stuck at full throttle 1.6 sitting for 12 years

[srgtlord]

So I pulled a diesel motor out of a 1981 Caddy pickup truck and put it into my 1992 MK2 4 door Golf. Wired everything up, turned the key and the car was hard to start but once started it started and went straight to full throttle. I think the reason why the truck was parked was because of this throttle issue. It appears that someone has opened up and fiddled with the injection pump... Any ideas as to how to get this thing to idle? FYI it appears the fuel screw has not been messed with as the collar is still on it

[ORCoaster]

Sounds to me like someone was turning on that front screw that controls the governor, governor?   

I wonder if you loosen that lock nut and start turning it so it applies a force on all that mechanism under that cap as those free weights are spinning like a top if that will help?   Maybe those weights are stuck and not swinging out as they should???
Cap off to check?   Seems a quick fix my friend.

[srgtlord]

I think I may have been wrong about someone messing with the pump.This is what it looks like with the lid off. Very rusty under there and the weights dont seem to be stuck but the rest of the governor assembly seems to be stuck. Is there anything I can do to unstick the governor assembly?

[ORCoaster]

I knew it!!!!   So what part is not doing it's part?  When those weights move out they are supposed to move the tip of that shaft into the control mechanism.  Does that part not move when the weights spin?   

How much do you know about these pumps?  I think you know enough to make this part free itself. 

On the front of the pump there is a locking nut on the shaft that turns into the body of the pump case and supports that flywheel assembly.  There are exploded views of it on the FAQ section I believe. 

You need to get the nut to loosen up and then get the shaft out of the body of the case to clean up all the parts.  There in lies the problem.  The lock nut and shaft are ccw threaded.  So you need to hit the slotted part of the nut with a punch like you are putting it on in order to actually get it off.  Then when you go to remove the shaft count the number of times you turn it completely around.  I don't care if you count half turns or full turns just count them and put it back together with the same number.  Otherwise you might be limiting the high end revs of your engine.

It would be a serious problem if you couldn't get above 2500 RPMs. 

I think once you get it apart, clean it up and reassemble you can give it the spin test by lightly installing the pulley and turning it.  Don't reef that nut on the front of the pump or it is a pain to get it off.  But you already know that one, correct? 

Hope that gets you up and running at a better speed. 

[srgtlord]

Well turns out that I was able to free the governor without taking the pump apart. There is a tiny hole in the governor shaft and I found the tip of a punch would fit in there. I tapped it lightly and it came free. I figured I had 2 other pumps kicking around in case I broke anything Off to my pile of spare VE pump seals to put the lid back on. Ill let you guys know what happens.

[srgtlord]

Well it no longer is stuck at full throttle but the engine is struggling to run. I'm going to do a compression test and see what's up.

[srgtlord]

Well the harbor freight tester was garbage.... Peice of junk didn't work, returned it and the second one didn't work.... So I figured I would try another set of injectors I had kicking around... nope... car still runs like garbage... something is seriously wrong as the engine is only firing on 2 cylinders... I think it's time to pull the head or get another compression tester....

[burn_your_money]

Do you have fuel to all the injectors?

Run diesel purge through it. There's a good chance it will need a full tear down though.

[srgtlord]

Yes there is plenty of fuel being delivered to each cylinder as I found out when I opened each injector line. I'm going to try to borrow a working compression tester just to see how much may be broken on this

[srgtlord]

Well turns out the cheapo harbor freight tester never holds the pressure but dies give a reading... cylinder 1 2 and 3 read 100 psi. Cylinder 4 read 150... Not sure I'd I can trust the gauge at all... I'll buy a decent tester tomorrow just to be sure

[fatmobile]

Turn it over by hand and see how hard it turns.
 At those numbers it should turn over very easily.
If it wants to turn backwards the compression is good.

[ORCoaster]

Said in a different way.  If you can turn it over by hand and do not feel any resistance from compression, that kicking back feel, then you can trust those low numbers.  If however you do feel resistance to turning it over by hand then suspect those numbers as incorrect. 

[srgtlord]

I definitely feel resistance when turning the engine over by hand. Either the gauge is wrong or something is really fubarred

[rumbling_caddy]

Years ago I had good luck with an old 1.5D na pulled from a caddy sitting in a field for 10-15 years. It run well with new headgasket and oil change..

Anyways when my old head blew up after coolant loss from a hole in hose, it still ran on 3 cylinders. When I replace the head it was obvious which cylinder didn't fire.  The non-working cylinder was very clean with the unburned diesel cycling though

Just thinking if you have low compression on 1-2 cylinders you might be able to which cylinders are bad by how clean the head is for them

[libbydiesel]

Well turns out the cheapo harbor freight tester never holds the pressure but dies give a reading...

A compression gauge that does not HOLD the reading is going to be wildly inaccurate, giving a reading MUCH lower than it really is.  A tester that does not hold the pressure will be compressing the air in the entire gauge/hose setup with each cycle of the engine.  Under those conditions, the gauge/hose will be making the compressed volume several times larger than it should be and consequently the shown pressure will be a small fraction of the real compression pressure.