Do not totally fixate on a fuel problem. Give the car a glow cycle with the air cleaner top off. Takes two people. One to do the glow cycle and crank the engine and another person to spray the wd 40 in while cranking.

If the engine refuses to run at all it probably has low compression from sitting. I assume the starter is turning the engine over fast enough.

I'll try the clear fuel line.

The knocking was enough to get me to stop, but not so bad that I felt the world was going to end. I doubt it damaged anything, these engines are tough.

Getting glow plug 5 out was miserable. I held a wrench on the nut so it wouldn't turn (and the wire would stay in its position) and I used a 12mm wrench to unscrew the glow plug body. Only enough room to turn the plug 1/12 of a turn, flip the wrench over, turn it 1/12, repeat.

I'll give the wd40 a try. The starter is fairly new and turns the engine fast enough - it turns it as fast as it has done for the last 13 years I've had the car.

Good as you have to know if the fundamental engine itself is capable of running. If it will not light off with the wd 40 a compression check may be in order. Even if that were low it probably is treatable.

What I have thought over the years. If you take a gas engine out of service for some time. It tends to seize up much, much faster than a still reasonably tight diesel engine.

The diesels seem to at worse develop probable ring sticking issues. The more the bores are wore the more obvious the chances are. I feel that semi stuck rings just cannot follow the tapered walls well enough in that scenario.

That is why some solvent soaking down of the rings for a period of time seems to improve compression readings in most cases. If the need becomes indicated.

That said if any vegetable oil based fuel is used. The residue that gets down into the rings. Left sitting around unused this residue turns into a form of glue. Rings can also get seized up somewhat burning straight diesel as well from sitting. It has been well established that many have towed these cars after long periods of sitting to get enough compression established to light off the first time.

If for example the car was starting and running reasonable well when you shut it off. Left the car unused for a substantial period of time. It would to me seem unreasonable that the fuel supply system has failed. It is possible of course but just unlikely. Since you got some fuel out of all your injection lines you eliminated perhaps some stuck pump element pistons as that also is a sometimes issue as well when coming out of storage.

I copied your starting fluid description below:

"I tried starting fluid today. I don't think anyone previously mentioned to disable the glow plugs, did they? I had my glow plugs going as usual, and with the starting fluid it starting knocking, so I stopped. But the fluid was already in there, and subsequent cranking gave me a few more knocks. So now I'm waiting for the fluid to evaporate or dissipate, and I'll try again later. But this would indicate I have good enough compression to at least ignite starting fluid."

I thought all along you had an air in fuel problem. The next test you want to do is a compression test to see if the starting fluid did any damage. It is summer, starting fluid should not have been suggested or used.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Does anyone in the bay area have a compression tester I can borrow?

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'82 300TD
'77 6.9
'75 280S
'74 280
'87 Porsche 944 turbo

Yes I have one to lend.

PM sent.

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78 W116 300SD 'Desert Rose' new as of 01/26/2014
79 W116 300SD 'Stormcloud' RIP 04/11/2022

PLEASE adjust the valves prior to the compression test, or the test results are invalid.

Would a compression test reveal a cracked pre-chamber? I don't know, maybe someone else does. How about broken rings? I'm guessing yes?

A simple / easy test at this point would be to remove the injectors and try a visual inspection of the pre-chambers to see if any damage is evident. If you see anything suspicious, get a second opinion. If you see damage (the ball is missing or off-center or damaged / eroded) then you need to pull that pre-chamber and investigate further.

I'm really hoping that the knocking you heard from the starter fluid has not done damage. You could role the dice and keep trying to start it, but if you catch the (potential) damage now and fix it, you may be saving the engine (and the car).

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Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

After all this time, I went back to my 300td to try to start it. Thanks to my brother who was pushing me, because he just had his first problem with his diesel vw and his misery wanted company lol.

Over 3 days, we cranked and cranked, bled the lines, cycled the glow plugs about a million times, and today I put some Wd40 in the intake which finally got it started.

It was just air in the bloody lines.

I would like to make some notes for posterity:

-Have the right battery. Borrowing a batt from the other car wasn't good enough - I couldn't start it until I had a big batt with 800+ CCA.

-don't chase after every air bubble. Just get most of the air out. The rest will have to get pumped through with the engine running.

-wd40

Sincere thanks to everyone who chimed in and helped.

What is going on with your Brothers VW Diesel? Diesel Discussion also qualifies his VW Diesel questions.
I have a volvo 244GL that has a 6 cylinder engine with many of the same parts and the Fuel Injection pump is the same except it is a 6 cylinder pump.

Some of our Members own VW CDI's

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I'll start a new thread. Thanks!

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'82 300TD
'77 6.9
'75 280S
'74 280
'87 Porsche 944 turbo