Petes
Registered User
PO said he broke off glowplug tip in, tried blowing it out (cranking), but not sure whether it went in or out. He eventually started it up and thought it ran rough so parked it... three years ago. Before buying it last week, I got it (eventually) started up figuring that if the tip went in, the damage was already done. After bleeding injectors it ran smooth, all 8 working evenly (checked by cracking injector lines in turn and comparing change).
Yesterday (150 miles since puchase) it had a bit of a miss and seemed to be running rough, a bit more "noisy" (pingy?) on what seemed on one cylinder. And less of a drop on cracking injector lines on that... of course it was the "suspect" (GP tip) cyl (PO couldn't quite remember which but was certain it was either of the front two drivers side cylinders). I've got my fingers crossed that the pingy noise and lack of power on that hole is due to a faulty injector. I plan to swap it with a neighboring (good) cyl. injector this weekend to see if the power lag follows the injector or stays in the same hole. Thinking about it now, I'm not certain the pingy noise changed when that injector line was cracked... should'a paid more attention.
I suppose the next (less optimistic) scenario is that the injector tip really did go in and is mashed in the top of the piston (?) and/or bent a valve. Seems a compression or leakdown test would identify a valve problem. Is there any other way to tell if the piston/valve is buggered (other than pulling the head?) Can you see anything down the injector hole past the precombustion cup?
Injector swap first...
The truck is alos hard starting when cold. There's one dead GP in the engine. PO installed them only three years and (120 miles!) ago and ones already dead. If the "spare" in the glovebox is an indicator, they're Autolight 1107's. They're definitly coming out ASAP and new BERU's going in (they arrived last night in the mail from Autozone - Thanks OB forum for the Autozone GP sale!). ALso, thanks for the tip on using TDC piston to keep the bits from falling in... seems so obvious!
When the engine is cold (in all my experience of the 4 times I've started it cold), the controller (with manual switch) seems to vary alot how long it turns GPs on... sometimes only <1 second, sometimes long enough that I release the switch (5-8 seconds). I'm thinking I should bypass the stupid controller completely and control the relay with the switch... I think I can count to 4 more reliably.
I should probably also change the inector return bits, as that seems to be a common culprit of hard (cold) starting.
I'd like to do things in the right order - I'm only $1k total into the truck (plus cost of 6 gallon case of delo400 and a new brake master cylinder waiting to be changed/put in). If the GP/piston (potential) scatters the engine while I'm dinking around with brand new injectors... (insert picture of unhappy wife here. You know the look)
~250k mi, not much idea on the history. No water in the oil or oil in the water, I didn't pay much for it, it's straight, not (too) rusty and I drove it home, 4x4, decent tires, fits the family inside and should carry a camper and pull a boat for family outings... I don't need high performance, just need to make sure it's reliable (remember that unhappy wife pic? add kids and think "revised" family vacation and you get the idea)
Any and all advice is apprecated.
-Pete
Yesterday (150 miles since puchase) it had a bit of a miss and seemed to be running rough, a bit more "noisy" (pingy?) on what seemed on one cylinder. And less of a drop on cracking injector lines on that... of course it was the "suspect" (GP tip) cyl (PO couldn't quite remember which but was certain it was either of the front two drivers side cylinders). I've got my fingers crossed that the pingy noise and lack of power on that hole is due to a faulty injector. I plan to swap it with a neighboring (good) cyl. injector this weekend to see if the power lag follows the injector or stays in the same hole. Thinking about it now, I'm not certain the pingy noise changed when that injector line was cracked... should'a paid more attention.
I suppose the next (less optimistic) scenario is that the injector tip really did go in and is mashed in the top of the piston (?) and/or bent a valve. Seems a compression or leakdown test would identify a valve problem. Is there any other way to tell if the piston/valve is buggered (other than pulling the head?) Can you see anything down the injector hole past the precombustion cup?
Injector swap first...
The truck is alos hard starting when cold. There's one dead GP in the engine. PO installed them only three years and (120 miles!) ago and ones already dead. If the "spare" in the glovebox is an indicator, they're Autolight 1107's. They're definitly coming out ASAP and new BERU's going in (they arrived last night in the mail from Autozone - Thanks OB forum for the Autozone GP sale!). ALso, thanks for the tip on using TDC piston to keep the bits from falling in... seems so obvious!
When the engine is cold (in all my experience of the 4 times I've started it cold), the controller (with manual switch) seems to vary alot how long it turns GPs on... sometimes only <1 second, sometimes long enough that I release the switch (5-8 seconds). I'm thinking I should bypass the stupid controller completely and control the relay with the switch... I think I can count to 4 more reliably.
I should probably also change the inector return bits, as that seems to be a common culprit of hard (cold) starting.
I'd like to do things in the right order - I'm only $1k total into the truck (plus cost of 6 gallon case of delo400 and a new brake master cylinder waiting to be changed/put in). If the GP/piston (potential) scatters the engine while I'm dinking around with brand new injectors... (insert picture of unhappy wife here. You know the look)
~250k mi, not much idea on the history. No water in the oil or oil in the water, I didn't pay much for it, it's straight, not (too) rusty and I drove it home, 4x4, decent tires, fits the family inside and should carry a camper and pull a boat for family outings... I don't need high performance, just need to make sure it's reliable (remember that unhappy wife pic? add kids and think "revised" family vacation and you get the idea)
Any and all advice is apprecated.
-Pete
