Ye 'Ol cold start thread

[burn_your_money]

How many volts do you have going to each glowplug? That's a fairly long run of wire you have. I doubt it's your problem but it could be worth looking at.

[veector]

Ahh good old cold starts, after getting my advance cable hooked up she fires right up but sounds ROUGH for a few seconds.  I dont even have a block heater, how hard is it to install one?

[8v-of-fury]

I've been trying to figure out a better battery tie down since I got the car in 2007. Hey, it works.

Back on track here, I had another hell of a time starting her today.. I tried half cold start lever, which should be effectively half of the full movement, ie. 0.05mm bumping my idle static timing to 0.95mm. It didn't help.

The engine turned and turned billowing dark smoke from the pipe, and when it caught off it ran rough for atleast 10 minutes.

[burn_your_money]

Back on track here, I had another hell of a time starting her today.. I tried half cold start lever, which should be effectively half of the full movement, ie. 0.05mm bumping my idle static timing to 0.95mm. It didn't help.

The engine turned and turned billowing dark smoke from the pipe, and when it caught off it ran rough for atleast 10 minutes.

Pulling the cold start out may not be exactly the same as bumping the timing to 0.95. It depends on your pump and when your pump starts increasing the dynamic timing. Most likely it is the same though.

[R.O.R-2.0]

Ahh good old cold starts, after getting my advance cable hooked up she fires right up but sounds ROUGH for a few seconds.  I dont even have a block heater, how hard is it to install one?

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

[dieselweasel]

-have you checked compression? 
-I assume this is a mech head...are the valves in proper adjustment?

[ORCoaster]

X2 on the cold lever pull out,  not the same as changing the timing.  My lever hardly does anything until it gets 3/4 of the way out.  I guess I have slack in the system.  But I don't need the cold lever to start my car.  Fires off after glow and does rattle around a bit but I just solved that by adding a stiff cable to the accel lever.  Doubles as my cruise control.  When cold I just nudge it a bit for the first block or so to up the idle until it makes the magic sound of smooth sailing. 

When I pulled my injectors out yesterday to do the compression check I have been unable to do till now I noticed that the "rebuilt" injectors I put in just 6 months ago were a bit black on the heat shield.  And I run ATF in the fuel.  So, maybe you might need to concentrate on that part to see what you can see. 

[8v-of-fury]

Pulling the cold start out may not be exactly the same as bumping the timing to 0.95. It depends on your pump and when your pump starts increasing the dynamic timing. Most likely it is the same though.

The dial indicator seemed to start tracking advance as soon as the handle started to move, so i believe half handle to be half of the 0.10mm advancement of the CS handle.

It is a 91 hydraulic engine, the pump is a TD body with a 91 n/a lid on it. I think it may have gotten worse now that I have jumped down to 0.90mm and i backed out the fuel screw a bit to bring the idle down a tad. So I think I'll try jumping up to 0.95mm and raising the idle by the idle adjustment, and maybe backing off some of the fuel screw to not hang on idle.

I have not checked compression yet, I have not been able to find a supply for heat shields at a reasonable price around here.

[8v-of-fury]

Yea, about that bungee cord....  Thats how I got my Jetta, the too big battery bounced while going around a corner and smacked the rad fan, fried the engine.  Instant $100 car.  Thats how I gots my diesel!  Lemme know when that happens to yours, I'll beat the scrapyard on price!

I wouldn't let that stop me, just be more of a reason to get the damn TDI in there and stop dealing with all this B.S...

[AudiVWguy]

Another thing you could try is to go to the hardware store and buy clear vinyl tubing to replace the fuel in and out lines to look for air in the lines. This stuff doesn't last long, it gets hard, motorcycle fuel line is best. Do you have a way to keep the GP's on longer than just the relay?

I'm dealing with a similar problem. Starts right up, but runs on 3 cyl for 45 sec then finally clears to 4 cyl. Cracking the inj lines gave up #2 as the slacker, but cleaning and repop testing didn't change anything. New return lines off the injectors, nada. I have a lift pump wired to stay on as long as the GP's are on, thinking maybe there was a slight seal leak, didn't make any difference. After the first crappy start of the day it's great unless it sits another 10 hours.

[8v-of-fury]

weird, were having the same issue.

I have clear fuel lines through the engine bay, no bubbles.

I also have the glow plugs fully manual, they can stay on for as long as I want. Sometimes when cold i glow for 25 seconds. I also have an electric lift pump that is on the whole time the key is on, I run it while i glow the plugs.

[AudiVWguy]

And.... if you plug it for an hour, you'd never know there was any friggin problem.

[8v-of-fury]

Plugging mine in only helps a bit.. I am friggan stumped..

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

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.

[veector]

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?