Ye 'Ol cold start thread

[burn_your_money]

knock a soft plug out of the back of the block, and then pop a block heater in there..

Correction, how easy is it while everything is in the car?  I just can imagine how to knock it out, arent they pressed in?

You have to drain the coolant first. Then you hammer a screw driver into the plug and pry it out, hoping that it doesn't fall into the engine. You need to be careful not to bugger up the bore. The center plug is best but it's the hardest one to install into.

[R.O.R-2.0]

knock a soft plug out of the back of the block, and then pop a block heater in there..

Correction, how easy is it while everything is in the car?  I just can imagine how to knock it out, arent they pressed in?

not easy.. time to get creative..

it is possible tho. ive replaced soft plugs in car before, but it was a mk2 gas..

[8v-of-fury]

You've discounted injector issues, so it could be compression ratio, or maybe a lazy cam follower.

Don't worry about heatshields, just reuse them. Reforming, as  per my description [somewhere] is better. I had one heatshield fail [out of the car] in reforming a set of 4, 15 times
Therefore reforming once is completely safe.

today i will swap in another set of injectors and change nothing else. see if that changes anything. i will have to look for your reforming thread, i know ive read it  before.

[ORCoaster]

I would also pull the check valves off the pump to see if they have wear issues.  Perhaps the problem is just past the outflow of fuel.  That there is some bleed back into the main body of the pump over time that it sits.  My current injector problem has me thinking that small particles lodged in those check valves might be similar to on stuck in the pintle.  Just won't hold back the fluid as intended.

If you pull the injectors you're removing the lines any way right?

[8v-of-fury]

Would i visibly be able to see if I have wear issues? I would think a microscopic wear on such an item could cause issue.

I will have the lines off so I suppose it would not hurt to give them a look see. Once i get done with the pump I am working on for someone, I will be ripping in to my TDI. Taking the pump off and dissecting it. and then taking my car off the road for a few days to make myself an m-tdi pump and swapping motors

[ORCoaster]

I use a bright light and a 10 power hand lens and look at those shiny areas in the valves and at times I see a ridge where one is slamming against the other. 

Might have something embedded into the metal that prevents closure.

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

I use a bright light and a 10 power hand lens and look at those shiny areas in the valves and at times I see a ridge where one is slamming against the other. 

Might have something embedded into the metal that prevents closure.

We are taking about possible faults in a check valve,  correct? Hard to see how the fault would go away when warm. The floating valve inner is loose, and held in place with a spring; wheras a pintle in an injector is such a closely machined fit that binding when cold is quite common. A spare complete valve would solve it I suppose. Wasn't there someone who had one valve inner  reversed? I can't remember how the problem showed itself

[ORCoaster]

I thought we were chasing a cold start problem.  Long cranking time, glows good and running an electric pump with key turn. 

More than just mildly annoying for him

[8v-of-fury]

I thought we were chasing a cold start problem.  Long cranking time, glows good and running an electric pump with key turn. 

More than just mildly annoying for him

Just a wee bit annoying. lol. Now I've got a damn fuel leak while running i can't see where its coming from either I suspect the rear advance cover.. like I did before. Pumps coming off, and being built in to an M-tdi

[ORCoaster]

That will either teach it a lesson to mess with you or provide us with numerous other trouble shooting threads.  Best of Luck. 

[8v-of-fury]

trouble shooting threads.

Isn't that what the forum is for?

however for anyone looking through this thread.. there is some good decisive info on cold start issues. And I think I will attribute my issues to a leaking cold start advance. 

[veector]

Thanks Tyler and R.O.R-2.0,  so far haven't had any starting issues, and this seems like more of a warm weather job, so il wait till its warm, maybe February with these weather trends 

[8v-of-fury]

ORCoaster, you'll be happy to hear I am remaining IDI for a few more weeks. I have a local member bringing me another full 1.6TD and some heated seats in February.. so I'll see whats up.

HOWEVER! Tonight in the last three hours I removed my pump and replaced the seals that were leaking (I didn't do them all because the pump is getting opened soon to be made m-tdi) as well as new coppers for the fuel lines. I then re-timed it to 0.95mm up from my previous try at 0.90mm. After i got the system bled and started it still ran like a dumbass.. so i figure I am not done with it yet. May still have to crack the lines off once again and replace the injectors with one of the other 4 sets I have.. lol.

We'll see how it starts tomorrow morning, then I'll proceed from there.

[8v-of-fury]

So this morning it was marginally better on the starts. Temperature was just below freezing.

It still ran like a bag of hammers after it started though.. Puffing blueish smoke like no other and missing. While I had the pump off i took each GP out and visually tested it on a spare battery. All perfect working order.

Its such a weird issue.. once the car is even remotely warm, you can start it up without gp's like a diesel with perfect compression.

[burn_your_money]

Do you have fast idle on your pump? Does it help any to give it a bit of throttle to bump the idle up?