1983 300D won't start
 

Trying to revive my old '83 300D, which I traded for another car 3½ years ago and eventually got back with parts missing. It sat for a few years before I got around to replacing what had been taken out, in addition to changing fluids and filters that were long overdue. I think the tank was empty when I got it back because the fuel lines were bone dry when I replaced the filters and installed a hand primer pump from the junkyard. Put in around 3 gallons of diesel, pumped the primer a bunch and tried to start it. Sounds like it turns over, but doesn't start. I had my friend take a video of the first attempt at starting it.
Battery is brand new, glow plugs are receiving power -- used a light tester this afternoon to confirm but can't find my multimeter for a more thorough diagnostic. I suspect air in the fuel lines because it squeaks every time I pump the hand primer and I don't feel as much resistance as I remember from the last time I changed a filter in an old 300D (or maybe I've just forgotten after a year of driving my 190D).

Those are very short starting attempts.

If you unscrew the bolt on top of the fuel filter and you pump the hand pump, does fuel come out? Do you hear the buzzing sound of the pressure relief valve of the injection pump opening when you use the hand pump (bolt of fuel filter must be screwed back to hear this)? Do you see diesel in the pre filter?

Three gallons should be enough. Pump the primer pump until you get resistance. Then loosen the nuts at the injectors. Crank for up to 30 seconds while watching for fuel coming from the loosened injector nuts. A helper is nice, but you can do this yourself watching through the gap from the opened hood. If you don't get fuel within thirty seconds, stop and let the starter cool for two minutes. Repeat as needed, and use a charger to keep the battery up. You'll start to see fuel at the injectors after a while. A little spurt here and there you just let go. Once it's spurting fuel on every other crankshaft revolution, it's bled. Tighten that injector nut and continue with the others. The most likely outcome is that the engine will start with about three injectors. Let it start, then tighten the remaining injector nuts (quickly!), then shut down. I've had to do this on HMMWV's (which don't have a primer pump) many many times.

The FSM indicates that only the low pressure area should be bled, no need to bleed the injector lines.

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high- only several cylinders have compression. I would check the valve clearance, and when you get it running, get rid of that air filter and go back to the stocker.

Just because you have 12 V dc on the glow plug terminal does not mean the plug is glowing...

Cracking the injector nuts is needed to get the air out of the high pressure side of the system. If you have air in the hard lines, it will be trapped between the delivery valve and the injector nozzle. The trapped air acts like a cushion and the injector nozzle can't pop until you let the air out.

Also if you have a multimeter, test each glow plug for resistance. Take the connector off the glow plug, and set your meter to resistance readings (ohms). Then place one lead from the meter on the tip of the glow plug where the connector was, and the other lead on a good ground point or the negative post of the battery. Anything over about 2 ohms is usually a bad glow plug. I have started a 300D on two bad glow plugs, but it was HARD.

You only need to crack the hard lines if the car has been run out of fuel. For a filter change, you should have filled the new filter with fresh Diesel when you replaced the old one. When I replace the filters on my OM617, I don't even need to use the primer pump but I am also not starting an engine in unknown condition. Check that the glow plugs are good and charge the battery. Having a good battery helps a lot with building the proper compression fast enough.

Fuel did come out when I loosened the spin-on filter bolt. There is diesel in the pre-filter and the IP does make some kind of buzzing/squeaking sound when I pump. Loosened two of the fuel injectors and saw a little diesel come out.

Valves were adjusted a few months before I drove it last. I would love to get rid of that filter but it's attached to a Toyota turbo, installed by a previous owner, so the stock filter housing doesn't fit on top of it.

Somebody on another forum suggested filling the new filter with clean diesel, so I did that when it was replaced. Tested with a multimeter and confirmed all glow plugs are receiving power and there is battery voltage at the relay. The resistance was 1 when I turned on the multimeter, stayed at 1 when probing each glow plug and didn't change until the glow plugs turned off after 30 seconds.

Replaced all 5 glow plugs this afternoon, reamed the chambers before installing the new plugs, then attempted to start the car off a bottle of diesel purge, but unfortunately didn't succeed. What am I missing?

Try starting it on WD40 (spraying in the air inlet) & running on it with WOT until it starts to run on diesel.

Where is the air inlet, and what is WOT?

If you say parts were missing, do you still have a timing chain in there? (This is mainly hyperbole.)
If it's been over 3 years since you adjusted the valves, it's time to do them again.

Have you done a compression test?
Do you know what happened to the car while it was away?
When you changed the fluids did you have any water in the oil or oil in the coolant?

You need a really strong battery to get a low compression diesel running, especially one that has possibly run out of fuel or some other unknown condition (blown head gasket, runaway engine, overheating.)

You could try squirting a bit of oil in each cylinder through the glow plug holes to seal the rings and artificially bring up compression (use a long length of vacuum hose so you don't leave the oil in the prechamber.) This might help you start it but it won't help you with your engine wear. Just a diagnostic that you may at least need new rings, if not rebuilding the motor.

Don't pump the throttle when you try to start it, just keep the pedal to the floor (Wide Open Throttle=WOT) until it goes then quickly let it off and turn up your high idle adjuster knob on the dash (before you crank it.)

After some cranking, does your oil pressure go up? Even before the motor is running after a few cranks, you should see it go up over 30psi and hopefully to 45. If not, Don't start the motor until you find out why you have no oil pressure.

Do not use ether to get it to crank.

Check your bearings and oil supply in that turbo. Make sure that things are solid and if they aren't, like your oil feed can get into the air supply then you might assume that something very wrong happened to the motor while it was out of your hands. Read the runaway thread.

I'm just throwing possiblities out there but with a different turbo installed into the car while you didn't own it, a dry tank and lines as well as an engine that will crank but won't start, you may want to prepare for the worst.
But hope for the best.

Phil Forrest

WOT = wide open throttle. ~ just hold your foot to the floor.
Take your air filter off & spray WD40 in the air hole. The motor will run on the spray. Once it starts on it dont stop the spray until the diesel kicks in.

I adjusted the valves a few months before giving the car away, and I don't believe it ever left the guy's driveway. I don't believe he messed with the engine, when he offered it back he said that he had only removed the brake booster hose and kickdown solenoid (both of which have been replaced). Not sure how to do a compression test, so haven't done that. The oil smelled funny when I replaced it, but I didn't notice any water. The coolant was empty, I filled it with distilled water since I wasn't sure if it had a leak. Last time I checked, it's still full but maybe just because I haven't been able to drive it anywhere. It used to disappear when the car was alive, but maybe it just evaporated? I never put in antifreeze or special coolants, just distilled water.
I'll have to double-check that everything is plugged into the instrument cluster and watch the oil pressure gauge.

The funky Toyota turbo came with the car when I bought it in 2008 and it seemed to work before I gave the car away. How does the oil feed work? I've only messed with the breather hose. I've included a photo of the turbo with air filter hose removed...is this the hole I should squirt the WD40 into?