Hello all. I've been trying to get my 1983 240 D up and running lately and wondered how important the glowplugs are in the operation of the engine?

They will affect the initial idle. If one or several glow plugs are bad or not working that cylinder won't burn fuel as efficiently. Therefore making the engine shutter a little bit. After a couple minutes the glow plug have no affect on engine idle. The glow plugs in the later 123's will stay on after the car is running for a while if the engine is cold. Helping cold starts, but again after the first couple minutes they won't affect the idle anymore.

If you have hard cold starts and rough cold idle, I would suspect the glow plugs first or their wiring. If your idle is always rough it could be quite a few things; idle speed too low, valves need adjusting, fuel filters, injectors, or compression.

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For practical purposes once it has been running for a minute the answer is no in my opinion. Why I seemed overdirect to you about requiring really good feedback from yourself was your early comment on your last thread the engine will only keep running with your foot in it.

I already really suspecterd you may have been into the injection pump elements when you posted this. All is not lost at this point if this is the case. As I suggested we may really have to get into this if you want.

I would forget taking the car to a mechanic at this point. At best you will have to install a used injection pump from a wrecker. First we can attempt to restore the sequential timing of your pump if you wish. What is there to loose by trying? Any garage you take the car to will not be able to do this in my opinion. They would just remove the pump and send it to a pump repair shop.

Again if f you have more time than money there is nothing to loose at this point. But as we go along you have to post answers to any questions. The first question as before is have you moved the two screws at the base of each injector line? All of them, Some of them or perhaps only one or two? None? We will be attempting to restore the sequential timing using the milli volt method if any have been moved. .

Unfortunatly you may be the first person to come along to prove one way or another if this can be accomplished at home in a reasonable fashion. The restoration of sequential pump element timing that is. At least you have a new set of glow plugs as the voltage refference source for a start.

At the worse I believe we can get your engine running far better than it is now.If not good enough a used injection pump may have to be installed if what I am thinking has occured. Otherwise we are looking at a thousand dollar situation here.

Be prepared to answer many questions later if you pull this off. You may want to peruse the thread milli volt method or timing with the milli volt method. Do not start without guidance as it is very easy to miss something during the process.

It has only been attempted once before to my knowledge. A person tried to improve on the test jigs results by tailoring his pump to his individual engine. I certainly did not approve of this approach. Too many variables where involved in my opinion just for starters.

To say some people will be following along your thread if you are willing to attempt this is perhaps the understatment of all time.

You also may think I sound critical. This is not the case at all. We all experience things from time to time. It's just I cannot try to help you with not enough information or questions answered.

Hopefully I am wrong and you have not touched those adjustments. I do make wrong assumptions occasionally. I am not perfect. My wife can verify this if required.