does this sound like a GP issue?

[8v-of-fury]

Went to start the car today, hit the gp's for about 12 seconds. Car starts to turn over, some smoke from the tail pipe dead battery now from cranking. Get a jump hit the plugs 15 seconds, half way through a I hear a pop from the engine.. Old fuel igniting?? Gp blowing up? Anyway even wiht the jump and like another 15 seconds of plugs.. It started rough and smoked like mad...

Are 1 or more gp's dead ?? what's the ohms they do for ok ones?

[R.O.R-2.0]

Went to start the car today, hit the gp's for about 12 seconds. Car starts to turn over, some smoke from the tail pipe dead battery now from cranking. Get a jump hit the plugs 15 seconds, half way through a I hear a pop from the engine.. Old fuel igniting?? Gp blowing up? Anyway even wiht the jump and like another 15 seconds of plugs.. It started rough and smoked like mad...

Are 1 or more gp's dead ?? what's the ohms they do for ok ones?

sounds like GPs to me..

[Vincent Waldon]

what's the ohms they do for ok ones?

Generally: around an ohm for good ones, infinity or zero for bad ones.

However...  your average Princess Auto multimeter is not very accurate at these low values... seeing them glow red is the definative test, measuring current draw is good as well (but then you need a high capacity ammeter... also not available at Princess Auto!)

If your car started great yesterday and won't start at all today it's probably a voltage issue... blown fuse, relay giving up the ghost etc.  Highly unlikely 2-3 plugs burned out all at the same time.

However, if your car has been starting harder as of late and now is impossible... could be you had one or two bad plugs and this morning have three.   

[8v-of-fury]

Vince I think you might have it.. When I had the engine on the stand and the pump off I shoulda checked each one for glowing red when I pulled them out to make sure they were duraterms.. Goshdarnit! Or maybe I was mistaken and they are not duraterms.. And my 15 seconds of glow has burnt one or more out.

The 2 weeks I've had the engine in and running it has been rough starting with smoke and bucking when trying to drive.. It would seem I already had a dead gp or two.. And it has been starting on 2 and then the other two or 1 cylinder needs to reach temp by compression alone.. I hope it doesn't need gp's! This is just a "ok for now" car till I get the tdi in the other one shelling out $50 would be better used to get my hubs clearanced and bearings lol

[Vincent Waldon]

...or maybe spring will *finally* show up.

Nah, you're right... never gonna happen. 

[8v-of-fury]

I have your complete manual setup vince, so its not the relay.. There isn't one lol. Also all the fuses are good, and the solenoid makes a very audible thunk in the engine bay! :p there must be a dead plug.. it sucks, it doesn't have usable power for 3 mins! You can feel the miss because that cylinder isn't firing at all,and it lurches the car forward lol.

Letting it glow longer seems to help.. Either the heat is transferring more through the head.. Or I've got a few weak plugs rather than dead ones..

[Vincent Waldon]

OK, so now it's time to harvest the true troubleshooting power of Pimped Plugs:

- pull all four fuses
- stick one end of your test light / multimeter / 12v bulb with two wires   on the positive terminal of the battery
- test the line to each glow plug individually at the empty fuse socket with the other line... light on = probably good, light off = definitely burnt out

I say "probably good" above because it is possible for a glow plug to have continuity and not heat up... but my money's on you finding some dead ones.  

I'd also recommend that you do in fact test for voltage thru the solenoid... I've seen one so far that was clunking away like mad but had no actual contact.

[rabbitman]

With my pimped gp setup I have spade connectors on the wires that hook to the fuse panel so I can disconnect all of them, disconnect the coolant sensor (so they glow for long enough), and touch each gp wire to power and if it sparks it's good, no spark and it's bad.

I've used this method a few time already.

If my rabbit has more than 2 burned out plugs it'll never start.

[R.O.R-2.0]

With my pimped gp setup I have spade connectors on the wires that hook to the fuse panel so I can disconnect all of them, disconnect the coolant sensor (so they glow for long enough), and touch each gp wire to power and if it sparks it's good, no spark and it's bad.

I've used this method a few time already.

If my rabbit has more than 2 burned out plugs it'll never start.

yea, same here, gotta tow it with the tractor when the plugs are bad..