So I don't have a lot to offer most of you guys as I mostly do any mechanical/hydraulic work as kind of a hobby and my money making ventures are all with wood but I enjoy getting my hands greasy. This is the quintessential "keep it simple stupid" thread. I digress. So one of my work trucks is an '05 international 4300 DT466egr with the 5 speed Allison, great truck for the most part. I was going to pick up a planer I had bought for my shop and took the big truck, it kind of surged about 5 miles from my shop and didn't have any other issues on the way. Got to the machinery guy and picked up the planer, no problems. BS'd with him for a bit while the truck idled... No problems. Drove 300 yards down the street, truck surged, coughed, hiccuped, and did everything else to seem like it was being absolutely starved of fuel and then jolted back. I pulled to the side and shut'er down and waited a bit thinking maybe icp sensor went bad and wouldn't run when oil was hot. Anyhow, no go, had to get it towed to my place. I've spent the past 4 days reading up on the heui injectors and replacing, diagnosing and checking everything I could without the really expensive software. First things first, check the fuses in the box... All good. Next was the fuel filter, didn't look too bad but the prime pump was absolutely shot, thought I had it early. Not so fast, replaced and no better. I took the doghouse off(which is basically similar to hell if you are intending to keep everything in tact). Trying to stay away from having to take the valve cover off I checked the exterior injector harness, it had a ton of chaffed insulation near the plugs. Replaced it, not an easy fix getting around the injector male ends but after about an hour (that's embarrassing to admit) I had the new harness and ready to rock... Except it was just more crank with no fire.... Engine was like a crackhead without a lighter. On to the check hpop. And IPR valve with temp sensor trick. Pulled the temp sensor, and about cried when I saw it had oil in the reservoir and the IPR worked when directly applied 12v... Certainly bad hpop, certainly expensive and probably something I don't want to tackle. With unplugging ICM and IPR valve working I was absolutely positive it was the expensive pump. Injectors all ohmed out okay. No leaks in the seals. Decided today to just go over some little things I might not have paid attention to. The more I dug the more baffled I got. Decided to just take a peak in the battery box because I charged them yesterday (mine is underneath the drivers side door and a bank of 4 because it runs an inverter). It has 3 big fuses... One was completely melted. Whole problem right there in a $1 40amp fuse. (You can't see me but I'm crying from both joy and anger right now). Just figured I'd give you guys a little heads up if you don't already know, if your 4300 is starved for fuel and won't crank just K.I.S.S. the damn thing before you get in too deep.
Oh, for the days of mechanical diesel's. Fuel + air= should run. At least you got it.
You ain't kidding. I have a 1990 7.3L box truck and it is wonderful to trouble shoot as far as what's going on. Big truck is fun but damn, it's a pain to find out all the little faults that may or may not throw codes. Anyhow, felt obligated to post it somewhere to hopefully help someone else at some point. You guys all nailed it with identifying my mystery bobcat and since I got that I was able to get a service manual (300+ pages) which helped me rebuild the lift pump and all the cylinders. Not to mention how much it has helped me understand the system they used back then. Always good to be able to give something, as small as it might be, back to a community who might use it. I'm just competent enough to understand about this stuff, not much to teach.
I don't know if yours is identical to the Ford version 7.3 in that the ECM and the fuel filter heater share a fuse. Heater coil shorts, no engine computer.