Ran out of fuel What do I need to do before starting it back up

[Dave Colker]

Cummins QSB 5.9 No fuel cooler (had that uninstalled)

I recently underestimated my fuel capacity by about 10 gallons. I was 6 miles from port and bam…. sputter sputter ran out of fuel.
I immediately pulled the throttle lever down to neutral and shut off the key. I believe the engine /fuel system will will have air in it. I do not want to turn the key on.. activating the fuel lift pump until I know that’s safe to do so. I’m guessing I will need to bleed the system of any unwanted air.

Any tips on how to bleed the system? And as a side note… what damage could be potentially done to an engine running at 2600 RPM then suddenly lose fuel? I didn’t see anything that would tell me there is any issue, just curious.

Main question is what to I need to bleed? I have a Racor and the triple fuel filter combo from seaboard. I will be doing an oil change soon and will be replacing all the filters should I bleed the system after doing that as well?

Topic

[pwrobert]

I have posted earlier a few photos of a setup I installed with a ball valve attached in place of the extra hex plug. It has a nipple and hose that I can put in a container and fill the fuel lines and filters all the way to the on engine filter. Then the key can start things easily. Requires no tools.
Not usually a problem of running tank dry but when working on the engines or lines they sometimes get a lot of air in them.

Sometimes if running of my center tank when it is less than 1/2 full and boat sits a few days the filters back siphon and drain the filters. No I shut off fuel valves when the boats is not being used for a while.

[Tony Athens]

5mm allen hex

Thread is 10mm x 1.0

2 users thanked author for this post.

John, Dave Colker

[Dave Colker]

Fired up all good

I had a fellow fisherman help me out with this last night.

Procedure was as follows…

(After I Added 20 gallons fuel into the tank)

1. Cracked the banjo fitting on the injector rail 5/8” open end wrench
2. Used a solution of dawn soap and water in a spray bottle to see the air escape… separated on top of banjo
3. Pumped the squeeze valve on the Racor to force fuel into the system.
4. Observed the air escape from the banjo
5. Once the squeeze valve was hard to pump and air had escaped, put the throttle in neutral and full wide open on lever….
6. Turned the key

It fired up easy. Brought the throttle down and idled for 20 minutes or so.

Tried it this morning and it fired up. As I said before I’m due for an oil change anyhow so I’m going to replace all filters at the same time and this is where I will take Tony’s advise and loosen the Allen screw on the QSB filter.

Thank you all for your replies I hope this helps someone else in the future. Thank u all for replies.

[Philip]

2 questiosn

Out of curiosity

1. What is the hex size for the filter plug?

2. What is the plug thread (metric m8-1.25, 10-32, etc)? Would be good to put a fitting with hose into a small container to contain the mess some.

Phil

[Tony Athens]

The key is to remove the Allen plug on the top of the On-Engine QSB filter and make a small mess bleeding the system using the key.. Until you get all filled between the tank and that filter, you are not going to get it started.. Do you have a “squeeze bulb”– That will get to running way faster than the “key”..

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave Colker

[Dave Colker]

Thank u, yeah this was my first time… but been at it for 15 years just underestimated the capacity… I don’t usually run anywhere as low as I got but I went almost 200 miles in 4 days so just missed it by a few inches… anyhow thank u for the reply. But now I know.

[Fireisland1]

My procedure would be
Fill tank.
Manually fill Racor
Cycle lift pump / key on about 5 times ,20 sec each time
Start engine
If no start, remove Allen key plug on top of engine filter [ front plug] and repeat till fuel comes out.

But then I never ran out of fuel [ yet ] so I don’t know if there is a better way.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Dave Colker

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