometimes things happen, but we're learning, just work your way through them.

So now we can .... See you on the Water!