I filled up at the pump last night with B99 and my car wouldn't start this morning. Ran great yesterday on the biodiesel, but this morning no dice. Changed primary FF cause it was pretty dirty. Here's what happens. I crank the car, it sounds like it's about to start and blows a lot of white smoke but it just never quite takes to running by itself. My glowplug light quit working a couple of days ago, but I never had any trouble starting before the B99. I've run bio in my car before, but it has probably been a month or more and I just returned from about a 4000 mile trip to colorado. So it seems like the motor is getting fuel, cause it's smoking. What would cause it not to take? I put my multi-meter on my glowplugs and they were getting current. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.
Will Lyons

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84 300TD 4 speed, green

Did you check the individual resistance of each glowplug?
Blowing this sort of "unburnt fuel" smoke is what I had too when I was down to 1 glow plug...

nope, just tried the first one. I'll go check em and check the fuse. It's wierd the car has been starting fine though previous to B99, but maybe it needs to be warmed more or something with the bioD. I'll go check and post back...

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84 300TD 4 speed, green

and you don't have any fuel leaks..........reason I ask is it sounds like a fuel delivery issue...

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I have and often do run B100 and it starts no different (unless I make a bad batch and try to sneak it through)
I would check that fuse and make sure the glow system is up to snuff.
You can start off of one glow plug if you get a jump start to help you wing the engine over fast enough (and assuming its above a certain temperature outside).

Yes you should be able to start without glow plugs but.....


I don't think its a fuel delivery issue as it is getting fuel and too much fuel is usually not a problem that comes on such as he described...and air-bubble perhaps but there is apparently fuel at the exhaust...hmm

EDIT: What color is the smoke?

yes by all means pursue the glow plug end of it first....but a leak in the right place will drain the IP, and an airlocked IP will behave just like that....having experienced it myself.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Hmm...funny stuff. Just went out and checked glow plugs, at first nothing on any, then turned the key off and on again and then my light worked again and all glow plugs had about 12v or so I believe (didn't take notice to number). Still smoke, turns over really fast but it just won't take and shakes pretty violently. My fuel lines between the injectors are weeping pretty bad, but as far as I know I don't have a fuel leak. I did just get back from colorado, and my car smoked a lot in the altitude and wouldn't really adjust. could the BioD have cleaned some stuff out and gunked the injectors? Again, it seems wierd because there is smoke, but it seems like the smoke is a little bit less now than earlier when I tried. It's white smoke, with maybe a bit of a brown tint, but that could have been dust blown up from under the tailpipe too... grrrrrr this is irritating. Should I loosen the fuel lines at each injector seperatly and see if anything is coming out? Could there be some kind of cutoff switch that is going haywire? It's strange that my glowplug light hasn't worked for several days and all of a sudden it worked again...
Will

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84 300TD 4 speed, green

If you are getting white smoke that means you are getting atomized fuel which means you are getting your diesel (should also smell of diesel/B99).
I would do an ohm check on each glowplug (see DIY pages) to verify that they are all WORKING...not just getting power

I think my system pulls down the voltage at the plugs to about 11-11.5V when they are working and it floats up around 12+ if the glowplugs are not working (ie no load and no Vdrop).

Unhook the wires and check each plug

Actually, the smoke is greyish-black... Used to be white, now greyish black. White must have been leftover's in the cylinders... What does that mean?

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84 300TD 4 speed, green

You can not assume the glow plugs are good just becasue they have voltage..you need to unplug the harness from the GP relay and measure resistanc to ground...they can either short or open up..but the resistance will be fairly low but fairly equal between them..

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I went out to show my friend what was wrong and cranked it and it started right up. I still think that there is something perhaps wrong with the GP's. I don't understand how to test the resistance, and couldn't find it in the DIY pages, only info on how to change them. How do I test GP resistance?
will

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84 300TD 4 speed, green

Use a multimeter on the low Ohm scale...make sure car is turned off...unplug harness from the GP relay...

you measue from the end of the GP (where the nut is) to the engine block on clean metal. Write down what they are idnividually...I forget what is normal but they are below 1 ohm I think. anything very high is bad...or any that measue as a dead short is bad. THey usually open up (go to a very high resistance)

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

New glow plugs out of the box measure .5 or .6 ohms. Cheers!

I thought the best way of testing GPs is to do a load test to see how much current it was taking?

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
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04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

willly,

You didn't measure how much current your GP were drawing, you just measured the voltage. Measuring the resistance is second best to measuring the current draw but the resistance test will usually determine a bad GP.

Did you do the cabin light test? Use the search to find it.

If any smoke is coming out of the tail pipe when trying to start, the problem is not lack of fuel. Its a GP problem.

Aklin,

Most people don't have an ammeter that will handle GP current, up to 20 amps. Even better is to remove the GP, connect it directly to the battery and observe how hot the GP tip gets. It should glow a bright orange.


P E H