The old screaming jimmies were very hard to start if they ran out of fuel.
I would like to respectfully disagree.
I drove a 61 truck with a 6V53T Detroit across the country three times, and it had no fuel gauge
(other than a stick). Occasionally I would run low on fuel, it would suck air, and sputter, sometimes quit all together. I would pull over, dump 5 gallons in it, crank it over for about 10 seconds or less, it would start, and we would head on down the road. The pickup in the tank was on the left side, so in a left turn the fuel would run away from it, it would suck air, that's when I knew to stop for fuel, or add the 5 gallons.
A Detroit by design pumps a lot of fuel, roughly a gallon per minute at idle is returned to the tank, this volume is what easily and quickly clears out the air in the system.
The gear pump is not always self priming, but if you put the fuel level higher than it, it will do just fine. And as in my case if it just sucks a little air there is still enough fuel in the lines for it to work as usual once more fuel is in the tank.
If you replace the filters fill them with fuel if you can, but generally there is no need to crack any fuel lines and bleed air out.
If you expect to run out of fuel,or have a hydraulic or air starter (limited cranking time) then a hand primer, or electric one, is all you will ever need to get the fuel system ready for the engine to start again.
Grigg
