Glow plugs and Elsbett nozzles

[RustyCaddy]

Have been running Elsbett nozzles that are the interchange between Merc and VW on a 1.6 NA motor.  Hard starting lately so took out the injectors and found 3 of the 4 glow plugs were dead (had been using a block heater every morning lately).

Did read that Merc nozzles configuration was wrong for a VW but the Elsbetts are slotted and not pittled like Merc nozzles (i believe?) so don't know if that is true here.  Anyway, the glow plugs weren't burnt or broken just dead.  The glow plugs had been run about 60,000 miles with the after glow relay so they had a fair bit of use.

Couldn't find anything this specific in the FAX section so may be someone can share their wisdom.  Could the nozzles have killed the 3 glow plugs in at the same time?  Weird.

[brownni]

What brand are the glow plugs - in my short experience I have run champions with short lives, motorlites with a life of one glow, and now Bosches. I am pretty sure Bosches are the only brand that is worth buying for these engines.

In what way are the glow plugs dead? The only damage that nozzles can do to the plugs, that I know of, is to deposit too much fuel on them with a bad spray pattern and cause the metal to be eaten away. That said, if your plugs failed because they are all deformed and eaten away, blame the nozzles. If it is just an electrical failure then it is a plug failure.

But don't forget to do the testing on the glow system to make sure it isn't just always on or something crazy like that.

[JDiesel]

What are the benafits of the elsbett nozzles?

[RustyCaddy]

Elsbett nozzles were made for running vegetable oil in a single tank system; have a 2ndary heated tank but gave Elsbett a try to see if the truck ran better...seemed to work well with more power for 50/50 heated veg oil-biodiesel mix or straight biodiesel but they nail some when running on diesel.  Have read some folks driving Mercedes think that Monark and Elsbett are very similar (Elsbett may not be in business anymore...not sure).

[RabbitJockey]

i don't think i'd ever run anything except for the oem injectors, gtd nozzles sure, mercedes nooo, essel who what nooo.

[burn_your_money]

Over tightening the glowplugs will kill them quickly. While 60k isn't a super long amount of time, it's not horrendous.

[RabbitJockey]

how did the plugs look when you removed them?  when my rabbit used to run away off its own oil it would eat the tips of all the glow plugs off, this is why i say i wouldn't be messing with the injection pattern by using the wrong injector, especially if its not even from an engine that uses swirl chambers like a vw, gm idi injectors i would consider using.

[RustyCaddy]

They weren't cracked or broken, just dead and physically pretty clean.  The only working plug would glow about 1/2 of the length of the plug but that was all.  Am using  using one 50 amp relay to supply full current from the battery and the VW relay as a trigger for the 50 amp relay; then there is the 5-10 second afterglow.  Probably 45 of the 60K miles were on Bosch injectors before switching over to Elsbett so may be they glows would have gone longer with out changing nozzles? Haven't had the head off to see if the Elsbetts might be causing damage to the piston crowns.

[RabbitJockey]

i will say though, 60k out of a set of glow plugs is not bad at all  i would just be very leery of using any other injector, especially if it is supposed to cross over to a merc engine.

[745 turbogreasel]

Did read that Merc nozzles configuration was wrong for a VW but the Elsbetts are slotted and not pittled like Merc nozzles (i believe?) so don't know if that is true here.

spray angle  is the thing, not  nozzle  type.

[Petmill]

#rustycaddy, ELSBETT stays in operation, check for ANC, greasenergy or elsbett dot info and you will find them. Service still work really good. I tried that for my TDI two years ago and I am really happy with it. They still even update their customers frequently by mails.