Cold weather & car wont start and a couple other q's everyone take a look please

[jpedro]

Hello guys, im new here. Im a member over at oilburners.net. but anyways my names pedro. I own a 1990 vw jetta with a TD 1.6L. I have made my own cold air intake, and put 3" straight pipe exhaust car has 235000kms on it with a 5spd trans. But now its gotten cold out ~-9-10*.  I let the glow plugs cycle for about 15 seconds, crank and pull the cold start lever out. it will sputter and sometimes nothing just a cranking sound, but will have a good amount of smoke come out the tail pipe. ive got a full tank of fuel and battery is fully charged. I tryed pluging in the block heater but it seems to me that isnt working cause the engine doesnt get warm. but anyways i dont know where to look or start. i dont want to always have it plugged in, becuase when i got skiing or out somewhere for the night i cannt always have it plugged in so it would be nice to have it so i can cycle the plugs and it start. Apparently the glow plugs are brand new according to the fella that owned it prior to me. when it was about 0* out it started all the time, i ran it a couple times, always started till it got cool this last few days, good thing i have my truck which is getting parked for winter soon and ill be drivin this car. any other info you need ask away and ill help you to the best of my abilility. hope to hear from you all soon. thanks in advance.

And on another note. I would like to give the car a little bit more boost, what are stock numbers and how high can i go? what do i need to do to the waste gate to adjust it? or do i totally disconnect it. i do have a boost gauge ill be installing tomorrow, but thought id see what to do with that. i want to disconnect it but dont know what to do for adjustment or what tools are needed or process. thanks again everyone.

cheers,

PEDRO

[jpedro]

oh one other question, where can i hook up a tach as mine doesnt have one. can i buy any tach that will work on a 4 cyl and wire it in somewhere help here to please

[Henchman]

You have 1 or more bad glow plugs (at lest 2 I would say).  You can use several methods to identify which (do a search) but replacing all 4 with 4 new ones (test before install) would be best.  That and a strong battery is you best option.

Ian

[jpedro]

alright thanks well ill take a look at them and do the test, but there supposed to be brand new so well see what else the problem could be, that would be wicked if thats all my problem consisted off.

[Vincent Waldon]

The glow plug system has a bunch of parts:  fuse, relay, temp sensor, the plugs themselves... any of which can malfunction and cause the system to misbehave.

Troubleshooting thoughts here:

http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=28

[jpedro]

system is fixed. problem was the fusable link on the fire wall. it was so corroded when i touched it, it totally disinigrated, tossed in a new one and all is well. There is only one other thing i was reading for trouble shooting and my car does this. The yellow light stays on a very long time, is that normally cause the coolant temp sensor is screwed up? or something else usually. gkiw plugs work normal but light takes about 25seconds to clear. its always been like that since myself and the previous owner had it. not a big deal but yea. thanks

[Vincent Waldon]

The yellow light stays on a very long time, is that normally cause the coolant temp sensor is screwed up?

Yup, that or the relay.  Coolant temp sensor is more likely and quite a bit cheaper.

[jpedro]

thanks, ill change that out tomorrow