it's a 240d; there's never been much power to the transmission!

I'm not giving up...I'm just saying that if testing/cleaning the injectors is only 50 bucks or something - I'll just pull the four out & send them away to start eliminating stuff. I've probably spent more money on WD40 @ this point than the injector service will cost! I'm rarely able to restart within a few hours of it stalling out - so at this rate, it will take me 3 more days to test each one.

But the engine SHOULD run on 3 cylinders, correct?

Well it is a shame it wasn't the idle screw - that would have been a simple fix!

If I were you I'd tackle the problem on two fronts - we do after all need to avoid this little d situation!

Leave the existing injectors in place and try and buy a second hand set - a WTB on this forum might get good results. Depending on which side of the US you live you might be able to get a forum member to help you out - either with a new set or with a rebuild service.

Whilst you've still got a complete car I think you need to consider doing a drip test - not the bubble up thing. I reckon your timing could be out. The IP has been removed and replaced right?

Whilst you are at it I also reckon it is time for a video with sound of your starting procedure and resultant half running engine.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

A normal engine will manage to run on three of four cylinders if careful and the revs are a little higher. Or even idle really rough depending. Your fuel system at this time is far from normal though. It hardly runs on four cylinders currently.

If you managed by luck to disable the bad injector first it would still putter but very rough I would expect. Probably not though as it takes time to clear the current mess out of the system.

The only on board test that seems rational to me in your situation I might attempt.. This discounts also that you may be very saturated inside the injection pump currently.

If clear fuel return line is cheap enough. Run four longer lines from the injectors returns into a container. The return line spewing out the milkshake would be your faulty injector. Of course the car would have to start probably to be sure. Just cranking the engine may or may not show it. Still you would have all four cylinders operative in the current fashion with that test. The car might even run somewhat better during the test then.

Have you found out or accomplished anything?

It looks like we've failed Barry - perhaps we scared him off?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!