Hello,
I was checking the timing on my 84 300d turbo. I first verified that there was no timing chain stretch. I set the crank to 24degrees btdc, cam lobes up, pulled the element and right away fuel started dripping out without wiring the throttle open or pressing the primer. Does fuel flowing at this point indicate a problem or should I just go ahead and adjust it from here?

Do you have an inclined driveway and is your fuel tank higher then your Fuel Injection Pump and or extremely full?

I am not sure if you are having a terminology issue or you actually pulled the wrong thing. But, you are only supposed to pull the Delivery Valve Spring and the center valve of the Delivery Valve Assembly.

Good idea to disconnect the Vacuum Line from the Shutoff Valve on the Fuel Injection Pump and wire the Throttle in the proper position.

Note that zero timing chain stretch I suspicious as to the method used to check it. Even if the Timing Chain had been changed people usually don't change the crankshaft gear or the camshaft gear and both should have some wear on them that would show up as timing chain stretch.

When the Fuel Injection Pump timing is checked the crank has to be rotated in in the proper direction. When you end up on 24 degrees before top dead center on a used Engine I would not expect it to be set exactly any more due to the timing chain stretch and timing gear wear and even wear inside of the Fuel Injection Pump.

Also there is a plus or minus range that is allowable.

The get to the sweet spot where you get the desired drips might be found by rotating the Fuel Injection pump less the 1/32 of an inch. Just a tiny nudge.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Ok the problem actually was the driveway being uneven, with a full fuel tank. I pushed the car to a spot where the fuel tank was slightly lower and the leak stopped. Should I be setting the crank to a different position for a used engine? The odometer reads 200K miles now, although the speedometer is way off, I'll say its a 200K mile car.

On the Emission sticker on mine it has the timing for the common method (that includes the drip timing method) as 24 degrees before top dead center plus or minus one degree.

If you are at 24 degrees coming up on the compression stroke and you are not getting your number of drips if there is not already a scribe or other line across the block to Fuel Injection Pump Flange I think it is a good I deal to put one there.

That is so you can retun the Fuel Injection Pump to where it started incase you rotate it too far.

You need to follow the directions concerning the Throttle Lever and the Vacuum Shutoof and loosen the rear bottom bracket and the 3 front flange Nuts.

This represents the way I do it because I am by myself when I do this sort of job.
The Fuel Injection Pump timing is ususally slightly late/retarded and needs to be advanced just a bit. To advance you would rotate the top of the Fuel Injectin Pump towards the Engine Block.

I remove the Fuel Injection Hard Lines because it is hard to rotate the Fuel Injection Pump tiny amounts against the tension of the lines.

I rotate the top of the Fuel Injection pump just a hair (as viewed at the scribe mark) towards the Engine Block then I snug down one or more of the Flange Nuts to keep the Fuel Injection Pump from rotating.

The I pump on the hand primer a lot so the fuel pressure is steady and count the drips.

If the drips are off I repeat what I did previously till I get the proper drips.

That works if you re re-setting the timing of the Fuel Injection Pump that is on a decent running Engine and the Fuel Injection Pump was had not been removed and re-installed.

2 things I believe people have trouble with doing the drip timing is they rotate the Fuel Injection Pump to much when it only needs a hair of movement. The next is if you don't keep the fuel pressure even the the number of drips you get is going to vary.
That is why I move the IP then snug the nuts the pump the hand primer and count the drips. Trying to rotate the Fuel Injection Pump and pump the Hand Primer does not work well for me as far as keeping the pressure even.
Anyway that is what is easiest to do with everything stock.

Where I worked we had a gravity feed that we hooked up and that kept the Fuel pressure even.
Some have used an Electric Fuel Supply Pump.
Both require you fabricate connections and so on and for the a person with one vehicle the timing does not need to be reset often to go to the trouble to make a setup.


Various timing methonds
Repair Links
Fast navigation http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diy-links-parts-category/146034-fast-navigation-do-yourself-links.html

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thank you Diesel911. When I checked the timing it was set to 23degrees BTDC so I decided not to mess with it. The car starts up instantly but idles rough shaking like a paint mixer so I will test the injectors and compression for my next project.