Excuse my ignorance please. I just bought a 6.0L F250 diesel and am dumb as a rock about this subject. Scenario: Your 7.3 or 6.0 L diesel truck runs out of diesel on the interstate. Bone dry. How do you get it restarted ?????

I had a diesel VW rabbit years ago and I was on one of those Guiness Book of World Records long-long bridges in Louisiana and I ran out of diesel half way. Oh ... my ...gawd ... it ended up being an all-day event with Bubba from Deliverance giving me a ride and wanting to make me squeel like a pig. No joke ... barely escaped from near peril.

I was a young skinny guy back then and fortunately didn't end-up submitting to making pig squeeling sounds for some chain-saw-massacre guy that only had two teeth. I had to hitch-hike to the end of a west-bound bridge (11 miles) with Bubba who was reluctant to let me out (no civilization ... just aligators, crickets and frogs) and then turn-around back on a 22 mile bridge east-bound back to a diesel station. Then 11 miles back to my VW diesel Rabbit (44 miles in all ... catching rides 3 times). I got a 2 gallon can of diesel and couldn't get the dang thing started. I ended up sleeping in my VW Rabbit that night and the next morning an OTR Roadway Express driver helped me out to get my Rabbit running. He was a former diesel mechanic and knew just what to do.

That was 22 years ago and I can't remember how I got the damn thing started, or how I illuded the deliverance snaggletooth dude (you can kill me if you want to, but I won't grab my ankles for anybody). No joke ... I wore soap on the rope in the military ... I guess I'm homophonic or whatever they call it. I like womens and that's that.

That evening was one of the worst nights of my life. BUT ... I never had to squeel like a pig (like in the movie Deliverance). I survived. Oh yeah ... thank God ... I survived the trip from Georgia to Texas.

Hey man ... excuse me ... I'm still afraid of breaking down on one of those long bridges (you should be too). I break out in a cold sweat in fear of bubba pulling over and trying to help me again. Afraid it might turn into a real pain in the butt.


O.K. ALL JEST ASIDE ... MY QUESTION IS:
If I break down because I run out of diesel ... what can I expect ... what should I do about it? Yeah ... perhaps my question is stupid ... hey ... your educated answer could help a few of us rookie diesel truck owners out who don't know what to do, just in case we run the tank all the way down. Hopefully, I will never be stupid enough to ever let that happen, but presently, my 6.0L is getting bad MPG so it's possible, I guess.
??

 

Most times you have to crack open injector rail lines to get the air out but in a bind make sure to have a can of starting fluid. Get a few gallons of fuel and give it a one second shot of starting fluid in the air cleaner and it will run. It run for a few seconds and die so you will have to do it a few times. If you know you are running out of fuel...shut down asap...it will make restarting a lot easier. Many people believe that starting fluid is very bad for a diesel but when used properly it's ok and it will save your butt if you run out of fuel. Of course the easiest way is not to run out of fuel to begin with.


2002 Black F-250 XLT SuperCab 4x4 Auto 5.4...just added lariet wheels

 

This Thread might have some useful info.

 

Isn't that called priming the injectors??? I've had to do it on a tractor before. Wasn't my fault that it ran out though.

 

I have heard from a diesel mechanic that I trust (owns 5 diesel school buses) that ether/starting fluid is ok to start a diesel engine. But never to start a diesel engine that has glow plugs because it will burn out the plugs and may cause head damage as a result.
So based on that info alone I would be hesitant to spray starting fluid into my diesel engine. glow plugs are not as cheap as a tow into town, and most people have cell phones now even the toothless bubbas .

 

POINT NOTED. I will make positively sure that I never let my truck get below 1/4 tank.

 

I used to drive a fire truck with a DDA 8V-92 (2 stroke diesel) rocket engine in it....I mean this truck would flat FLY...the garret turbo didn't hurt either

The department mechanic threatened the life of any fire fighter that ran it out of fuel because "it was a pain in the to get them to start again......." ???

He even said that he would personally siphon diesel with HIS mouth before letting it run out.....just to PLEASE call him if we were on a long fire pumping water and the oil was running low. Believe it, or not, that fire truck only had a 50 gal tank for diesel, but a 1500 gal tank for WATER....makes sense, I guess.

He never told me why it was so hard to get going again, though.....

 

With an automatic:
Hope your batteries are in tip top shape.
And if you fill up the fuel filter it will make the bleeding process a little shorter.

If you have a manual tranny:
Bring out the tow strap.
If you have a choice, run out on top of a hill so you can drift start.

Best choice:
Don't run it out cause you will suck up dirt and water from the bottom of the tank that you normally would not.

 

and if you have to use starting fluid, use the kind that has lubercate in it, regular starting fluild washes the oil off the cylinder walls, which leaves the walls dry, more important in 2 stroke engines. just my nickles worth before uncle sam takes back 3 of them.

 

I own 2 big diesels and only use either in an EXTREME emergency. WD 40 works well and is a lot easier on the internal parts. Best to give it a very small squirt, then more in SMALL amounts to keep it running until it picks up the fuel.

 

wd 40 is the only way to go , ether kills diesels

 

Something good has come out of this thread. Sounds like WD40 is something good to use in emergencies, plus it's something easy to obtain for most of us. Thanks very much. Never knew, or thought about the fact that WD40 would suffice.

 

My brother just ran out of gas in his 04 King Ranch SD PSD on the highway. He walked a mile, bought about 2 gal of diesel fuel and threw it in the tank. He then fired it up and went to work. He didn't report any problems starting. Did he luck out or what?

 

John ... that would never be my luck. Guys like your brother buy lottery tickets and win. Guys like me ... well, let me just say that I don't buy lottery tickets.

 

skigalini: you can't win if you don't buy em Also, he got his butt kicked in poker last night