I replaced my glow plugs 3 weeks ago, and I've tested the relays and all is good. I had this same issue a week ago and the garage I took it to "added oil to the combustion chamber" for $300! It worked very well for a week now I'm very far from home, about 800miles, and am having the sme issues. I'm pretty familiar with the car, swapped out the motor my self and do all routeen maintenance, so I don't think I should have to pay $300 again ot get it started! I can try the wd-40 thing, but I feel oil in the combustion chamber is mor likely what is really needed. it's sittin almost 2 quarts low right now, should I just top it up, or add some in another fashon? has anyone ever added oil to their combustion chamber before?

Yes, top it off before running it. Are the valves in proper adjustment?

You usually only do the oil trick after you do a compression test, if you find one or two cylinders to be low. This tests for the condition on the rings. If the compression rises, then rings are usually suspect. If no change from the low reading, valves, head gasket, or cracks in the head or cylinder can be the culprit.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

99 W210 E300 Turbo Diesel, chipped, DPF/Converter Delete. Still needs EGR Delete, 232K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Gone and still missed...1982 w123 300D, 1991 w124 300D

The valves were adjusted 3 weeks go as well. I'm pretty sure the rings are the issue. grrr. I need 'er to start - today!

You won't know if rings are suspect until you do a compression test.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

99 W210 E300 Turbo Diesel, chipped, DPF/Converter Delete. Still needs EGR Delete, 232K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Gone and still missed...1982 w123 300D, 1991 w124 300D

You won't know if the rings are suspect until you do a leak down test .

Adding oil to the combustion chambers to get it started seems like a somewhat goofy thing to do in my opinion. It makes no sense that adding oil to the combustion chamber could have a 3 wk effect on the car. I think someone's giving you a $300 line of BS.
Before I added oil to the combustion chambers, I'd simply put a tow strap on it and tow it far enough to start it. If it turns over long enough, the cylinders should heat up enough to fire off a cylinder with poor compression. Alternatively, I'd also use a squirt of ether.

In any case, I'd definitely add oil to bring it up near to the full mark.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Towing is extremely dangerous most of the time... concentrate on warming the engine block, getting the most speed out of the starter, and having something which will ignite at the cold temperatures.. like Starting Fluid in an aerosol can.
And be sure to let your glow plugs glow for one minute.. don't turn them on and off.. just leave them on while you time them.. this is straight from the FSM...

My experience has been to do a compression test first. One "dry" the other "wet" if you have a low reading. You then add some engine oil to the cylinder, and re run the test. If the compression numbers come up, then the rings are suspect. If the numbers do not come up, some thing else is wrong, like burned or poorly adjusted valves, bad head gasket, etc., so then you do the leak down test.

__________________
RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

99 W210 E300 Turbo Diesel, chipped, DPF/Converter Delete. Still needs EGR Delete, 232K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Gone and still missed...1982 w123 300D, 1991 w124 300D

You sure make that sound easy. Which route do you use for adding the oil ? And , are you using the injector hole or the glow plug hole for your compression guage ?

I wouldn't suggest doing this to a good engine but heres what I did after finding LOW compression on a TD I bought. (I couldn't get it started by towing.) I needed to get it started to make a determanition of how it "drove". I squerted a 50/50 mix of lub oil and ATF into the GP holes, enough to hydro lock the engine when turning by hand, waited a hour or so, engine not locked anymore. It fired right up long enough to drive around a couple a couple hours and check out the car. That was really a 'last ditch" effort.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"