Do I have a BAD diesel problem?

[superlift77]

Ok so here goes....Went up to the mountains this weekend for a some rockcrawling about 150mile trip each way starting from sea level to about 7k feet, no biggie...on the way up my truck did amazing(my first tow from a diesel up these hills with a 8k pound trailer, used to with a 97 suburban 1500) in any case heres my problem

My truck would start to stuter on any incline doing about 45-50(would not get enough power to do 65) then jerk and my rpm/engine would drop to idle, and my service engine light/water in fuel light came on, im not sure if the engine would turn off or the computer would just over ride and take me out of gear?it would be in this state of *** for about 3-8 sec then be fine for a couple of miles and do it over again...I pullled over multiple times and drained the fuel/filter bowl complete and cycled it and drained again nothing noticeable could be seen cept for some small particles(smaller then sand) but present. The truck would run fine for about 10-20miles i would do it all over again and i finally got home.....Between one of these stop i added about 10gals new diesel from shell and threw in some addititve

Today I replaced the old water/fuel seperator filter and cycled again and nothing noticeable in the fuel, took for a test drive and was great until i got to freeway speeds and it " did the ***" thing again, drove back home...but heres the thing in town from stop-stop I could floor it and it would not have this "hick-up".... my water in fuel light is not on and never was except when it was "stalled"at speed then engine woul run "normal"with no light

Thanks guys for all the help hope this is enough info

[Kanman]

almost sounds like you have an "in tank" problem with the fuel pickup. Try filling the tank full and try to duplicate the problem.

[superlift77]

Ok ill try that.. For the past a 5 months I have only kept the tank half full.. Never really topped it off mostly driving around town. Its the 39 gal tank (long bed)

[superlift77]

Thanks for all the help, sorry no update been away for a couple of days, so this is what I have done, new fuel filter with a good flushing of the system took it on a test drive and I got the truck to do it again in the same scenario, drove around a bit more cause it felt "better" and did a couple of test runs up a long 5mile hill doing about 70mph and it did not happen at all. which definetly would have before.. Im just worried that I got it to happen at the beginning within the first 10 miles of the new filter...Anything else I should check?

[freestroker]

You need to pull codes. If you have an SES light, you have codes. They will tell much more than just guessing.

Peter

[Cool_Canuck]

What Peter said. There really isn't anything fuel related that sets the SEL.

[superlift77]

Ok, Dont know if i mentioned but the service light does NOT stay on, only on when it had the "hickup" I did not know it stores codes, only if it the light stayed on...Thank for all the help guys!!

[Daisymay77]

You don't indicate which truck you have, but my previous one (obs92) would run out of fuel on both tanks at approx 1/2 tank, on an incline, even sooner. The pickup in both tanks was plastic and had rotted off, so they didn't reach far enough into the tank. If your unit does not act up with a full tank, I'd bet this is the problem.

[Lariatoffroad]

Does there happen to be a chip in it at all. Back around easter my truck died and I ended up replacing the IDM, truck ran fine for two weeks then started acting up again where it would try to start but fully start or when it did start it would run real irradic. It would start acting funny for no reason one minute it would start and 10 minutes later it wouldn't. I ended up pulling the chip that was in there from before I bought the truck and it hasn't acted up since (knock on wood). I just left the chip out for know, still trying to figure out what kind of chip it is.

[superlift77]

Ya I do have a chip had it for about 4 months no problems with it.. Its. Banks big hoss 85horse 150lbs..I do def feel power difference withe the new fuel filter and I can actually see a small bit of smoke now lol hope its just a simple thing as a fuel pick up.. And the truck is a late 99 cc 4x4 LB w/ 174k I love this truck