Yes, another "my car won't start!"

[mtrans]

In fact there was a bit of water floating on top of the diesel.

No way,water is down.

[Hdriven]

In fact there was a bit of water floating on top of the diesel.

No way,water is down.

yeah you are correct wrote faster than I could think. Lol

Ok so here is a bit of an update; I tore into the pump and found a bunch of muck and junk in there. The vanes were all free moving. None of them were stuck. So, I began to put the thing together and the last thing that went on was the top cover. Well before I put it on I decided to clean it because it had traces of muck and with a dental pick I was making sure the "out" bolt was clear. Well it was not. I found, what appears to be, a tiny piece of like rag or paper or something of the sort. It was plugging up the out bolt. So, I hope that will solve my issues with this car. Too bad I won't get a chance to install it until next week end. It's going to be a nail biter! 

I'll try and post some pics.

[Hdriven]

 

[Hdriven]

Oh and here is a few of my car.

[ORCoaster]

Not another Teal and Purple with White interior car!!!   How many of these are we going to have to endure on the road these days.   

Couldn't you just do light green?   

[TylerDurden]

I like the colors. Very safe in traffic... texting teens will more likely notice and not kill you.

[TylerDurden]

WRT the fibers in the OUT bolt:

If that junk (poss fuel filter paper) got as far as the out bolt, it would get into the injectors too. 

EDIT: keep in mind, the IP, lines and injectors should be surgically clean. Filters trap stuff 5-10 microns.

[Hdriven]

No, no. My car is not teal. it's a pastel green. The engine is hot pink and black and the interior has not been done yet but I'm planning on black interior with wood grain panels.

It makes sense that it could be the paper from the fuel filter!  That's a great idea. I'm going to blow out the fuel injector lines to make sure there's no crap in there. Maybe there is a way to dissemble the injectors to clean them up?

[TylerDurden]

It's a great combo:





Injectors can be serviced, cleaned, tweaked... again observe surgical cleanliness. Many pages on diy vw injector assembly online.

While googling, also search for DIY pop tester. Not much point in fiddling with injectors unless you're gonna test em.

[Hdriven]

:/ wow, that testing rig looks intense!  I think I'm gonna try it like this and hope it works. If the injectors seem faulty I will tackle that as it comes. 

The color in that logo are exactly like my car!  It's freaking awesome!  Maybe I'll get a decal to slap on the window or something  lol

[Hdriven]

Hey guys a small update.  I installed the pump along with a new timing belt. At first I wasn't getting any diesel out of the hard lines but after awhile of cranking I finally got diesel out of #2 hard line. A while longer and #3 and #4 finally got wet.  Then when it was in the cusps of turning on the battery died and I still had air in line #1. So tomorrow will be another day.
I'll try and finish bleeding #1 tomorrow and hopefully it will start.

[Hdriven]

Ok guys frustration has set in. :/
I got all of the air out of the system and its still not starting. Getting smoke and it definitely sounds like it's almost starting. In fact when I'm cranking it the engine the rpms are very high almost like a very low idle. Yet, it still will not stay on. As soon as I let off the starter it dies.

Any ideas!???  I've hit a brick wall.

[ORCoaster]

Timing reset or recheck?  Bad fuel?   Just throwing these out as I can't remember all the thread here.  Like so many we get and go through trying to pick off the problems one by one.  Pulled the Cold Start lever right?   Just don't forget to push it in if double checking the timing.  That is the one thing that throws me in the winter. 

[Hdriven]

This is what I've got:

Timing-
flywheel positioned to the little notch with a circle below it. Cam lobes on cylinder 1 up position with lock tool.  Pump timing marks all line up with the sprocket lock tool in place. Timing belt put in place and tensioned with the lock pin and bar in place. Then adjusted pump till I got 1mm of lift at tdc.

Cold start lever being pulled for starting. Made sure it was all the way forward when timing it.

Glow plugs-
Pulled all 4 put 12 volts to each one and counted the amount of seconds until they were glowing red.  All were consistent with about 12 seconds except for #4 it's just dead. So, I bad glow plug.

Fuel-
I have a hand pump between the filter and the pump. I hand pumped until there were no air bubbles visible in the lines. Next, I cracked the lines open where they meet the injectors. As soon I saw diesel coming out I closed them off.

Exhaust-
Disconnected the exhaust because I don't know if it's plugged up or not. I've never driven the car before.

It's like 76 degrees out. Will that one glow plug keep the car from starting?? 

What am I missing? I have no clue anymore I've gone over everything a few times.

I think the part that is really upsetting is that I've done all this work to the car and I'm yet to start or drive the damn thing.

One thing I have not tried is feeding the engine "fresh" diesel from a gas can. How old is too old for diesel fuel?

If there are any ideas let me know. Thanks guys.

[vanbcguy]

Confirmed 12V to the injection pump?  Confirmed that there's 12V to the pump both during cranking and during running?

Old diesel doesn't really cause issues starting, it doesn't "go bad" on its own.  The danger with old diesel though is that it may be water or algae contaminated which are both major problems.  Water contamination will chew up your pump, algae will block up filters and things.

it is however ENTIRELY possible that you've got something like a tank full of gas with a little diesel left in it, you never know why the car was parked last time.