Originally Posted by MB140300SD

The car came out of Texas originally, that is where it sat in a field for decades. All 4 tires are beyond flat so I just dragged it off the trailer up to my shop door. We have had a ton of rain lately and it ended up sitting in a low spot that holds water for about a week after it rains. Car is rusted out and interior is toast for the most part.

I have started diesels that have sat for 10+ years with just a normal glow and they fire off, even with old diesel. On this one, I put some fresh diesel in a bottle and ran it off that. Over the years I have got many diesels to run that have sat for 10-20 years and have a couple of different methods. I first crank them over a bit with the glow plugs disabled so we get some oil circulating. If they do not start with glow plugs I have a couple of different approaches. If the car has tires that hold air and brakes, I have tow started several of them. You have to get them up to about 40mph or so then drop it into drive and that will get them spinning way faster than the starter will and you can usually resurrect an old dead diesel that way. When it first starts it will throw out a huge cloud of smoke. After this initial start, they will then usually start on their own afterwards.

I took my second approach with this car. Glow plugs were dead, did not seem like relay was even working. I probably should have swapped in a different relay but didn't. If glow plug are not working, or I disable them, I pull the air cleaner U pipe and give it s small shot of starter fluid, crank it a bit and it will start firing off a little. I did this is small amounts several times and it eventually started firing longer and longer each time till I had it running on its own. If you are careful with the starting fluid, and IF the glow plugs are not glowing, it will not hurt the engine. It is with working glow plugs and lots of starting fluid that you crack pre chambers. Anyway, after it got going and ran a bit the idle started smoothing out and it sounded great. I should probably go ahead and pull the engine before I drag the car to my pasture to sit for another 20 years.