i forgot to vacuum out the pre-chambers. do i just have a ton of carbon blocking the fuel from getting to the cylinder? i didnt know i was supposed to do this until after putting everything back together; i foolishly thought those little flutes on the reamer tool magically removed all the carbon!

all my gp holes were clogged up pretty well. it took a lot of twisting and crunching of carbon to even get the tool to start threading in.

will removing everything and vacuuming out solve my problem? if so i need to ride my bike to sears or something and pick up a battery powered vacuum. my car is parked a couple blocks from my house.

yes, i did crack all the hard lines at the injectors, crank, and then tightened them after seeing fuel on them. is the reamed out carbon in the prechamber now a big gooey mess because of the injected diesel? i would think the high pressure of the injection nozzles would have just forced all the carbon through the prechamber into the cylinder and ultimately out the exhaust. didnt really think it was necessary to vacuum it out. but i DID seem to have a lot of carbon buildup.

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1981 300SD, 270K, two tank wvo system
1985 300D, 288K, california version
1985 300DT wagon, 315k, broken odo

Did you introduce air into the system in any way by opening up the system other than pullingGP's? If so, you will need to bleed system first, otherwise I wouyld think that carbon would just blow through -

^ Agreed, if you put grease on the reamer, you would have captured a bunch of the stuff.

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83 SD

84 CD

reamer was dry when i was doing it. all i did was take off the hard lines from the ip to injectors. ive pulled them before and never had to bleed air to get the engine started, all it took was just a few seconds more cranking. the only thing thats changed now is the location of the carbon deposits.

it seemed like they were pretty plugged up, a couple of the glow plugs were a little stuck. i'll pull everything again and see if i can get my battery powered dyson in there to clean things up. i bought the most powerful one they had, so hopefully this works..

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1981 300SD, 270K, two tank wvo system
1985 300D, 288K, california version
1985 300DT wagon, 315k, broken odo

I would bet that you have air in the system . I would work on bleeding the air. And make sure it`s cranking over fast enough. Rick

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81 240D 116,000 mi. motor, car 283,000 81 300D 155,000 81 300 unknown 81 300SD 221,000

Although the pressure of the injected fuel is high, the volume is very low. So its not enoiugh to blow any carbon out of the prechamber.

Does engine start when its cold? If it started and ran once, the carbon is blown out thru the prechambes by the force of the explosion of fuel that starts in the prechamber. Thus trying to vacuuming out any carbon would be futile.

If the engine doesn't start at all, there might be pieces of carbon stuck between the valve and the valve seat that will reduce the air pressure in the cylinder.

P E H

Tryhing to vacuum out anhy lose c

*** The injector pop/spray is approximately 2300 PSI, any carbon in the direct path will be cut/broken/blasted = the injectors are not blocked...

* You took off the hard lines from the injection pump to injectors = it takes time for the pump to re-fill the hard lines at approximately 0.003 CC per revolution.

* The glow plug nut (electrical connection) is very easy to over tighten = twist/stress or break the electrode of your new glow plugs.
Note: If the wire connector starts to move = STOP..

Best advice:
Use a minimum 100 AMP battery charger, charge for fifteen minutes, glow three times, then crank for up to thirty seconds (if it is air in the system, the engine should start firing), rest fifteen minutes before cranking again (gives the charger time to build up, and starter to cool down).
You can enhance this by spraying WD-40 directly into the turbo while someone else cranks the engine..

i tried using a vacuum but it was difficult to get in there, i could see some tiny bits of carbon being sucked up but nothing that would have affected it starting. in the process i tested the glow plugs by putting them in vice grips and touching the threaded end of the gp to the pos. terminal of the battery and the handle of the vice grips to the neg. terminal. found one that wouldnt light up, replaced it, glowed 3 times and cranked, and i repeated but i think the battery got worn down pretty low. it'd been on a 6A charger all day but won't get past 25%. and i just bought this battery a couple weeks ago! i'll try a known good battery tomorrow and see if i can get it started.

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1981 300SD, 270K, two tank wvo system
1985 300D, 288K, california version
1985 300DT wagon, 315k, broken odo

Yeah, doing that can wear down an older battery, as mentioned, it just takes time to get fuel to the cylinders.

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83 SD

84 CD

Just to clarify one issue. I don't think there's a need to vacuum out the pre-chamber once you've reamed. Just turn over the engine a few times with the glow plugs out and any debris will get blown out the glow plug holes.

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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

Even if something did fall into the Prechamber I is very unlikely the same problem would happen to all of the Prechambers.
Did you change all of your Glow Plugs for new ones; and, if so what make did you use?
New or old; did you check the Glow Plugs while they were out of the Engine to see if the actually Glowed?

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

ive got a collection of used glow plugs and tested them all by putting them directly to the battery. only 1 was bad. the rest all glowed red so i'm assuming they are good. i put in 4 beru plugs and 1 bosch. i didnt think vacuuming out would really do anything but i just wanted to be sure. the thing is with the battery, its only a month old so it should have been easier to start with the gp holes now reamed, as before it would start up fine in this moderate weather. i was only having trouble starting when the temps dropped below freezing.

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1981 300SD, 270K, two tank wvo system
1985 300D, 288K, california version
1985 300DT wagon, 315k, broken odo

I had what seemed to be a weak battery, a new starter solved my problem.

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83 SD

84 CD

UH.... I have not seen any mention of the TINY and RADIALLY drilled holes in the precombustion chamber...

I think those two adjectives completely negate the pressure of the spray coming out of the injector as a cleaning or power driving force.

I think the precombustion chambers need to be pulled and cleaned and the bore vacuumed. Even if that is not the cause of the present non start condition carbon should not be left in that location. The cleanliness of those holes is important... as is the existence/condition of the pintle ball which disperses the fuel towards them.

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/10414-help-i-need-check-stretch.html

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/156207-photo-step-step-post-showing-w123-evaporator-removal-1983-240d-1982-300td.html?highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

I don't see mention of any test performed to confirm that all plugs are getting 12 volts.

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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