97 6.5l turbo diesel, redlines at startup

a friend of a friend has a 97 chevy 6.5l turbo diesel. he wants to get in back on the road but has had an issue for a while. as soon as he starts the truck the motor redlines and then dies or turns off when he turns the key (which ever comes first). he replaced the TPS, I don't know if it is set right or if it is plug and play. my question is what could be causing this? it is not burning oil and will turn off with the key (kinda rules out turbo oil seals). I have not looked at it. is this year a mechanical injection or electronic? could there be a sensor that controls the injection rate that failed? or if it is mechanical I guess the rack could be stuck in the pump? any help would be great. thanks in advance

Once it redlines done it idle down the rev bck up then back down and so on? Or is it a constant Redline?

I am pretty sure he said constant. but now that you brought that up I will ask.

Most likely the injection pump is done. They have a known weak point where the screw that holds the fuel armuture to the solenoid that controls it breaks. When this happens you get uncontrolled throttle.

How can i test or confirm that?

jkretzer said:

How can i test or confirm that?

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Uncontrollable throttle is pretty much what you get when the armuture screw breaks. The screw is what atatches the fuel rack to the fuel control solenoid, when it breaks you lose rack control and it goes WOT.