New Holland C170 fuel delivery issues.

[Hanman34]

2007 New Holland c170, low hours. *disclaimer: Im not a diesel mechanic of any kind, not even a bad one. But I either fix it myself or haul this machine 200 miles to pay the only guy I can find to work on it $140 an hour. I am aware I would be better off letting a professional tackle this job. Trust me I prefer that, but at that rate I could end up owing several thousand pretty quickly and I can't afford that. I would appreciate any input or advice or guidance. I would also happily pay someone a fair price who knows their stuff with these machines who would be willing to pm me and offer some correspondence over the next couple weeks to help me figure out what's going on with it. Here's the problem: It starts and runs like a champ. For about 30 minutes. Once it seems to get good and warmed up it will still sit there and idle all day but as soon as you try to throttle up and move it seems to begin running out of fuel and starving itself. It will sputter and bog down and just gets worse until I can't move at all and will die if you don't let up. If I shut it off and let it sit for a few hours I can hop in it and go again for 30 minutes or so and then same issues. Been like this for over a year. It does seem to perform slightly better if fuel tank is completely full versus having a 1/4 tank or so, but it doesn't solve the problem entirely, just delays it by another 30 minutes or so. I'm being told it is probably the injector pump, but I'm not so sure. Seems to me that there are several easier/less expensive possible culprits to check first before tearing into the injector pump. It doesn't smoke, doesn't rattle or make any knocking noise (no worse than the usual new holland clanging lol) , just sounds like running out of fuel. have wasted 6 months letting it sit at local mechanic's parking lot, sick of waiting and I'm going to troubleshoot this myself and see what I can tear up. Thanks for reading, I appreciate your time!

 

[rjitreeman0909]

Can you install a pressure gauge on the feed line right at the injector pump? I would suggest an old school fuel pressure/vacuum gage. If only gravity feed, pressure will be quite low. Only about .3 psi for each foot of height from bottom of tank to injector pump feed. If it has a lift pump, pressures will also be low. but expect a couple of psi. Once you have cold psi, watch what it does as time goes by. Expect a slow drop over the 30 minutes. In tank pickup screen/filter would be first guess. Drain, check or replace screen, flush tank. Second possibility is in line filter. Replace it. Third could be lift pump or a filter on the inlet side of that pump. Good luck. Let us know what you find.

 

[Tazza]

Can you install a pressure gauge on the feed line right at the injector pump? I would suggest an old school fuel pressure/vacuum gage. If only gravity feed, pressure will be quite low. Only about .3 psi for each foot of height from bottom of tank to injector pump feed. If it has a lift pump, pressures will also be low. but expect a couple of psi. Once you have cold psi, watch what it does as time goes by. Expect a slow drop over the 30 minutes. In tank pickup screen/filter would be first guess. Drain, check or replace screen, flush tank. Second possibility is in line filter. Replace it. Third could be lift pump or a filter on the inlet side of that pump. Good luck. Let us know what you find.

I'd start with the simple, replace the main fuel filter first.
A pressure gauge after the lift pump is a good idea actually. It will tell you if it's starving for fuel or not.
Another way is to get a jug of fuel and some new fuel hose and by-pass the fuel tank. Use your new jug of fuel and hose, you may want a hand primer like you use on a boat to help prime the system. See how it runs like that, if it works well, the issue is further back the line to the tank.
Yet another way is to install a hand primer in the system you have already, before the lift pump. Run the machine and when it boggs down, get someone to give the primer bulb a good squeeze, this will give your more fuel pressure and if it makes the engine recover, the issue is probably the lift pump.
I'm with you, do all you can before paying that sort of price. You will learn something while at it too.

 

[Hanman34]

I'd start with the simple, replace the main fuel filter first.
A pressure gauge after the lift pump is a good idea actually. It will tell you if it's starving for fuel or not.
Another way is to get a jug of fuel and some new fuel hose and by-pass the fuel tank. Use your new jug of fuel and hose, you may want a hand primer like you use on a boat to help prime the system. See how it runs like that, if it works well, the issue is further back the line to the tank.
Yet another way is to install a hand primer in the system you have already, before the lift pump. Run the machine and when it boggs down, get someone to give the primer bulb a good squeeze, this will give your more fuel pressure and if it makes the engine recover, the issue is probably the lift pump.
I'm with you, do all you can before paying that sort of price. You will learn something while at it too.

Agreed. It's my own machine, I oughta know more about it than I do. What do you all know about the necessity of the small in-line fuel filter? Called someone to ask about borrowing a pressure gauge and after telling him the problem, he instantly asked me if my skid steer still had the small in line filter above the tank. I said yes, and I had already tried replacing that, it is fairly new. He said well the first thing you need to do is remove that filter and throw it as far as you can. You don't need it and that new holland only recommends using this filter for the first 50 hours of engine life, only to catch the plastic shavings from drilling holes in the fuel tank. AFter that it's not necessary and if I've had water in my fuel that this filter will work fine for about 20 minutes or so and then start causing the symptoms I'm having. I thought it sounded like b.s. but figured what the heck, can't hurt to try. I ran it for almost 2 hours after that and had no issues at all, which is the longest I've been able to run it nonstop in over a year. Surely it can't be that simple, Im never that lucky! I still haven't put a pressure gauge on it, still am going to as soon as I can. I'll be backfilling a basement next week, will get a chance to run it all day and see what happens.

 

[rjitreeman0909]

Agreed. It's my own machine, I oughta know more about it than I do. What do you all know about the necessity of the small in-line fuel filter? Called someone to ask about borrowing a pressure gauge and after telling him the problem, he instantly asked me if my skid steer still had the small in line filter above the tank. I said yes, and I had already tried replacing that, it is fairly new. He said well the first thing you need to do is remove that filter and throw it as far as you can. You don't need it and that new holland only recommends using this filter for the first 50 hours of engine life, only to catch the plastic shavings from drilling holes in the fuel tank. AFter that it's not necessary and if I've had water in my fuel that this filter will work fine for about 20 minutes or so and then start causing the symptoms I'm having. I thought it sounded like b.s. but figured what the heck, can't hurt to try. I ran it for almost 2 hours after that and had no issues at all, which is the longest I've been able to run it nonstop in over a year. Surely it can't be that simple, Im never that lucky! I still haven't put a pressure gauge on it, still am going to as soon as I can. I'll be backfilling a basement next week, will get a chance to run it all day and see what happens.

Please cut that filter apart and report what you find. We can all learn from this.

 

[PrivadoMason]

Agreed. It's my own machine, I oughta know more about it than I do. What do you all know about the necessity of the small in-line fuel filter? Called someone to ask about borrowing a pressure gauge and after telling him the problem, he instantly asked me if my skid steer still had the small in line filter above the tank. I said yes, and I had already tried replacing that, it is fairly new. He said well the first thing you need to do is remove that filter and throw it as far as you can. You don't need it and that new holland only recommends using this filter for the first 50 hours of engine life, only to catch the plastic shavings from drilling holes in the fuel tank. AFter that it's not necessary and if I've had water in my fuel that this filter will work fine for about 20 minutes or so and then start causing the symptoms I'm having. I thought it sounded like b.s. but figured what the heck, can't hurt to try. I ran it for almost 2 hours after that and had no issues at all, which is the longest I've been able to run it nonstop in over a year. Surely it can't be that simple, Im never that lucky! I still haven't put a pressure gauge on it, still am going to as soon as I can. I'll be backfilling a basement next week, will get a chance to run it all day and see what happens.

Woah! I hope you're lucky this time for your sake. And why don't you do as the other guy said "tear that filter open", that could definitely teach us all something!

 

[JDWY]

Woah! I hope you're lucky this time for your sake. And why don't you do as the other guy said "tear that filter open", that could definitely teach us all something!

rjitreeman0909, I agree, I wish he'd posted back. My L185 has the little inline filter too and if it's a problem source I'd sure like to know.