My new truck finally came in the mail on Friday and I got to spend the long weekend with it. Has been sitting around not run since 2000, 800k original on the truck. Really a pretty solid old truck although nowhere near as nice as my last one (I was really spoiled with that truck). Someone had previously tried to get it running with no success so the first step is to dig in and make that happen. Motor turns, and I've never had a Detroit that would turn but wouldn't run. Here's the first pictures of delivery and initial assessment.


First things first with a Detroit and that's freeing up the injectors. Since I always get questions on how to do this I made a video.
After I got the injectors unstuck I hooked up some batteries and hit the button.... nothing. Cleaned every connection on the series parallel and still nothing. Series Parallel clicks, but no starter rotation. Began looking at other connections, noticed all battery terminals were cleaned by whoever previously tried so this problem is not new. While cleaning connections on the starter I found a broken wire which is what sends 24v back to the series parallel on the small side of it to actuate the starter solenoid. Now we've got crank!
and crank, and crank and crank and ether and it'll crank faster with ether but no fire. Just some smoke. Obvious no fuel is obvious. Notice during cranking turbo doesn't want to spin freely. Upon closer inspection I find this:

ENTIRE exhaust housing full of mouse nest. I've got a remedy for that too.
Remove feed line to pump and attach to an elevated funnel filled with fuel. Results:
Not too shabby. Entire passenger bank is cold, fuel's pissing out somewhere. I've been down this road. No fun at all. Notice no coolant in engine at all and oil cooler drain wide open. I figure lets get coolant in it before we go any further. Fill with water, immediately discover why it was drained.

incoherent cursing. rinse and repeat for 5 minutes.
drain system, and loop cooling system at the pump bypassing both heater cores.
refill with water. Time to take care of that mouse nest. Button up turbo up-pipes start truck and rev to 2100. turbo's clear.
Now we can move on to tackling the worst job on a Detroit. Fuel lines.

Found the culprit:

Also noticed the fuel lines on the engine side of the junction all use the cheaper thinner braided hose. At some point this must've changed because my last truck was all premium grade. This is a problem becuase the fittings don't interchange and all the line I have in stock is premium. UGH. Ran around for an entire day chasing my tail. Finally $162 and 8 fittings later:

Well worth the effort, runs MUCH better, all cylinders within 10 degrees of each other and no smoke and no slobber. Next step is to get it to run off it's own tank. See how that goes tonight. Then it's on to the oh so much fun job of getting the rest of the electrics to work other than the one clearance light that currently works.
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Buncha junk.