OM617 ALDA adjustment?
 

Where can I find an FAQ on this? I found one for the 603 motor but, I don't have that! ;)

A link or pics/something of that nature is more than appreciated! :D

A search under "ALDA adjustment" will find what you seek.

Alda Adjustment Made Easy
 

http://users.vnet.net/w123d/w123d/adla.htm

Luc :sun_smile

one problem with that last link, the guy says nothing about breaking it if you turn it to far. i think 2 full turns ccw is the max. correct me if im wrong.

I'm going to try this on our '83 tomorrow to see if I can get it to actually take off quickly, it'd make my dad very happy, as its quite slow on take off....mine is ok, but there's room for a rotation yet :D

I just got back in here after a test drive! I got tired of waiting and knew there was more in my ol' "9". I kept looking at that 603 thread and went out to look at my car. Popped off that cover off the lock nut and gave it a looksee.

After reading a thread about NOT loosening the adjustment nut on top, I thought to myself "hey, don't be silly and think this out. ;) " So, I looked closer and loosened that top nut first. Once that was loose, I adjusted the set screw accordingly.

Now - holy crap! The car is waaaaaay better off idle!!!

Me ---> :D X 100 lol

Wow... does it make that much of a difference in performance? My car really performs well right now, but I guess I'll do that adjustment and see if I can milk some more performance out of it :P

use 2 fingertips on the screwdriver and stop if it gets tight. Dont force it.

Don't forget that there can come a point where you're just pouring fuel away with no gain. If you can see black smoke in the daylight you might want to turn it back in a little. When I first adjusted mine I thought if a little was good, a lot would be better. All I got was a sooty trunk and poorer mileage!

Kevin

I am not sure how you could "break" it by turning it too far. I have had the alda off and apart several times because of leaking and there isn't really anything to break inside due to overadjustment. The only way that I can see is if someone tries to adjust it without loosening the locknut.

It can happen......beware.

It's only off boost throttle response. It's very crisp now! I'd highly recommend tweaking it... makes the car safer to drive as it can get out of its own way from a stop.



I read a thread where someone did... FWIW.

Someone broke the top of the shaft by snapping one of the "wings" around the slot. Now it cannot be adjusted anymore with a screwdriver because there is a slot with one "wing".

I believe he did try to adjust it without loosening the locknut.

Re: ALDA adjustment
 

'85 300D
The locknut is there for a reason, to keep the adjustment in place. I just got my turbo back from a rebuild, Majestic Turbo in Waco,Texas did an outstanding job. The only problem was oil leaking from the wastegate hose, and the bearings were just starting to wobble.
Back to the subject at hand. Be cautious when fooling around with the ALDA, if you are careless,it will break, and your wallet will scream.
I need to adjust mine up just a notch, with the turbo breathing again there is very little black smoke and the power curve could use a little tweaking.
Make sure your chain is up to snuff, this affects injection pump timing, and fooling with the ALDA will only screw things up further. Alan

The easier way to adjust the ALDA without having to cut the cover is to shim it, under the alda where it attaches to the IP. Two shims ought to do it, according to the local Bosch rebuilder. They offered to give me the shims. I had them rebuild an IP and at my request they left off the cap, so the ALDA could be tweaked and then the cap put in place.
Either way, just a little adjustment makes a big difference in off line acceleration! Many an old diesel has taken on a new life after an ALDA tweak.
If I was so bad as to bust an ALDA I'd go to a Pick-U-Parts and snag one off a car, they usually have a diesel around for parts.
Oh yes, Majestic Turbo rebuilt my turbo - twice. It failed after it was installed due to the bearings developing end play. The car suddenly got real sluggish about 600 miles after installation. They fixed if but I had to pay for the cartridge, since it was almost a year later I accepted that because the car had been on blocks most of the time. The new one is still running fine. When you say Majestic Turbo you need to know there is also one in Dallas I believe its still in business. I only dealt with the Waco shop and they do a professional job.

Where can one... such as myself... score these shims? :)

The shims are worth less than a postage stamp, however I probably couldn't find them in a month of Sundays, the Bosch rebuilder gave me a couple of them when I had the rebuild. Say tell you what, if there are others who need a shim or two (you shouldn't need more than two or you will be wasting fuel, if the ALDA was set pretty close to conservative specs from the factory) - I'll consider going and getting some to send to members. Send me a stamp, too - it would offset the shipping. My time is free.
You will need however thin wrenches. If you need a photo of a suitable wrench I can also post onr here, these may be hard to find, but if you find a inch sized wrench, grinding the opening to fit a Metric nut is easy to accomplish using a flat file. A regular open end wrench is too thick to be used at all for this.
DDH

Useful thread, i believe my car needs this adjustment... there is no blackish smoke whatsoever coming out of my tailpipe during full throttle (at which the RPMs will climb pretty slowly), the car surges forward when the turbo kicks in around 2000 rpm.

Haha, has anyone actually maxed our their alda and been able to smoke their tires? :D That'd be interesting...

I'm interested! Heck, You could mail them all to me and I could send them to forum members. I'd much rather have the shims as opposed to the turned knob. I have a plethora of tools at my house. What do you suggest for removing the ALDA box on the 617 IP?

Let me know!



If it's a tad bit wet out, you'd be suprised. This thing spun them yesterday! :D

With my old tires I used to be able to spin them out from a standstill when it was wet, but upon switching to the goodyear assurance tires, its literally impossible :eek: They grip like mad. I actually haven't checked if my alda has been messed with, since mine runs so strong as it is :D But the other one sure could use a little pick me up, its not nearly as quick.

How does one go about getting that cap off the adjustment screw on the ALDA? I pried at it a little today with no luck....is there a trick to it? Or can I just take my Dremel and carefully cut it off? :D :D

This lil adjustment makes the off boost throttle response so much nicer, it's great. If you'd like, I can see if I can get all the shims and I'll simply mail them out to everyone. That's no big deal.

But if you can't wait...

I used a lil pick to get that black cap off the top first. Just something sharp will do well. Once that's out, use some pliers I did to get the metal out of the way and loosened that nut a bit. I think it was 9-10mm. I did this at like 2.30am. :eek: Just loosen it a bit and turn the screw a bit. No need to break anything or like that. I at first turned mine CW and made my car SLOWER! :rolleyes: So I had to go back and do it the opposite... shows what a lack of sleep does to ya! :D

Dremel is a nice tool, I used it to hack an odd hose clamp off my WRX that required some special tool to install and remove (bypass valve to intercooler). Once I hacked it out, I simply installed a normal hose clamp. :D

Smoke Control
 

I believe on Cummins engines with the Bosch in-line IP, that adjustment is called the "smoke control" ...seriously!

<ed>I'm wrong about the inline pump, the Cummins uses a VE (rotary) IP but the smoke control (ALDA) is there. Take a look here.

Well, I ended up Dremeling off the cap today by making a nice little cut around the bottom by the nut, it came right off. I only did it because I still couldn't get to the nut with pliers with the cap off. I did around a half a turn CCW, but didn't notice too much difference, so I did another rotation, and that made QUITE a difference. It moves quite quickly now, much better response on takeoff. I think overall I did about 1.25 to 1.5 CCW rotations to get that. I don't believe mine has ever been messed with, since it still has the cap on it, but mine is already as fast as this one with the new setting, so I wonder what adjusting mine would do.... :D I'm not going to mess with it for now however, I'm happy with it as it is.

I'm interested in the shims
 

let me know if they become available

I ended up spending about twenty minutes cutting and tearing that little metal sleeve off after pinching the black cap out... and only later did it occur to me that my Dremel would have been a smart thing to use :P I just had it in my mind that taking that metal off would be an easy thing, just one more snip and I'll have it...