I've had a nice '85 300TD for a couple months now. 169,000 mi. It always started easily. Previous owner (who I know and trust) reports it always starts easily in cold weather also.

Few weeks ago I took the injectors out and had the local diesel shop change and pop test the nozzles. The nozzles are part of the Elsbett VO conversion kit. Elsbett also supplied new glow plugs which I changed out at the same time. They appear to be the same Bosch part number as what I removed, though an extra number near the top of the plug is a little different.

But lately the engine will be rough for a few seconds at cold start. It will start up easily, but will "miss" maybe half a dozen times before smoothing out. Also just the other day, for the first time, it quit immediately after starting. A second crank started it right up and it was fine.

So I'm wondering what's going on here. I've held off installing the rest of the VO kit until I know it's still 100% on diesel. (Elsbett says the VO kit is fine to run diesel or any % blend with VO). The other thing that happened prior to this startup problem was that I ran it low on fuel and it was stumbling and losing power until I could get away from a major stoplight and pulled off to a safe place and dump in the extra gallon I was carrying.

So I'm wondering if some air is in the system that is taking a long time to get out. But it's been several weeks and it still does this pretty regularly. I'm in summer temps here - overnight temps before morning startups around 60 deg F.

An interesting sidebar here: Since the nozzle change, the idle is noticeably noisier - a sharper, poppier sound. Driving seems the same. And a bad shake at hot idle that had cropped up shortly before then also is gone (but when removing the injectors, I found one was not tight at all. It turned while breaking the B nut loose on the injector line, so maybe that was part of the shake problem).

I've been keeping an eye on the injector lines and everything seems dry. New return line was also installed on the injectors.

Thanks in advance for any pointers to track this one down.

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1985 300TD 214k. Elsbett VO system + Fattywagon injection line heaters. (SOLD!)
1996 VW Passat TDI wagon 327k. No VO
Two white german turbodiesel wagons. One analog, one digital.

I would suspect that water got into your fuel system and since it won't pass through the injectors, it's running a little rough. Assuming you did check your glow plugs and your valve adjustment, try putting in a couple bottles of Iso-Heet, safe for diesels, to help rid the moisture out of your system.

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I think you have one faulty glow plug. Test the resistance of each. Air will purge in a matter of minutes assuming no loose fittings.

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81 300CD (sold) 1972 280 SEL 4.5 (sold) 1966 250 S 4 spd (sold) 1974 450 SL (sold) 86 BMW 325ES (sold), 1973 280C (sold) 1988 300 SE.