Big Bertha has a Fuelling Issue in Alaska
We were making our way down the Kenai peninsula from Anchorage and pulled in to what looked like a nice campsite for the night when Big Bertha’s dashboard suddenly displayed an error code (1-03779-01). Strange, Dave thought. This needed investigation and so we pulled into our camp spot and turned the engine off. Big mistake. It would not restart! Dave spent the next two days fault finding with the help of José from Mexico, Matt from MAN Exeter and Jared from TM Trucking in South Africa. Dave eventually managed to start the engine (with the help of starter spray) and we limped 200km back to a Diesel Workshop in Anchorage. Further diagnostic tests revealed there was a fuel ‘leak by’ from the injectors and/or feed pipe connections. This meant the fuel pump could not build the necessary fuel pressure to start the engine (the ECU requires a minimum fuel pressure at the fuel rail). Although there were options to test the injectors, it was decided to have a fresh set shipped in from the UK along with new feed pipes and a set of sensors/actuators/relief valves. Alaska labour rates are horrendous (£186/hr) and it wasn’t worth spending time to diagnose further – just replace everything. We still have no idea of the exact cause of the problem – but suspect bad fuel.
Foley and his team at Diamond Truck Service looked after us very well, allowing us to stay in their yard over the weekends and public holidays (Francine wonders why we always seem to break down over a long holiday weekend?!). We were there 14 days in total.
This is a list of the work we did for our future reference:
- Replaced all six injectors
- Replaced all six feed pipes
- Replaced Bosch MProp fuel pump regulator
- Replaced fuel rail fuel pressure sensor
- Replaced fuel rail pressure relief valve
- Replaced main fuel filter
- Changed engine oil
- Replaced tank number two connector (leaking)
- Replaced fuel in both tanks.
