Fuel cut out / air in system

[J133troylee]

Hey friendees , purchased a 1995 2.5 L turbo diesel about a year and a half ago and sadly it overheated without any indication! Had to replace the engine and finally got it to start , new engine has new timing belt , head gasket , water pump , thermostat, valve cover gasket . New fluids and oil filter and air filter . Put engine at 10 degrees past for injection pump which is set at (.040”) thousandths which is in spec . Everything is tight and bolted down and vacuum lines are hooked up , Started van and ran good for about a minute and then started to cut out and want to die . Idle would be around 800 at start up and then would drop to about 400 so had to keep foot on pedal so it wouldn’t die . Any suggestions on where to look or what it might be ?

[IanFireblade]

Hi have you checked the input gauze/filter into the fuel pump? Remove the main fuel pipe to the pump from filter and out should come a spring from what I remember and then in the base a very small filter/gauze with a brass ring around it. This gets blocked with swarf and poor diesel over 27 years (hold up to a light you will see it blocked) and causes running up issues like this (I had a similar issue to you). I removed this gause and didn’t re fit it, I’ve done 2500 miles since and never had an issue. You could clean it out of course and re fit it, but wheres the fun in that! Mines ran better than ever without it, struggling on hills is a thing of the past and no longer Smokey on startup. Hope this helps you, cheers