you may have called it, but whether you knew why is a different matter.
I had this same problem recently with smoke and poor running etc and that was the fuel pump timing. For the most part all I got was people ***ing on about bad fuel and veg oil, nothing of the sort, pump timing sorted it, fine for 500 miles and I drove it home fine.
Its the fact that something actually broke, a common part failure outside of my control is the PITA. In realistic terms, the moment I fired it up it was doomed, so theres no points for being right on this one. I think good job I wasnt doing 70 down the road though.
I said to stop running it and check timing. Pistons were hitting valves. You decided to argue against checking the timing and went along with 3 pages of the thread. When you mentioned that you drove it with it running that poorly and had no concern it was clear that I was wasting my time trying to help and would reserve any further input for the fun of the "I told you so" and the resultant back-and-forth banter. Thanks for the accommodation. 
Even if I had stopped running it and checked the timing, whos to say I would have found anything? There is the potential for the timing to have been right.
I havent driven it anywhere running 'poorly' its been running fine since I reset the pump timing about 4-6 weeks ago when for no reason it was running rubbish and getting hard to start but some adjustment to the fuel pump fixed this issue. Also a bad hydraulic tappet with a bit of rattle on 3, I replaced the whole set, after doing a load of research before putting the cam back in I even tightened the cam end bolt up just slightly over 'book spec' (only a couple of ft/lbs)as people on various places on the internet had suggested that this should stop any slipping with the lack of keyway on the cam. So the van has been running fine except on WVO, which seems to make it run slightly less well. But when I ran it home last time I drove it, no problems and a good 5 miles purge time before shutting it off. Start it up after that day and it runs awful.
I appreciate help diagnosing a problem, but are you really suggesting if you were running alternative fuel, you'd start by checking the timing (which takes almost a day to do on this van as its impossible to access the flywheel timing mark.) vs looking at the fuel system and the potential for a failed pump?
However I think theres alot more to it than me not taking peoples advice. The engine was running, but on 2 cylinders, the other 2 were missing and timing tends to cause a different issue as I found with the pump timing out a few weeks ago, same symptoms but the pump timing was out. I had that same hammering before and it was nothing to do with the cam timing and was spot on, it was actually a bad hydro lifter.
The problems cant be soley diagnosed with the timing because of the alternative fuel I have also been using, adding the possibilty of pump sticking, this brought me onto a possible theory after seeing about the issues with the alternators causing this sort of failure on the 1.9s, perhaps the use of the alternative fuel put sufficient stress on the fuel pump to have a similar effect to the alternator?
Either way regardless of whether I took advise or not, after I started it up after that sunday drive home, the engine was pretty much scrap at that stage it seems.
So back in with an aircooled petrol engine for now for 6 months until the winter when I'll look to start a rebuild. I have an NA 1.6 and this TD so I am sure between the 2 I can make something reasonable, but right now with a new house about to rape my bank account I could do without rebuilding this diesel.
Topic: So my 1.6TD is running like a dragster, but not in a good way. (Read 9439 times)
