No Start

[mario 3]

1987 300 TDT Put car away for the winter in
Sept 07. Not started since, kept battery charged all the time. Went to start it today 1 20 08. After glow plug lite went out turned key to start, started run for a few seconds and stopped. Will not start now. Turns over good, glow plugs clicking on and off. Could fuel have geled? It is now 10 degrees F. If fuel is geled would a little gas desolve the gel. Has been below freezing for a week or more here. Mario 3

[Jkid]

I don't think that's cold enough for fuel to gel. Possibly condensation build up in the fuel line from sitting for so long which has now frozen? Do you have a priming pump?

[lietuviai]

There's no manual priming pump on the 603 engine. If there is something frozen, best thing to get some heat in there is to hang a drop light near the IP.

[akinsey]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm very interested in how this goes. Same thing happened to my 300TD wagon. Sitting for 6 months, charged battery, cranked (gp's charged up!), started and ran a few secs just fine--then shut down.

I was looking for a fix and found this thread. Only difference: I'm in Florida so, temp may/may not be a factor.

[Mustang_man298]

Originally Posted by mario 3

1987 300 TDT Put car away for the winter in
Sept 07. Not started since, kept battery charged all the time. Went to start it today 1 20 08. After glow plug lite went out turned key to start, started run for a few seconds and stopped. Will not start now. Turns over good, glow plugs clicking on and off. Could fuel have geled? It is now 10 degrees F. If fuel is geled would a little gas desolve the gel. Has been below freezing for a week or more here. Mario 3

Do NOT put gasoline in your fuel! Bad idea with a diesel engine. Ether (starting fluid) is also equally bad. If you suspect freezing, crack an injector line and see if fuel comes out when cranking, you may also have an air bubble in it too if a fuel l ine aged and cracked while it sat.

[GRIESL]

I guarantee it's a fuel problem. You didn't pick the best time of the year to bring the Benz out of storage;-)... I would rig up a fuel cell with a jug under the hood. Run fuel in and return lines to the jug and see what happens. My best guess is that you may have summer fuel that gelled or some growth in there that froze.

[vstech]

I would put a 5 gallon mix of kerosene in the tank and see if she fires up. kero will thin the summer fuel that's in your tank, and thin it out. as 10 degrees is cold, it's not super cold enough to gel mixed fuel. I agree, if you have left the car with less than a full tank, you could have condensation in your tank freezing up on the bottom, or in your fuel lines. in that case, the only thing you can do is put a drop light under your car, and let it warm up the vehicle lines and see if she will prime. try the bottle under the hood trick, and report back.

[300DFarmer]

Ten degrees is definitely cold enough to have fuel issues if you have summer fuel in the call.
What I would do is buy a qt of power service 911, which is made for helping to cure gelled fuel, and pour it in the tank.
Find a "salamander" heater and point it under the front of the car. If it's outside, rig a tarp of some kind to capture as much heat as possible.
I've done this with tractors w/o glowplugs or block heaters and it usually works fairly quickly. I usually hook up jumper cables to another vehicle to assist the battery. A cold engine can take a lot of cranking to get it started.
Of course, this is all in the event that you have to get it started now. best best is to wait until it warms up and try again.

[akinsey]

Mario3 should tell us what worked if anything for him; my problem was solved with adding ~16oz Diesel Kleene (?) Cetane boost to my half-tank of fuel. It was also much warmer temp-wise, 70's vs. 40's, than when I first tried starting it (FL winters are odd).

Restarted a few minutes ago, hi 40's. Cranked right up.

[Diesel911]

How about loosening up some of the fuel injection lines at the injector and see if any fuel is spurting out of the. If anything is gelled it may help move it out as the fuel injection line tubing inside diameter is somewhat small.
The putting winter diesel fuel in another container near the supply pump and feeding from that also sounds like a good idea.

[Jkid]

Originally Posted by akinsey

Mario3 should tell us what worked if anything for him.

There should be a big note on the main page telling people to follow up on their posts telling us how they got their problem fixed.

[deanot442]

Originally Posted by Jkid

There should be a big note on the main page telling people to follow up on their posts telling us how they got their problem fixed.

I agree.
I also agree that having summer fuel in the tank, the possibility of gelling is high.

I have also seen that after sitting for a while, diesel coke, rust and debris (maybe even critters) have built up in the exhaust and caused a blockage. This will definitely cause a no start condition. There are a couple of ways to check this. You can have someone crank the car, while you check the exhaust output. There should be alot of air coming out of the pipes. If there is only a little flow, you can either disconnect the flexible down-pipe, or undo the large bolt on the pipe that replaced the Trap Oxidizer and try starting again. but let os know how things work out, thanks

[akinsey]

Originally Posted by deanot442

I have also seen that after sitting for a while, diesel coke, rust and debris (maybe even critters) have built up in the exhaust and caused a blockage. This will definitely cause a no start condition.

haha. I didn't take a pic or even mention the mouse nest on the air cleaner housing....

Good advice. I had air coming out of the exhaust, so no critters there, just up on top, looked like.

[deanot442]

You say that you have air, but how much. Do you have any other MB diesels around to compare? I was challenged by this delema before, and took weeks of me denying that it couldnt be plugged, when in fact that was the straw that broke the benzes back.

[akinsey]

Its working fine now. I am not the original poster, btw; I was just posting what worked for me with the op's same symptoms.