Starting woes
 

Hi all, I had my injector nozzles for 1981 NA 300D replaced and balanced last winter, and noted that when I started cold, I felt like I was running on 4 cylinders for about the first 10 sec, with a lot of blue/white smoke. Then it'd smooth out. When driving, there seemed to be the v-e-r-y occasional 'stumble' (kinda like a miss on a petrol engine) at 80-100km/hr speeds. The rest of the time the engine ran smoothly and pulled like a 14yo. Lately it's been harder to start cold and I even had to use the glow plugs to start when it's hot. Now it won't start at all, although it seems to be trying, but can't quite catch.
I've been running B100 for most of the last 130,000 Km.
Is this my IP on the way out, or needing some special TLC?
Any ideas, anyone?

For a quick diagnosis, pull the fuel hose off the little plastic fuel filter by the pump, attach a long piece of rubber hose to the filter and try running it off of a 5 gallon jug of clean diesel fuel. If it starts and runs ok, you either have air in the fuel lines, clogged filters and/or tank screen, or both.

Check your valve clearances and injection timing. Both can cause what you describe.

We are giving you a lot of work for the holidays.

Go to the Diesel Giant site and there is a pictorial on how to check you glow plugs. For some reason he has it listed as "Mercedes Diesel Glow Plug Repair"

If you are living in Canada, or some other cold winter area what did you add to the B100 to keep it from gelling?

"Biodiesel tends to gel up at much higher temperatures than diesel fuel. Because of this, it’s very important that you know the temperature that your own Biodiesel gels at so that you can plan accordingly."

Running Biodiesel In The Cold - Utah Biodiesel Supply Blog

Personally, after the glow plug check I would change the fuel filters and bleed the air out of the system and see what happens after that.

X2 on trying pure #2 diesel. Fuel filters clean? Definitely fuel in the tank? Tap on the tank and listen don't rely on the gauge.

Good luck!!!

Won't start, check the glow plugs first. You can try diesel but I really doubt it is the fuel. Check the compression if you know how to do it.

My personal experience is occasionally missing is stuck piston rings. Hope it is not in your case. Good luck.

Thanks, Fellas, for the suggestions. Finally going again. There was a dud glow plug, and the inlet valves had closed up a bit, so they were fixed. Six months ago I put in an auxiliary fuel filter with water trap and had recently changed the 2 micron filter after 10K km. I wasn't sure how much to tighten it without breaking it... and had bumped one of the threaded connectors so it was loose enough to suck minute amounts of air, until the IP had enough air not to start. A battery on the way out doesn't help - at least I have jumper cables, and was able to slowly pump up diesel out of the IP and on up to the injectors. And it went!

FIXED !
 

Thanx for the feedback Charlie ~

In case anyone else having troubles here's the link to glow plug testing :
Mercedes Diesel Glow Plug Repair

By the way : never, EVER ass-U-me the glow plugs are good because you already replaced them ! .

They must needs be tested individually .