First off - congrats on solving the starting issue!
To answer your other question, I would say to maintain your fuel injection equipment, to find a clean station near you that has consistently good fuel quality and buy your fuel from them as often as is practical. Experiment around with the fuel being sold at various local stations first, you can often tell from how well your engine runs how good the cetane is of the fuel. Better cetane fuel will give better fuel mileage and more power and less smoke. After you have identified a station that consistently has good quality fuel, only buy elsewhere when you are doing long-distance traveling. I also really hope you do not live or have to travel through Kansas, as they seem to have only consistently POOR QUALITY diesel there!
Stanadyne performance formula additive is good stuff made by a manufacturer of diesel fuel injection equipment, which due to the lubricity improvers should increase life of your pump and injectors, and will likely recoup its cost when bought by the case just based on improved fuel mileage resulting from the improved cetane (I have documented a 3% improvement from using it.) It's a little bit of a hassle to use as the bottles are prone to dripping and do not seal well, and the stuff really stinks when dripped, but I have found it is especially helpful when used with a bad tank of fuel.
I am also a fan of synthetic lubricants including tranny fluid and motor oil. Synthetic 5W40 is good for a 3% added torque and fuel efficiency especially in colder weather, versus a 15W40. Use an oil with a good diesel spec a la CG-4, CF-4 or better. Not only will help reduce metal wear from the lower friction but it will have less tendency to oxidize and turn to sludge particularly in the hot turbo bearing housing.
Do not shut down your motor shortly after driving it hard, instead allow it to idle for up to a minute to allow it to cool down in these situations. If you have a pyrometer, you can monitor the exhaust gas temperatures and consider routinely idling until EGT drops below a set point you establish for yourself. Or, consider adding a turbo-timer so you will be more likely to actually let you engine always adequately cool down, IE: especially when you are in a hurry. This is of much less importance if you are using a synthetic engine oil.
KEEP COOLANT IN IT AT ALL TIME! Be on the lookout for abnormal coolant level like a hawk. If you are leaking any coolant at any time address it promptly. Running low on coolant easily will blow a head gasket allowing combustion gasses to leak into the cooling system, expelling more coolant from the system, and potentially causing a severe overheat which can then also permanently warp the cylinder head. Overheating from low coolant is without a doubt in my ming the #1 cause of VW Diesel death. Keep coolant in them, and these motors are really hard to kill. So for preventative maintenance, it is not a bad idea to replace ALL your coolant hoses, etc especially if they are getting old/high miles/cracked/soft/oil or diesel damaged, as opposed to waiting until one springs a leak.
Which brings up another point, do not let diesel sit on coolant hoses or other rubber parts it shouldn't be touching in the engine compartment, as the diesel will attack the rubber but not evaporate, disintegrating the rubber over time.
Keep up on v-belt system maintenance. You may think they do not matter for the longevity of the motor, but occasionally when let go, can jump off the crank pulley and melt through the timing belt cover and take out the timing belt.
Those are my tips for you it in a nutshell - enjoy your TD!
Topic: jetta 1.6td runs but won't start, injection pump?? (Read 10331 times)
