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Surging and cutting out 1998 K2500 6.5 diesel Suburban

J

jrsavoie

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Rural Clifton, Illinois
The 98 Suburban with 246,000 miles has been having a surging or cutting out issue. It starts at the hit of the key & seems to idle well.

It seems to be worse when cold.

No codes.

Fuel filter was just changed in the midst of the problems

I installed a new boost sensor.

When running between 1800 and 2500 RPM it seems to cut out and then surge.

I've checked and cleaned grounds & tried a known to be good PMD. I took the PMD off of my truck. I tried 2 different PMD harnesses.

On the computer when running down the road and surging the fuel rate would drop to zero when it was experiencing problems.

I ran 3/4 gallon of fuel out the T drain while the 98 Suburban was running. No hiccups and the flow rate seemed to look good and was constant/steady.

The local diesel shop thinks it is the fuel solenoid and recommended a new injector pump.

Does everybody think this is more than likely the correct diagnosis?

Does anybody know of a Good injection pump for sale for this vehicle?

Where is a good place to buy an injection pump?

They quoted me 12-$1400 installed.

I am now going to search for the thread on testing compression. If anybody could link me I'd appreciate it. Even with Pep's search instructions, I still seem to have a hard time finding anything.

I will check compression on the engine before I invest in a new injection pump. If I find a reasonably priced pump I will throw it on and go.

The local diesel shop said
 
Leak down test
And compression testing
UNPLUG the PMD
Remove all glow plugs and spin engine 3 to 8 revolutions per cylinder. Compression should be about 400 psi. The cylinders should not differentiate more than 10%
Repeat 3 times per cylinder
The key is that you want all the cylinders to to be fairly close to each other in their reading. If you have a cylinder is leaking. Either you have extremely worn compression rings, a blown head gasket, burnt valves, damaged valve seats, a cracked head or a cracked bock. It's also possible that air is leaking out from around the injector or the glow plugs.

To determine which of these issues it is, you can do a leak down test.

To perform this, you'll need an air compressor and a fitting that will thread into the glow plug port. Then, you'll want bring that cylinder to top dead center, then release compressed air into it.

If you hear bubbling it the cooling system, then you likely have either a blown head gasket or a cracked head that is into the water jacket.

If you hear air coming out of the intake, you have a damaged intake valve/seat.

If you hear air coming out of the exhaust, you have a damaged exhaust valve/seat.

If you hear air in the oil pan, then you have worn rings or a hole in your piston.
 
just be careful when you apply the air as it can make the engine turn over and sometimes rather quickly. ie watch out for the fan and belt
 
Have you cut the pintle off the fuel stop solenoid? Look for kinked hoses.
 
I never got a chance to go any farther on the Suburban. Been sick since Christmas and have stuff to do on each of the other vehicles right now.

My daughter was driving it and said it would not back up yesterday. She drove it to the store and it backed up fine. I went over and swapped her the 96 that I had to cure the hard pulling to the left. Never got that done either cuz the Tahoe was in the way waiting for me to change the rear brakes.

The fluid was dark. I'm sure it smelled but it was not strong enough for me to smell it. Even with this schnoz.

I drove it home. It's still cutting out. Only now it seems that the trans is slipping and causing surging a little on occasion as well. It did it 4 times in 30 miles. It revved to about 3,000 RPM for a sec and seemed like the trans was slipping when it did. When it cuts out the fuel rate drops to zero mm.
The transmission slippage seems to happen when the engine cuts back in.

I am planning to take it for a trans flush, but I do not have any big hopes. As far as I know, once the fluid turns color, it's ball game over.

Any advice would be appreciated. After the trans flush, I assume I will be looking for another 4L80E.

I need another vehicle for the time being. Nobody wants to drive the International. Though that may be my cheapest route. But it needs a new rear rotor & the parking brake fixed.

So if anybody sees a cheap but decent vehicle I would appreciate a heads up.
Thanks
 
Unscrew the round thing on the driver's side front of the injection pump. This is the fuel stop solenoid. Useless really. Pull the plug off it and the engine stops quick though.

Trans rebuilds cost me $999 in and out. Surging could be from trans slipping or bad TCC.
 
Would that cause the fuel to go to 0mm when it happens?

Could the issues with the trans and the stuttering have been related all along? I'm really at a loss here the main problem is all the vehicles need work and I'm not doing all I need to any one of them before I have to work on something else

The Suburban did not have a filter harness. So I ruled that out. I added a ground to the top of the IP.

We got no codes for anything driving down the road when it was stuttering

I need to find time to check injectors and compression yet. In the mean time I need to take a day and wire up my garage doors and openers. My push button opener quit working so I have to have the vehicles out of the way to remove the temporary extension cord and run conduit to the openers. Then run some 5 wire to the wall mount controllers. I thin k the problem is at the opener as apposed to the remote.




WarWagon said:
Unscrew the round thing on the driver's side front of the injection pump. This is the fuel stop solenoid. Useless really. Pull the plug off it and the engine stops quick though.

Trans rebuilds cost me $999 in and out. Surging could be from trans slipping or bad TCC.
Click to expand...
 
Agreed it is more likely the trans issues makeing the engine surge. There is a lot of communication between the ECM-trans-engine. If the trans is slipping it can cut the engine WAY back to compinsate. Been there done that ..........

WarWagon said:
Unscrew the round thing on the driver's side front of the injection pump. This is the fuel stop solenoid. Useless really. Pull the plug off it and the engine stops quick though.
Click to expand...


Can you go farther into this.....I have never heard that 6.5's dont need to have the shut off solenoid.
Thanks
 
i just fixed my surging and stalling with a new sender unit. old sock must have been to pluged. truck would idle fine but when it would stall driving and my ffm would be almost empty,so i changed lp and ops to no avail. sender unit today and fixed. good luck. 95 silverado k1500 6.5. 220km
 
I haven't had any stalling. It doesn't act like the sock symptoms, I've incurred previously. To me it acts electrical. But I'm still planning to put a fuel gauge on it after I put a transmission in it. LOL
 
Go to a tranny shop and have the guy at the shop hook their scanner up and go for a ride, they will watch what the tranny is doing in real time and it could help. Didn't cost me anything to get mine done.
 
Are there any concerns when swapping a different year 4L80E into my 98 Suburban? I've seen a few 1996's

Any links to a low milage 4x4 6.5 with an automatic trans ?
 
625fireman said:
Can you go farther into this.....I have never heard that 6.5's dont need to have the shut off solenoid.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I have a pipe plug where this used to be on my 1995 IP and it is on the side of the engine zip tied on to prevent a code. It started leaking out the top... When the power to the IP quits the PMD driven fuel spill solenoid stays open and you get no fuel. The fuel shutoff is a safety of limited value as when the PMD fails and the engine runs away the computer will not use it. :skep:
 
WarWagon said:
I have a pipe plug where this used to be on my 1995 IP and it is on the side of the engine zip tied on to prevent a code. It started leaking out the top... When the power to the IP quits the PMD driven fuel spill solenoid stays open and you get no fuel. The fuel shutoff is a safety of limited value as when the PMD fails and the engine runs away the computer will not use it. :skep:
Click to expand...

Thanks Sorta what I was thinkin after I read it.
 
i was reading on kennedy diesel "tech tips" that if your injector pump was ever changed the eprom or ecm depending on year needs to be programed for that ip#. if not it may act up(defuel,stall, then fine again. i thought i had mine fixed with sender unit but yesterday it stalled again. so this is the route im going now.
 
IIRC it is a major tear apart to switch the tails

I sent a message but forgot to ask it it was 2 or 4 WD

Thanks

I would really like to find something I could drive home with less than 150,000 miles. When I was looking for the NV4500, I saw a few that would have fit the bill with between 80,000 & 150,000 miles for in the $2200 range.

Most were trucks with a flat bed or fleet trucks.

Since I started searching I've seen several vehicles that would have worked for the NV4500. LOL

I ended up doing good on the transmission I bought for the truck. But it was kind of a $400 gamble, since the guy didn't really know what he had or the condition.
 
LP going bad or not getting a full 12volts can cause the surging. What psi is your LP putting out?
 
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