1ST Gen crank but no start

alrighty so I bought my 1992 Cummins D250 from the previous owner and he said I had the injection pump off the truck to clean behind it and all that I guess to detail the engine bay? idk anyway I put the injection pump on got diesel running through the lines then hooked the lines up to the injectors...moment of truth and nope just kept cranking I would only crank it anywhere between 5 to 10 seconds after some attempts I take the lines off the injectors and put little Styrofoam cups underneath them and had my dad look at how much diesel was coming out into the cups., so on some attempts the cups would be evenly filled on other attempts 1 or 2 cups would have a lot more diesel than the others and some not any at all, so Im assuming there might be air in the lines? but Im not sure bc I've been trying to get air out of the lines all day but not getting anywhere. kinda bummed this is my dream truck and cant get her to start for me, once I get her started I can start the repainting and all that, sorry for the long post its just no one I know nows anything about diesels so I turn to you guys, I would greatly appreciate any advice on why she not firing up, oh one more thing I got some diesel from the station and put it in the tank bc I don't now how much is in there since the fuel guage doesn't work and today when I got diesel running through the lines it was red, is it bad that red and green diesel mix? Thanks again Guys!!!

No on the mix. The red is off road diesel. Same Ol'

How far out is your timing? It's been a long time since I did one. But it seems to me there was a way of presetting the injection timing. It had to be timed with the proper equipment later

I honestly I have no clue this is my first diesel and from what the previous owner told my was just to bolt up the injection pump and go I didn't know there was timing hmmm

You better find some instructions on how to change the pump.

Alright ill try if theres anyone who is in the DFW area in TX who like to help me that would be awesome, ill try and find some instructions on timing the pump

I have the full manual for that motor if it still has the VE pump (factory pump) as a lot of people upgraded these to the P-Pump. If you pm me, your email, or phone number I can sit infront of the book saturday morning and be of help to you. I should be able to scan that section also at some point.

the books and my reference truck will be a 93 (same thing)

Alright cool man thanks, yeah I talked to this guy today I do some body work on there diesel fleet, I told him about the cummins he said he knows this guy who knows all about this stuff so hopefully he can come by and help me out if I don't get r done before he comes out to my work, one of my buddies just picked up an 04 made me jelous bc his running LOL im going to make a build thread I got a lot of goodies waiting to be installed:)

i can send you a pdf file or post here straight from quickserve the procedure if youd like

here you go

ok got an update guys I took the truck to this diesel tech next to my shop and he told me that the pump was just done so we threw another one on there, changed out the radiator and a few pulleys primed the system and she cranked up! but now ive noticed that she doesn't leak oil when the motor is off only when its running so I drained the oil and proceeded to take the pan off but I guess the motor needs to go up a few inches so we'll tackle that tomorrow, I also changed rotors and pads and re-packed the bearings so the front end is good, and I raised this shifter about a foot LOL:)

Hi 1STGen12Valve, how did you determine that VE pump is bad.

Just wandering to rule out that I am in the same boat, before I change it with new one.