What injectors to upgrade to?

[Cheesetoast]

my 93 golf td is horrible on cold starts, could be the injectors, and i'd like to upgrade them anyway, what's a good size to go with and how much should i expect to pay?

[Dr. Diesel]

i'd say just have them rebuilt. They're good for loads of power in stock form.

[Cheesetoast]

i'd rathe rupgrade while i'm at it, my vw guy will be tuning the car at the same time, so it's all good.  what do i want? .205? what's stock?

[starrd]

Have you checked your glow plugs?  With 1 or 2 out, it makes them hard to start.  Watch the torque if you change them, too tight causes them to burn out prematurely.  Also, do you have frost plug heater?  Makes a world of difference at -40.  I'm having no problems with my 1.9, but I sure did with 2 burned out glow plugs.  To check them, I removed them and hooked them up to my battery charger and then plugged the charger in- good ones turn red real quick.  I only left the charger plugged in long enough to fell them warm up (from a distance) and then unplugged it.  

I can describe how I changed the 2 by the pump - which are a challenge to change with the pump mounted, but it is possible. Let me know

[fspGTD]

Cheesetoast - do you have the 2-stage 1.9LTD injectors or the 1-stage units?

FWIW...  I tested on a 1.6lTD the difference between it's stock (1-stage) injectors and the 2-stage 1.9lTD injectors, and found the 2-stage 1.9lTD injectors gave me up to a 6% hp increase in the upper RPMs - pretty significant and nice power gain.  The only troubling thing is they they also oddly, caused a loss in power in low-RPMs.  There is more detailed information I posted about this in the archives.  Applying this to your case is also questionable, since my 1.6lTD pump, unions, and engine even are different from yours (1.9lTD motor right?) so I don't know if you would find similar results going to 2-stage injectors or not.

I would consider having your injectors tested if you are thinking they may be the problem - it would involve removing them and taking them to a diesel specialist, and shouldn't cost a lot ($10 per injector is a typical fee I've seen, and they will probably deduct it from an injector rebuild cost if you go ahead and have them rebuild them for you as well.)  He can tell at what pressure they are shooting at (and determine if it is within specifications) and also can observe the spray pattern and for any signs of fuel leakage when they aren't spraying.  If they are spraying well, not leaking, and within breaking pressure specs, you can reinstall them assured they are not causing any problems and that you have something else that needs diagnosing.  If not, you can have them rebuilt or buy new ones.  You might want to make sure that the diesel shop has access to new nozzles before you take them in to have them tested, just in case you do need them rebuilt.  BTW - I'm not sure if the 2-stage injectors can be rebuilt or not... I think Bosch or VW might say that they cannot but I've heard elsewhere that they can... it is probably just more complicated to check and/or set their breaking pressure because of their 2 stages.

[AntonUK]

Is the spray pattern the same on a IDI engine as with the DI engines? Im sure recalling that its not??

[QuickTD]

what do i want? .205? what's stock?

.205 refers to the hole size on hole type nozzles. These are only used on direct injection diesels (TDI) and spray the fuel from a series of radially arranged holes. IDI engines use pintle type nozzles that spray out the end in a single narrow cone. While there are numerous nozzles available for the 1.9TDI, as far as I know there are no aftermarket nozzles available at this time for the 1.9TD.

 In my experience the stock injectors cannot be rebuilt to stock specs. North american bosch dealers cannot obtain the nozzles, they will only sell the complete injector assemblies for about $120CDN exchange. They also claim that they do not have the equipment necessary to calibrate the two spring injectors, so they cannot rebuild them even if nozzles were available. The lack of imagination of both of my local shops is disappointing though, you may get better results asking elsewhere...  

If you happen to have a bosch guy willing to play along (Giles, you listening?) I have been told that the nozzles from the mercedes 300D (DN0SD265) may be an improvement. These nozzles have a slighly different pintle throttling curve and may give a slight increase in power and a reduction in combustion noise when used in the stock 1.9TD nozzle holder and shimmed to the stock breaking pressure. The lower noise is an indication of lower peak cylinder pressure and might be helpful if you are running a lot of timing advance. I do not have any real world experience so YMMV. Unfortunately, I don't have time to experiment right now or I would try this setup...

[Cheesetoast]

my vw mechanic (good guy, known for a while) has a machine that he can clean the injectors on, i think he cahrged $80 to do all of em, would this be something i should do? or am i throwing my money away?