Hello,
Recently My converted 240 to 300DT has been running rough, hotter, smoking and 0-60 times have incresed from 13 secs to 22 secs. It had begun to sound like a Ford PowerStroke with direct injection.
First thing I did was a stethascope test on each injector with little difference between them. Then, I decided perhaps it was bad fuel as I had recently departed from my usual 100% BioDiesel on a trip and filled with about 12 gallons of normal diesel at a Shell station. After the tank emptied and once again filled with B100, I had the same symptoms. I then pulled the injectors and found the problem.
Cyl number 3 pre-chamber had no ball in it. I removed the pre-chamber and was saddened to see that the bottom of it was missing as well - about the size of 2 peas worth of metal which must have made passage through the valves. I wonder what now to do.
I know the right COA is to do a compression and leak-down test, and if the cylinder is relatively low, then to remove the head and inspect. I can see the top of the piston, though, and don't see any impacted pre-chamber bits.
Anyone have a 617.95X series turbo pre-chamber for about 10 bucks and I pay shipping? Anybody ever have this happen to them? What did you do? What was the result?
My idea is to put it back together initially and then to see how it goes, but this makes the new TDI Passat wagon look even more enticing.
Thanks for your replies and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Adam B

I've never heard of anything like this happening, but that does not mean it can't happen. Any odd sounds or vibrations that would tell you exactly when it happened?

If you have the ability to pull a P/C yourself, it could be more easy to goto a scrapyard and get a few. Unless they know diesels, they might have no clue what it is and almost give it away.

Good luck, we all have things go "boom" in our face every now and then.

In my 81 300SD 917.xxx #3 prechamber. I removed the valve cover to discover that one of my rocker arm shafts had broken and threw the arm back away from the cam causing the cam to have a nice little notch in the shape of the arm in it. So I removed the head to see about getting it checked and dicovered the #3 PC was broken at the ball end. After carefully inspecting the block and pistons I found that the #3 piston top had some marks on top from, what I am assuming to be, metal fragments. Well, I got onto EBay and found a complete cyclinder head with cam, rocker arms & shafts, injectors and even the glow plugs. If you can, have your cylinder head magnafluxed and cleaned and make sure that the metal fragments didn't get somewhere they shouldn't have and could take out something else. Also If I can get the prechambers out of the other head that I have I could possibly let you have one. Let me know if you still need one.

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1981 300SD

Where can I buy the tools to replace the pc? Thanks, Nate.

Sorry to hear about that. Not sure if you may become interested, and hopefully there is little damage aside from replacing a PC, but I have a complete and running, 160K 1982 617. Until recently, I had been looking for a rust-free 123 to put it in but have given up looking and now need to clean-up my back yard!

I'm considering selling the head, turbo, IP, tranny, and anything else such as pistons, etc.

I'm located in the North East, for shipping considerations.

I'm not looking for salvage yard prices, and for example, I would be happy to get $100 (I'll crate, you pay for ship) for the complete head and all that is on it, and I know that it is in decent functioning condition, engine ran pretty well.

Give me a PM if interested...................Steve

Nate,

************************ has a prechamber pulling tool but it lists for $169.00 . Also you can try contacting fastlane for one.

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1981 300SD

Adam: The problem you describe sounds like the one that I now have. 617.950 with only 88k. Cyl # 5 sounds like it has something loose inside.
Did your enjine do ok after the new pc? Would appreciate any info you can provide. Thanks, NB in KY

Thanks for your input. Nate

I've had this problem twice on the same engine. The first time I replaced the prechamber with a used one and it worked fine for over a year, then the noise started again. Once I removed the injector, I found a small ball shaped object loose inside the prechamber making all the noise. I tried several things to get the bal out and finally arrived a a perfect solution. I took a metal soldering flux brush which has a hollow handle and put a lot of super glue around the hollow handle, pushed the handle with super glue down into the prechamber and pressed it down on the ball. About a minute later, I pulled the brush handle out and the ball object was stuck onto the handle. I've been driving the car ever since and no more problems. And yes, I didn't replace the PC. Hope this helps. My engine has a lot of miles and I have an engine sitting waiting to go in, so maybe I don't worry as much as others not so fortunate.

Ben

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www.reproduce100s.com

Aren't the prechambers made of steel? Just use a magnet, mine works great on the discs under the injectors....

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'83 240D with 617.952 and 2.88
'01 VW Beetle TDI
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD
'89 Toyota 4x4, needs 2L-T
'78 280Z with L28ET - 12.86@110
Oil Burner Kartel #35

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...oD/bioclip.jpg