I TOTALLY understand. I had NOTHING when I bought my first car out of a wrecking yard at the age of thirteen. I put it on the road with a lot of work and a lot of mostly junk as parts.

Just hang tough and don't give up. Ask questions here and make it be known what you need.

Those heats shields are in fact one time use crush washers, once you torque them down to the right degree they are swaged to that bore and sealed, if you reuse them you run the risk of compression leaks and worse yet burning up your injector seat, it is a pretty critical part. Also when you reuse them they can get stuck in the bore and be a real pain to get out.

Alright, first thing I will do is get a HF compression tester, and see what kind of compression im getting. If all goes well, thats the first thing I will replace. Does anyone know of any way to get those Prechamber collar nuts tight without buying the actual tool? I think that is causing my fuel leak on #1 injector.

Find the guy who loosened those collar nuts up. He probably has the tool.

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Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

I think that I loosened them up when I pulled the injectors off. I sometimes watch the ************** videos on youtube and he says you have to make sure they are torqued down when you install your injectors. But the tool is like 70$ or $80. Diagnosing Early Mercedes Diesel No Start, Rough Running, Heavy Smoke Problems - Part 2 - YouTube

I'm not so sure that would cause a fuel leak? Would it guys? If it is loose it'd move around was your install and remove the injectors? Right? This is just theory, so I really am asking the questions.

Have the valves been adjusted recently?

I'd say, get heat shields (buy 3 sets, it's always good to have spares and they are ONE time use).

Get the compression tester, see if you can find a coupon they are usually everywhere.

Make sure the heat shields are out of the prechamber (they can stick in there).

When you install the new heat shields make sure you put in in right side up, there are some pictorials of that around.

Torque the injectors to the right torque. If you suspect the injector halves themselves are loose torque them before you install them, using a vise to hold them.

I used 55 ft. lbs. to torque the injectors into the head. The book called for 70-80 Newton meters, so I took the middle, and set the wrench for 55 ft. lbs.

Tighten all the nuts on the fuel lines, I couldn't get a torque wrench on them cause I don't have the right sockets, but just did them tight.

While you have the fuel lines off might as well clean them...run some brake cleaner through em, and then some compressed air to blow them out well.

It might require several cranks of the starter to get it to fire up, but it will...I suspect it will sound much better.

Valve adjustment was done a couple of days ago, in hope to fix my problem. If the collar nut not being tight couldn't cause a fuel leak, then why could? In the video I posted in #200, he talks about that causing leaks.

I was hoping someone could explain that to both of us, cause it's not logical to me.

Most important thing is if it's loose, you should be able to tell when you remove and install the injectors.

I don't know if I can tell if it's loose because I think they are supposed to be torqued down to something like 120 ft. Lbs.

Right, which is why I'm questioning if that is your problem, it would see odd to me that it's loose, unless someone has intentionally, removed it recently, and not re-torqued it to spec.

I have heard that sometimes when removing the fuel injectors, it can loosen up these nuts? Not sure if its true.

Anything is possible, but unless you confirm one is loose, I think I'd look at more common fuel leaks sources. The cap on the injector, loose or old return lines, the injector collar nut, so on and so forth.

I finally did a compression test. All cylinders were above 300, except #5 was right at 300, or maybe a little less. This compression is fine, right? The engine has about 290k. I also replaced the heat shield washers. When I pulled the injectors off, #4 cylinder didnt even have a heat shield. I was almost sure that this was my problem, but when I installed new washers, and torqued the injectors back down, it's still the same problem.. I really dont know what to do anymore. It starts up really rough, white smoke is everywhere, and it randomly misfires.

How far above 300? Was the engine warm or cold? White smoke is either unburned diesel fuel, meaning bad compression, glow plug issues, or injection (injectors, pump timing...etc.).

300 PSI isn't great, in fact I think it's kind of on the low side of acceptable. But, if the engine is cold it might be ok. 290K is getting to the point of mileage with less than stellar compression you might consider how much life this engine has in it before an overhaul.

Number 5 was the lower compression in my engine too, right around 360, I wonder if number 5 is always the lowest?

When you pulled the injectors, were the nozzle tips worn? Did you have them cleaned and pop tested? That is going to make a lot of difference.

Phil Forrest

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1972 220D "Trudy," named by a friend.

"The 220D sounds good... I suspect it is the only car that you need a calendar for, rather than a stopwatch, when doing acceleration tests."
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