300 HPDI oil issues

I'd really appreciate any help on this. 2004/5 300 hpdis. A few weeks ago I got an alarm from the port motor, oil warning. Turned out that the engine oil tank wasn't being fed, or as it turned out it was being fed intermittently. Bled lines, emptied remote tanks and checked for junk, new filter. Well, took her out yesterday, started doing it again, same thing. Then while limping in on one motor the starboard motor started doing the same thing.

My question is, how could they both have the problem at the same time? I can think of no common part between the two motors that could be causing the problem. Two completely separate systems as far as I know. Is this just a crazy coincidence?

Crazy coincidence. Do the pumps run at all? If you drain the engine tanks and turn on the key they should turn on for 3 min. Otherwise the motor needs to be running. How do ALL the wire connections look on the oil tanks. How do all the ground leads look for your harnesses and electronic components where they connect to the block under the cowl. All should be clean and free of corrosion. After you verify all that you could test the float switches in the engine tank. Are you seeing an arrow under the yellow on your tachs. That would indicate a possible problem with the remote tank circuitry provided the tank is adequately full. It is unusual to see the pumps fail but it is possible also.

My guess is, neither of your trim gauges are working. I think, on your year engine if the trim sender is stuck in the up position the pump in the remote tank will be shut off.

This would explain the identical problem on both engines.

They don't seem to be running at all. Force feed switches on the engines don't do anything on either. Will be checking the wiring and float switches in the next few days. It's just crazy that both did it at once and I can't believe that there's not one simple thing that's causing both to fail. Just for information, they are both 2004s that have rebuilt power heads. About 400 hours after the rebuild. Thanks for the help.

Thanks Chris. We'll definitely Check into that.

Fishngator said:

They don't seem to be running at all. Force feed switches on the engines don't do anything on either. Will be checking the wiring and float switches in the next few days. It's just crazy that both did it at once and I can't believe that there's not one simple thing that's causing both to fail. Just for information, they are both 2004s that have rebuilt power heads. About 400 hours after the rebuild. Thanks for the help.

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If trim senders are not working correctly and the engine thinks it is tilted all the way up, the whole system is disabled.

Good call on the trim senders. Probably more likely.

I'll be checking that next. Thanks!

I just started having the exact same problem with one of my 300 hpdi's yesterday. Alarm sounds, switch on engine will not activate oil pump. Where is the trim sender located? and is there anyway to override that if it fails?

Located inside the port transom bracket. I don't know if disconnecting it up at the terminaton will work to bypass the problem but you could try and let us know.