1.6 TD is starting to get a bit smokey/bad starting...

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Ok so I have a 1.6TD motor from CL golf, which when I got it was upto around 150k miles on it, I then fitted it to my 72 vw camper where its been for 4 years now (only covered a few thousand miles) as it was intended that I would run the engine on veg oil.

so for the first 2 years it was fine then the glow plugs all went at once one day leaving my van stranded at my g/fs house where the next day we got it started with a blow torch to the intake to help out.

Last year it was used for a few miles and didnt have any real issues, this year its been generally sat for about 6 months where I have been refitting the interior and a second fuel tank for veg oil, but in the last week I have finally started using it as my daily on veg oil.

My set up is that I have 2 fuel tanks, one has diesel (the stock one) and a secondary for veg oil, with a heat exchanger to heat the veg oil before it goes to the pump and then an electronic change over valve to swap between fuels once the gauge shows the engine has warmed up.

During the 6 months the vans been stood I have started and run it a few times, its never been amazing at starting because I dont have the cold start advance thing connected (at the moment anyway) but I do have the glow plugs all hooked up working as they should, so as I have been using it this week the thing has really been smoking/running poor on start up and I am not sure why as temperatures have been about 8c here so I wouldnt have thought the cold start advance would have made much difference as it hasnt been a problem in the past.

So I turn the ignition on, glow plugs come on for about 8-10seconds then I start spinning it over but like a gas engine tend to find I need a bit of throttle to get it going, it then starts and runs pretty lumpy with a fair amount of blue haze initially, which in the past has cleared pretty quickly, but this week its been taking a bit longer to run smooth. I would then start driving the 36 miles to work and after 3 miles the vans warm enough to switch over to waste veg oil, which it remains running on for all but the last mile of the journey where I switch back to diesel to purge the system.

Over the period of the week I have noticed its starting and warm up getting a bit worse even when one day I did run it half way home on diesel because veg oil was running low. The veg oil filters( I have a dual filter head setup for the veg oil) were new when I filled the 10 gallon tank up and the diesel filter was new about 500 miles ago and only sees diesel not veg oil.

I wondered why the engine was becoming smokey and harder starting considering its supposed to be fine to run them on waste veg oil thats been filtered(like mine is all filtered before it gets to the tank). I wondered if the harder starting might just be because the glow plugs have gone within 2 years?

Additionally I have been running a small percentage of 2 stroke oils in my fuel too, after alot of reading on the internet it appears that by mixing diesel fuel 200:1 with 2 stroke oil can help the fuel system by lubricating the mechanical bits that arent seeing as much sulpher lubricants as when the engines were new, I figured on an engine with 150k it cant hurt especially in the veg oil as veg oil doesnt have lubrication properties compared to diesel!

Tonight the engine was running like a right heap when it started up, the only way I could decribe it this time was as if it had a bit of an air in the fuel or something as it was smokey and running on 2, took 30 seconds of holding it at a few thousand revs to clear things up a bit, but it would still occasionally miss.

I'm hoping this is something I have just overlooked/age of the engine as opposed to running it on the waste veg oil as its a free fuel for me (talk about hippy van eh!)

Anybody got any suggestions?

Also are 1.6D injectors the same as 1.6TD injectors rating wise? I have a 1.6D sitting about that needs a rebuild but the injectors were good and I think the engine is lower milage than the TD as I thought it might be worn injectors.

[bajacalal]

Ok so I have a 1.6TD motor from CL golf, which when I got it was upto around 150k miles on it, I then fitted it to my 72 vw camper where its been for 4 years now (only covered a few thousand miles) as it was intended that I would run the engine on veg oil.

so for the first 2 years it was fine then the glow plugs all went at once one day leaving my van stranded at my g/fs house where the next day we got it started with a blow torch to the intake to help out.

Last year it was used for a few miles and didnt have any real issues, this year its been generally sat for about 6 months where I have been refitting the interior and a second fuel tank for veg oil, but in the last week I have finally started using it as my daily on veg oil.

My set up is that I have 2 fuel tanks, one has diesel (the stock one) and a secondary for veg oil, with a heat exchanger to heat the veg oil before it goes to the pump and then an electronic change over valve to swap between fuels once the gauge shows the engine has warmed up.

During the 6 months the vans been stood I have started and run it a few times, its never been amazing at starting because I dont have the cold start advance thing connected (at the moment anyway) but I do have the glow plugs all hooked up working as they should, so as I have been using it this week the thing has really been smoking/running poor on start up and I am not sure why as temperatures have been about 8c here so I wouldnt have thought the cold start advance would have made much difference as it hasnt been a problem in the past.

So I turn the ignition on, glow plugs come on for about 8-10seconds then I start spinning it over but like a gas engine tend to find I need a bit of throttle to get it going, it then starts and runs pretty lumpy with a fair amount of blue haze initially, which in the past has cleared pretty quickly, but this week its been taking a bit longer to run smooth. I would then start driving the 36 miles to work and after 3 miles the vans warm enough to switch over to waste veg oil, which it remains running on for all but the last mile of the journey where I switch back to diesel to purge the system.

Over the period of the week I have noticed its starting and warm up getting a bit worse even when one day I did run it half way home on diesel because veg oil was running low. The veg oil filters( I have a dual filter head setup for the veg oil) were new when I filled the 10 gallon tank up and the diesel filter was new about 500 miles ago and only sees diesel not veg oil.

I'm thinking you're not completely getting the veg oil out of the system before shut down, and are allowing a lot of raw oil to mix into the diesel.

I wondered why the engine was becoming smokey and harder starting considering its supposed to be fine to run them on waste veg oil thats been filtered(like mine is all filtered before it gets to the tank).  I wondered if the harder starting might just be because the glow plugs have gone within 2 years?

It should still have a filter, because the tank itself can be a source of contamination and water.

Also, if your glow plugs went out all at once, in one day, which is highly unusual, I would suspect that there could be an electrical problem which is causing them to fail.

Additionally I have been running a small percentage of 2 stroke oils in my fuel too, after alot of reading on the internet it appears that by mixing diesel fuel 200:1 with 2 stroke oil can help the fuel system by lubricating the mechanical bits that arent seeing as much sulpher lubricants as when the engines were new, I figured on an engine with 150k it cant hurt especially in the veg oil as veg oil doesnt have lubrication properties compared to diesel!

I think it's the other way round, that oil is an excellent lubricant, diesel is not. If anything, the oil needs something to "cut" it, to make it ignite easier in cold weather, such as gasoline or an additive, which increases the volatility and decreases the tendency for it to turn into grease.

Tonight the engine was running like a right heap when it started up, the only way I could decribe it this time was as if it had a bit of an air in the fuel or something as it was smokey and running on 2, took 30 seconds of holding it at a few thousand revs to clear things up a bit, but it would still occasionally miss.

Are you sure you don't actually have air getting into the fuel lines? It sure sounds like it.

Also are 1.6D injectors the same as 1.6TD injectors rating wise? I have a 1.6D sitting about that needs a rebuild but the injectors were good and I think the engine is lower milage than the TD as I thought it might be worn injectors.

No, the TD injectors have a higher break-open pressure, to compensate for the the turbo adding extra air (and therefore, more pressure when it ignites) to the cylinders.

[burn_your_money]

It sounds like you might have air in the fuel, possibly a slow leak back to the tank once you shut down. Or your timing is a bit on the retarded side.

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Ok so I have a 1.6TD motor from CL golf, which when I got it was upto around 150k miles on it, I then fitted it to my 72 vw camper where its been for 4 years now (only covered a few thousand miles) as it was intended that I would run the engine on veg oil.

so for the first 2 years it was fine then the glow plugs all went at once one day leaving my van stranded at my g/fs house where the next day we got it started with a blow torch to the intake to help out.

Last year it was used for a few miles and didnt have any real issues, this year its been generally sat for about 6 months where I have been refitting the interior and a second fuel tank for veg oil, but in the last week I have finally started using it as my daily on veg oil.

My set up is that I have 2 fuel tanks, one has diesel (the stock one) and a secondary for veg oil, with a heat exchanger to heat the veg oil before it goes to the pump and then an electronic change over valve to swap between fuels once the gauge shows the engine has warmed up.

During the 6 months the vans been stood I have started and run it a few times, its never been amazing at starting because I dont have the cold start advance thing connected (at the moment anyway) but I do have the glow plugs all hooked up working as they should, so as I have been using it this week the thing has really been smoking/running poor on start up and I am not sure why as temperatures have been about 8c here so I wouldnt have thought the cold start advance would have made much difference as it hasnt been a problem in the past.

So I turn the ignition on, glow plugs come on for about 8-10seconds then I start spinning it over but like a gas engine tend to find I need a bit of throttle to get it going, it then starts and runs pretty lumpy with a fair amount of blue haze initially, which in the past has cleared pretty quickly, but this week its been taking a bit longer to run smooth. I would then start driving the 36 miles to work and after 3 miles the vans warm enough to switch over to waste veg oil, which it remains running on for all but the last mile of the journey where I switch back to diesel to purge the system.

Over the period of the week I have noticed its starting and warm up getting a bit worse even when one day I did run it half way home on diesel because veg oil was running low. The veg oil filters( I have a dual filter head setup for the veg oil) were new when I filled the 10 gallon tank up and the diesel filter was new about 500 miles ago and only sees diesel not veg oil.

I'm thinking you're not completely getting the veg oil out of the system before shut down, and are allowing a lot of raw oil to mix into the diesel.

I wondered why the engine was becoming smokey and harder starting considering its supposed to be fine to run them on waste veg oil thats been filtered(like mine is all filtered before it gets to the tank).  I wondered if the harder starting might just be because the glow plugs have gone within 2 years?

It should still have a filter, because the tank itself can be a source of contamination and water.

Also, if your glow plugs went out all at once, in one day, which is highly unusual, I would suspect that there could be an electrical problem which is causing them to fail.

Additionally I have been running a small percentage of 2 stroke oils in my fuel too, after alot of reading on the internet it appears that by mixing diesel fuel 200:1 with 2 stroke oil can help the fuel system by lubricating the mechanical bits that arent seeing as much sulpher lubricants as when the engines were new, I figured on an engine with 150k it cant hurt especially in the veg oil as veg oil doesnt have lubrication properties compared to diesel!

I think it's the other way round, that oil is an excellent lubricant, diesel is not. If anything, the oil needs something to "cut" it, to make it ignite easier in cold weather, such as gasoline or an additive, which increases the volatility and decreases the tendency for it to turn into grease.

Tonight the engine was running like a right heap when it started up, the only way I could decribe it this time was as if it had a bit of an air in the fuel or something as it was smokey and running on 2, took 30 seconds of holding it at a few thousand revs to clear things up a bit, but it would still occasionally miss.

Are you sure you don't actually have air getting into the fuel lines? It sure sounds like it.

Also are 1.6D injectors the same as 1.6TD injectors rating wise? I have a 1.6D sitting about that needs a rebuild but the injectors were good and I think the engine is lower milage than the TD as I thought it might be worn injectors.

No, the TD injectors have a higher break-open pressure, to compensate for the the turbo adding extra air (and therefore, more pressure when it ignites) to the cylinders.

Normally a mile/2 should be plenty to get the oil out and the diesel in, I still had the problem on thursday when I had been driving for 15 miles on diesel before shutting off so I dont think its that.

I think you may have misunderstood about the oil filtering( I may have not bee clear enough). I get veg oil straight out of works fryer, its actually pretty clean compared to takeaway outlets as there is little water in it, I then leave it in a clear barrel to sit for several weeks to let anything separate. I never seem to have any water in it which is good, the fatty deposits sink to the bottom and I pour out the good oil into another barrel with a tap on. I then have a series of 5x 25litre buckets, each one has a different grade filter: 100/50/25/5/1 Micron(diesel filters are 5micron apparently).The oil goes through all of that before it goes into the veg oil tank on my bus. From the Veg oil tank it goes through the heat exchanger, then a double tractor style diesel filter which has a glass bowl at the bottom of 1 of the 2 filters to view in case of water. So in theory it is about as clean as possible in my opinion.

The glow plugs themselves went about 2 years ago, all at once and your right there could have been an electrical problem. I cant remember if I investigated the warm start cut off, which is on the back of the head and cuts power to the plugs if the engine is warm enough. But I get this feeling that I connected it at around that time, at least I think I did when I changed the plugs or it was already connected(I know it works at the moment). I cant think of any other reason why the plugs fail for electrical reasons as there is just a glow plug relay and thats it!(one which is under 4 years old I might add!)

I was just looking on the internet about veg oil and your right, turns out they actually use it as a lubricant! Think I had in mind heating oil which is a 'dry' fuel. I figured because of the organic nature of veg oil it might not have the right lubricating properties, I certainly dont think having 2 stroke oil in it will harm as the 2 stroke oil has additives to make burn cleaner and less smokey (clearly not the case here at the moment). People online had reported that the engines were cleaner than normal on strip down through using 2 stroke oil. To stop the oil turning into something thick/burn better I use heat, lastnight I actually connected up my tank heater (this was something to improve warm up times for oil and cold weather reliabilty) in addition to the fuel heat exchanger I already have in place. With the veg oil it needs to be warmed to 90c to become thinner like diesel and to aid combustion, lets face it getting it hot is how chip fat fires happen! I may investigate what sort of cetane boosters are available for the veg oil though, ideally I dont want to be buying too much extra fuel else it defeats the point of having it.

I am going to have a look at the fuel lines today and make sure everything is properly tight just incase as you say the air is leaking in somewhere, it shouldnt  be but after 500 miles this week things will have settled and small gaps may have appeared enough to cause me a problem!

The retarded ignition thing sounds possible as there is a fuel advance lever for cold starting in really cold weather to make it start better, but its a real bugger to get to in my bus to connect up (I am in the process of trying) aside from which I cant see that the fuel pump timing has ever changed (you can normally tell if something has been fiddled with by the dirt/marks).

I am going to do some further investigation today!

[mtrans]

Are you did HPT test for your oil-because there is two kind of water in veg fuel,and you must check EVERY GP,or if you have 0-50 amp-meter?

[ORCoaster]

Bugsy,  I run WVO in my Rabbit and I have a gauge attached to the top of the IP to be able to watch the pressure as I drive.  I can tell right away when I get air into the system as it drops the pressure by something like 30 lbs.  I am always chasing an air leak as the diesel is a rattle box even when properly isolated on good engine mounts. 

IF I  had those symptoms I would be looking for air, glow plugs that worked well, and purge a little longer.  It doesn't hurt to dump some diesel into the WVO system with a purge but keeping WVO in the pump when trying to start is not good.  Double check that timing.  WVO doesn't have the kick Diesel does so you might bump it up and deal with the marble sound on start-up and shutdown as just the way it will be. 

The only Cetane booster I would be throwing into the WVO at this time of year, cold here now, is something oil based.  Otherwise I use Paraffin wax in the summer.  But honestly the fuel is thick enough as is even when warmed to 90C.  You should have all the advance you are going to need.  But tapping the regulator screw a tad might not hurt either.  But you really need to know more specifics when playing that game.  Hence the IP pressure gauge on top of mine. 

Good luck on this, seems like most of us on WVO or WMO have this common blight.  Always fixing the alternative fueling system.   

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Bugsy,  I run WVO in my Rabbit and I have a gauge attached to the top of the IP to be able to watch the pressure as I drive.  I can tell right away when I get air into the system as it drops the pressure by something like 30 lbs.  I am always chasing an air leak as the diesel is a rattle box even when properly isolated on good engine mounts.  

IF I  had those symptoms I would be looking for air, glow plugs that worked well, and purge a little longer.  It doesn't hurt to dump some diesel into the WVO system with a purge but keeping WVO in the pump when trying to start is not good.  Double check that timing.  WVO doesn't have the kick Diesel does so you might bump it up and deal with the marble sound on start-up and shutdown as just the way it will be.  

The only Cetane booster I would be throwing into the WVO at this time of year, cold here now, is something oil based.  Otherwise I use Paraffin wax in the summer.  But honestly the fuel is thick enough as is even when warmed to 90C.  You should have all the advance you are going to need.  But tapping the regulator screw a tad might not hurt either.  But you really need to know more specifics when playing that game.  Hence the IP pressure gauge on top of mine.  

Good luck on this, seems like most of us on WVO or WMO have this common blight.  Always fixing the alternative fueling system.  

Bit of food for thought there, I could tell the other day I was having issues with a fresh batch of veg oil I put in because on hills it lacked power. Flick the switch to diesel and instantly you'd notice the difference so it was struggling to suck the oil through, which is why I was connecting my tank heater up this weekend as I figured it was struggling to draw the fuel through because it was too thick.

I had a bit of a look round the engine bay today but to be honest everything seemed tight fuel line wise except one thing, on top of the IP there is a fuel return from the injectors to the pump/tank, the pipe that comes off and goes to the tank you could twist, so I have done the fuel pipe clip up on that one some more so it no longer twists(while it was running to make sure no air got back in).

Came hours later, still a bugger to start. Tomorrow I am going to get some new glow plugs, as a matter of course really.

Going to see what additives the local car factors I use have for the engine as I think it needs some help, surprised the tappets dont rattle for 150k unlike my mk3 golf petrol that has a bit of a rattly one at just 120k so I dont think it needs any oil additive but I might look into fuel additives (already put a shot of fuel system cleaner in).

With additing something to thin the oil down I do have to be a bit careful because of fuel tax reasons, certain things like paraffin you dont pay tax on and if I got stopped and my tanks dipped I'd get charged! but adding petroleum would be allowed for instance because the fuel tax has already been paid (although I am wary of putting petroleum in diesel based fuel!)

[bajacalal]

Don't just look at things, grab, pull and feel all the hoses. I just had some air leaking into my pump on start up, and everything looked fine and the hoses were relatively new. But, one of the hose clamps had backed off due to vibration and the hose on the fuel filter was loose.

I think you may also be confused by the American use of the word "paraffin." Here it's what candles are made of and what people use to seal a jar of homemade preserves. In Britain I think it means something else.

[Bugsy_malone 666]

well paraffin wax is exactly that, its a was which is part of paraffin, or kerosene as its known in the USA. I was trying to accertain the actual difference on wikipedia but I cant really find much other than the fact its a solid form of paraffin.

I have been working my way round the engine checking to see whats loose, aside from a return line which was new and slightly loose I could only find one other 'issue' which was the return line from the injectors to the pump seems a little knackered (anyone know what size it is, I think its 3mm?).

Yesterday I replaced the glow plugs, which I might say is a right arseache to do because I needed to take the injector pipes off in the end to get to them and it was just getting to the limits of my hands fitting. Annoyingly there was nothing wrong with any of the heater plugs visablity, minor carbon deposits as I'd expect.

I noted that around the injector pipe number 1 where it meeds the injector had a minor amount of diesel on the injector making it look 'damp' before I took the pipes off, so I wonder if it was leaking very slightly causing an issue? Although judging by how bad it started /ran before it warmed up on sat/sun/mon I think it was more than that, with it taking around 5 minutes to run properly on sunday! It wasnt all that cold either at 8-10c.

I really dont want to start on the whole injector pump rebuild thing at the minute, or replacing the injectors as its not cheap to do. I am in the process of doing the cold start 'choke' hooking that up at the minute as I figured if the timing it our, by hooking this up is an easy way to see how much the timing affects the running, if it doesnt I know I have serious problems!

[ORCoaster]

If you have a vacuum gauge you can put that in line with the WVO to see if you are building a vacuum when running WVO.  I have had a couple batches of bad oil plug my filters and I started sucking air in when I hit somewhere around 8 lbs of vac.

In order to get that cold start lever working I am going to say you will need to pull the pump off the engine.  If you had issues with clearance for the GP's you won;t get between that little bit of space for the adjustment of the lever.  That 8 mm nut is a bugger to get threaded on the end of the shaft unless you are really nimble.  I have done it but what a pain.  Even tried not taking it off all the way and barely could get the lever to jump to the next spline in the shaft.

You might try mineral oil instead of wax in the cold weather. 

[745 turbogreasel]

What sort of fuel return are you using?  looped? electronic? mechanical?
Is it clear? does it ave bubbles?

As the weather gets  cooler, hoses(maybe seals too) will shrink, and leak where they didn't before.
I touch every fitting, and at least try to tighten every clamp.

In 20,000+
 miles burning WVO, I never added anything but  diesel fuel additive, about the same as  In my regular tank.
Personally, I think I had more problems from the diesel side being old than the veg side.
If you can drain your fry vats through a shortening filter, it removes almost all the larger solids, and takes an extra 30 seconds.


Is there any possibility the heat exchanger is  leaking coolant into your fuel?
Do you run any kind of lift pump?  I saw one of those develop a leak  which aerated the fuel.

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Ok well fuel lines on the vehicle are all black rubber (as I bought 10m of unleaded petrolium grade, which is better than the diesel/oil stuff) I have 6mm lines throughout, which have been my suspiscion as to a lack in some power as the weather gets colder, however I came to the conclusion this isnt a big engine and the factory points on the injector pump are only 5-6mm!

For the diesel tank the return simply goes to the top of my fuel tank and the diesel is sucked out the bottom, I use a vanagon/t25/early golf fuel filter that is completely disposable with just 2 pipe connections. The veg oil setup is a 10 gallon landrover fuel tank in the van, I welded a bung in the top for the fuel return and used the factory pickup(top mounted also). both fuel lines travel together(cabled tied) to the engine bay and now also one of the heater lines runs through the tank and then it goes back to the engine bay with the fuel lines, in order to keep everything warm and reliable(and easier to suck through!). When the fuel lines get to the engine, the return pipe goes straight to the 6 port changeover valve, The supply line goes through an inline primer bulb, enters the head exchanger at 6mm and leaves at 8mm fuel line, the 8mm fuel line then goes to a filter head that has dual fuel filters(the type you find on tractors!), the first of which has a glass bowl at the bottom to view for water (can see any in it) with drains, it then goes into the 6 port valve. Hope that makes sense.

My dual filter head is actually 4 port so I have considered having a return back to the first filter to keep the fuel warmer/reduce the amount needing to be sucked through from the tank, this would mean however that the diesel wouldnt get mixed with the veg oil over time which is kind of useful.

Aside from the veg oil the main probelms I have been having is just on normal diesel being bad starting and smokey on start up, I am keen to solve that first then work on the oil.

[745 turbogreasel]

Replace  part of the return with  clear line or a sight glass of some sort.

Is the 6 port new?  they can have  problems.  one of which is sending veg into your diesel tank when you switch, but you should be more than fully purged in a mile...  I run a looped return, and 2 miles got me plenty clean enough.  I have  a manual ball valve  to open/close the return loop, and another for the purge/return line.

[Bugsy_malone 666]

The 6 port valve was a new when I fitted it to the van, is a 'pollak' valve, which is quite popular on veg oil conversions althought I have known them to have a few problems.

On the purge side of things a mile should be plenty, I have felt the rate at which the oil returns to the tank and the lines from the valve to the IP are only about 12-14" so I dont think its a problem have a 1 mile purge as diesel should be there fairly quickly.

I think the biggest point being the fact that after a 15 mile run on diesel only (plenty of purge) it was runnign fine when I turned it off but the next morning it started like a bag of bolts.

This weekend while I have the injector lines off  Iam going to set my DTi gauge up on it and check the pump timing (if I can find my workshop manual with the specs in) just incase the vibration over time has moved with for any reason!

Aside from that if it still doesnt work I'll have to strip clean and rebuild my spare pump (just with new seals) tune with the governer mod and start from scratch.

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Ok I have been fiddling with the thing today to try and get it running again, as last week I took the injector pipes off to do the glow plugs and then it started raining so I had to give up.

So it now has new glow plugs and these are fine, they are not the problem with running.

I managed to rig up the cold start today, it pulls the lever on but doesnt push it off yet (needs a spring!) and I though this is going to take a bit to start as the fuel lines are dry and it needs bleeding etc. with the cold start on I spun it over a few times and checked the injector lines were tight, then spun over a few times more, it sputtered a little but then with a bit of black smoke roared into life and ran perfectly!

When I say perfect I mean as you would expect the engine to run normally, so after 30 seconds or so I was fiddling with the cold start to try and make it go off, went to the engine bay and manually operated the cold start off and the engine then ran like a bag of nails for 20 seconds before sputtering to a stop with white smoke.

So I pulled the Cold start on again then it started pretty much straight away with clear running. went and fiddled in the engine bay and as soon as you start pushing the cold start off it would start to splutter, I turned it off and reved it up and at revs its fine, but it wont idle without smoke and running like a bag of bolts, so I pulled the cold start back on and left it running for about 5 mins while I finished packing up my tools. after 5 mins I'd expect the engine to be warm enough to run without the cold start, I turned it off and it ran crap! put my foot down hard on the accelerated and it ran fine at higher revs but didnt really idle well even though it was running cleaning.

At this stage I am wondering if something is up with the fuel pump?

I cant see how the timing could have become out considering its been previously fine and tight. it certainly leads me to believe its a fuel pump/timing problem though.

I did actually try checking the timing with a Dial indicator, however its impossible to get the dial indicator into the injector pump, I dont have TDC markings on my crank pulley, although the fuel pump pulley seems to have some on it and the case that line up so you can also slide the locking tool into the pulley hole (or a modified bolt in my case)  but in my can it seems to be impossible to get to, which is one problem with home made conversions I think! Theres just so many wires and pipes and stuff in the way.


So what are your thoughts?


If I do have to get the fuel pump out and change it then I will drop the engine, but meanwhile any other thoughts?