24th November 2012 - Glow plugs now working...after a fashion!

GLOW PLUGS
Ordered yesterday at 1400 and this morning a set of glowplugs get delivered by the postie. I can recommend www.Barry4x4.co.uk !

Now despite it piss'isting with rain all day I thought I would make a start on this job. Yesterday evening and this morning I had put copiuous amounts of GT85 around the plug so I hoped that would break any bond formed after 18 years of being in there?

The first problem was the plug on No.1 cylinder. It was very stiff to turn and then I realised it wasn't turning in the bore but twisting the whole plug body! Ballcocks! If I proceed with stressing it any further I can see this causing me to have the head off. Not something I want to be doing at the moment.

So with the plug about a third up it's thread I have had to leave it there. As luck would have it this is the ONLY plug that is actually still working anyway. As and when I overhaul the top end then I will be far happier putting a bit more force on this or drilling and running a tap down...but not when the head is on!

The other three plugs came out pretty easily and are all marked Beru Germany so I am still confident they are the original ones. Stuck on the bench and with a DVM across them all three are knackered. Resistance measurements of

Plug 4 - 4.5k Ohm (this must have decided to fail since yesterday's check?)
Plug 3 - 140k Ohm
Plug 2 - 1k Ohm
Plug 1 - 0.9 Ohm

The new Allmakes plug was also 0.9 - 1.0 Ohm cold.

Pic below of the three plugs after removal plus the new unit on the right.

Once the new plugs were in (a light smear of coppaslip on the threads) I fired her up..or at least I attempted to, but the relay supply fuse failed after 5 seconds. So, so much for the idea that the fuse will take short bursts of high current? I am an electrical engineer for Pete's sake but that doesn't help when there is no data available for the I2t curve for the automotive fuse LOL. It's obviously faster than a fast thing on a fast day?

Fuse now bypassed (40A and the biggest available in the std automotive blade size) and I tried again with a 15 sec. burst of glow and it fired up like a Swiss (cheap Chinese copy more like) watch.
 

23 Nov 2012 - Fuel system problem fixed!

PEVEKOIL INSTALL
After knocking some ideas around on the S2 forum I took the easy option this morning and removed all the copper sealing washers off the Bosch fuel filter banjos (RH/dieso tank filter). Heated each one to red heat then plonked them into a cold cup of water to anneal them.

Refitted these, ran the system up and once the residual air had cleared through it ran fine. I left the engine running for 15 minutes and kept an eye on it and it still ran OK. No air was visible at the IP inlet. Then selected the LH tank then switched back and all was still good...so I took Trig's for a 5 mile run around the block. No problems at all!!

Who would think that some peanut money washers could cause these sort of problems?

GLOW PLUGS
When I did the first tests using the glow plugs (large jump lead to glow on barrel 4). It made a big difference to starting. Faster tickover and much smoother. I tried it today now the wiring mods are all functional and it didn't seem as good.

Stuck a DC clamp on the supply cable to all the plugs and the initial readable current was only 20 Ampere. No way is that enough to heat four plugs! Disconnecting each from the loom I had the following reading with a quality DVM.

1-1.5 Ohm
2-900 Ohm
3-Open circuit
4-1.3 Ohm

Barrel 2 and 3 are obviously FUBAR'd so I will check into prices. The 'net' consensus suggests the obvious that Sh1tp4rt should be avoided and all others are fine.

I have ordered a set of Allmakes ones for £12.50 delivered. Beru were £50.


BACK TO THE BASICS
After 3 days of engine running issues it took a while for the engine to run smooth again and the tail pipe initially had a lot of black oil residue from part burnt WVO and dieso but after the short run it looked and sounded a lot better.

Vibration is still an issue and I also wonder whether I should regap the rockers agin. I did do it when the engine went in but one does sound a bit rattly compared to the rest - but that might be an injector? It needs a few more miles to really settle down and these will only be done on the RH tank for now. Also even with the glow plug on for 5 seconds before firing it is still a bit smokey on start-up. As mentioned before the engine came out of a D1 that had been 'billied' a bit. Whether someone had tweaked the fueling I do not know. At some point I will consult this and see ---> http://www.series2club.co.uk/forum/forum/index.php/topic,42295.0.html

As the Smith's heater started weeping again and was disconnected from the cooling system I will pull that out today. All it does is vibe on the bulkhead and as it is currently U/S there is no point in it being there. I just wrap up warm and flick the heated screen on ;)

22 November 2012 - Pevekoils fitted and a bunch of other fettlin''

Another two week vacation to absorb more outstanding holiday before the end of the year and in between baby minding I had a list of jobs I wanted to do on Trigger.

PASSENGER DOOR
This has never closed easily and luckily it didn't need much adjustment. It now closes as 'easily' as the RH one.
 

ELECTRIC'ERY

Fitted a pair of cigar lighter sockets to the dash for occassional pluggy type stuff. then rewired the CB and fitted that to the rear bulkhead. A much better location and quality of bodging than before.
Dash backlights were fitted with 'high power LED's' some time ago and turned out to be pretty much useless. As much light emitted as an ignited farting mosquito. So I picked up the std bulb from the local hal'frauds. 49p for two with a trade discount and I can actually see the dash now when it is dark.

GLOW PLUGS
The Tdi came with glow plugs, though I had never wired them up as every comment on the net says 'why bother?' Yes it will start from cold without, but why strain everything when there is this simple alternative?

 The cable loom was salvaged and I dragged it out of a box and fitted it....but the relay didn't work. Checked the relay manu date on the side and it was stamped '94 so probably died due to old age? A replacement was going to be around £30 so I went for a cheaper option.

A std automotive 40 Amp relay will take 120 Amp for 3 seconds without detriment (at least the Tyco ones do). Current load on a full compliment of tdi heaters is around 90 Amps for a fraction of a second and then drops off to around 60 Amps. They will only be enabled for 3-5 Seconds anyway. Also I will use a manual toggle switch so I only have to use them when necessary...and the cold start light on the dash can easily be made to work when the plugs are working.

Total cost for the relay £1.20. So I splashed out on a natty little socket for it with an integrated fuse holder. All in, with postage it came to £5.20!

Works fine!

PEVEKOILS Etc.
I had been avoiding getting these installed for months but I thought while I had the dash apart for the glow mods I would start the wiring for these....and I ended up doing the whole install.

Changed the pipework a bit. I no longer heat the dieso and have re-routed so only the LH WVO/dieso tank feed passes through the heat exchanger. Both tanks have independent filters. A CAV type on the LH and the original tdi spin on Bosch type for the RH.

Here is a 'quality' image of the current layout.

Now three days in I still haven't managed to get the system working without problems.

1. The first problem was the inability to draw from the LH tank. Tank had not been used for months and had been left empty so the filter was changed as it may have gummed up due to the WVO.
2. Air leaks at various points. Lots of fault finding and hose changes to quality SAE J30 R6 fuel hose.
3. RH tank (dieso) the filter didn't seem to want to allow fuel to pass through. The system would run and starve itself of fuel. Changed the filter for a new one and it would not run at all. Then noticed that I had fitted a TD5 filter (much finer filtering and therefore needs a stronger pump) and not the tdi type. Bypassed that and all was well.
4. Everything was running fine until I fitted a fresh tdi filter and reconnected the bypass. I had the same problem with fuel starvation! Bypass the filter housing again and all was good with the world mmmmmm.

So that is where we are now. The fault is either a porous housing (which always used to work), leaks around the copper sealing washers on the banjos (I just fitted these and didn't anneal) or the lift pump isn't sucking enough. The final idea I believe to be a red herring as it draws fine from the LH 'veg' tank which is more viscous.

Here's a pic of the current Pevekoil fittment and the glow relay to the rear on bulkhead to the right of the fuse box. tdi filter cart currently removed and housing bypassed.

 

 

Back to this tomorrow (weather permitted) and the first step will be to soften those copper banjo washers ;)