Back in my Ecodiesel days, the ED Forum had regular died in the wool diesel experts imparting lots of knowledge. One little nugget was particularly intriguing. It was their opinion that one of the prime culprits in taking out high pressure fuel pumps was heat. They commented that since the injection system relied on a constant recirculation of diesel through the fuel rail and back to the tank that this excess fuel in the system was designed that way to carry heat away from the HP pump. They suggested never to run the tank out to the limit as this reduced amount of fuel would not carry sufficient heat from the pump. They actually recommended filling up when the tank got to 1/4 full just to have an adequate supply of "coolant". At the time, the half ton tank was 26 gallons and following the recommendations would limit its usable capacity to 18 gallons. At this point, the normally increased range of the diesel is actually reduced to a figure below that of the gas engine with the same tank. I am far from a diesel expert and willing to concede that that different engine brands may have different characteristics but since almost all of the diesels in the current marketplace source those injectors and pumps from the same vendors, I have to think there are similarities.
