Fuel Pump

[Bill0828]

I just returned home from the Cummins repair facility in central CT. Seems the internal injector went bad and let me tell ya..it's VERY expensive to replace the fuel pump. $5K+ with parts and labor. But at least the coach will climb a grade like it used to. This is not a complaint by any means. I'm thankful that its fixed now instead of dying in the middle of nowhere. Just a bit of frustration as the warranty ran out two months ago. What timing!

[quikduk]

Holy smokes!!!

How do you afford something like THAT?!!

Does the insurance policy cover big ticket items or is there a road service plan that does? That would make me tow it home and park it for a loooong time until I could scrape that much for a fuel pump.

I am sure some was labor but still...

[Bill0828]

Hopefully this problem won't befall anyone else here. But just in case...the price for a reconditioned Cummins pump is $3700 plus misc. parts & labor ($104/hr). I self insure for repairs. No extended plan. A 0% cc for a year and it will be paid for..I hope!
Also, a mechanic friend of mine suggested that his sources are faulting the diesel fuel that is available here and possibly nationwide. Too many pumps are going bad due to the lack of lubrication in the diesel fuel. Obviously this is just one possible cause but is does seem plausible. Anyway, it's the cost of owning/operating one of these machines like it or not. Just my .02.

[quikduk]

WOW! we were looking for a mechanical Bosch pump model on a big block when we started looking at DPs. We had a smaller budget than most and I am very lucky I can perform +95% of the work.

I had heard that once Cummins went to the electronic fuel pumps, an owner had better have a few thousand stashed in a MH "repair fund" JIC. We laughed as with two kids, two adults and one income, we are always on a shoestring. We have had gas coaches but a BB mech. diesel isn't really any more maintenance IMHO. It does cost a bit more than a gasser but it should also run like a tractor with basic care and last 5 times longer at a min.

FWIW, I always add either Power Service or Lucas or some other diesel fuel additive as even though the fuel here in SoCal "supposedly" has all the additives I would ever need and who knows about other states...I have my doubts. I mean have you seen how "financially responsible CA has been over the last two decades?

Somewhere I have a good blurb on diesel fuel additives and the results are a bit shocking. PS doesn't rank that highly and I still have to find local sources for the others. The diesel mechanics I know swear by some stuff (who's name escapes me ATM) and their rigs (MH, trucks, Class 7s) have hundreds of thousands of miles on them with NO pump failures TIKO.

I'll post the links when I can find them.

[GaryKD]

Hi quikduk,
Was the diesel fuel additive name Stanadyne?

[Korryp]

Heard really good things about Stanadyne. Any one us it?

[quikduk]

Gary,

Sorry for the late reply. Work and everything else has been a bit overwhelming for the last 2-3 months with no end in sight.

Standyne was the one that the diesel shops recommended. The site with the "review" that I was referring to is here:

http://www.johnfjensen.com/Diesel_fu...itive_test.pdf

The test report only took into consideration the lubricity factor and nothing else. There may be some benefit to our favorite products, like anti gelling, dispersing agents, cetane boost, algaecide and biocide...maybe?

The Opti-Lube is available here:

http://www.opti-lube.com/products.htm

http://www.centurionlubes.com/orders.htm

Another additive site...

http://www.storeseven.com/index.asp?...FQi0HgodVBdUPQ

I am still not sure what I will try next once my two gallon jugs of Power Service run out...maybe I'll try the Opti-Lube next.

BFN

[powerboatr]

another reason to use more bio fuel, bio diesel has superior lubricity characteristics, you would think the engine guys would push more for its use
thats a pricey a fuel pump

[Gary RVRoamer]

Note that the test in which Standadyne and others proved to improve lubricity was done with untreated ULSD. That's not the same stuff you get at the pumps - all on-road diesel refiners are adding lubricity enhancers to meet the ASTM D6079 lubricity spec for diesel fuels and other enhancers as well. I'm not trying to detract from Standadyne - just pointing out that there will be lubricity enhancers present in ULSD whether you buy an extra additive or not. The engine manufacturers all say that fuel that meets ASTM D6079 has adequate lubricity for use in their engines.

[rharveysr]

I have been doing performance diesel applications for the last 9 years and have seen the injector pumps fail. In what we have seen at the shop is not issues with quality of the fuel which it does cause long term problems but its the fuel delivery system that Cummins came up with when they changed to those electronic injection pumps. Instead of a rock solid transfer pump to keep fuel to that injection pump...they use an electric pump. When the electric fuel pump gets tired it doesnt supply the amount of fuel that it needs. We have seen so many $100 transfer pumps kill a $1200 injection pump.
All of the projects that we do...there is a fuel pressure guage figured into the quote. You monitor the fuel pressure as much as you monitor your engine temp. Fuel pressure starts to drop...then you can have the transfer pump replaced instead of them both.
Also we dont normally replace the failing transfer pump with a stock unit. The pump that has been our best seller is a FASS pump. The system is as rock solid as your going to get. Pumps that we put on 4 years ago are still going strong. This system is not one of those that you have to build the kit yourself...it comes complete..
I do run a fuel treatment to keep things slicked up and also keep the injectors as clean as possible. But bio diesel and or fuel treatment is not going to keep a eletronic device from failing...

Rick