I'm reading through the Performance Tuning book from www.**************.com (hope I'm not committing some grave sin of disloyalty here, but his operation is different from this) and have been amassing a list of Fundamental Questions. (The Vacuum Troubleshooting book wasn't nearly so intimidating.)

Btw, anyone who can post clear photos, or direct me to clear photos, that illustrate these things will have my undying gratitude and will have earned a special place in Heaven.

1) What are crank bearings? And it was mentioned they'd be in the "lower end of Diesel engine". Am I thick? Are there a lower and higher ends? They look pretty level to me.

2) What is the rack damper bolt on a 617 engine (that's mine)?

3) What exactly is a "throttle linkage travel"?

4) In the section about engine running temp., he wrote that one should check the "gauge sending unit" or the "thermostat". This confuses me. I've always considered a thermostat a switch activated by a voltage difference in the thermocouple. There's a switch controlling my engine temperature? The coolant was recently changed and I noticed that the engine seems to be running a little hotter (just over 100 C) than it did before the change (just under 100 C) ... which was higher than he says a healthy engine should be running at (80 to 90 C). I'm wonder if the temperature measuring device (whatever it is) is off and needs to be replaced, 'cause I don't think there's a blockage in the coolant system.
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Next two questions are not because of the book.

5) I've noticed that Hilda idles really roughly...well, evenly, but you sure get jiggled a lot....when in Drive and stationary with my foot on the brake. That means at every stoplight. This is much rougher than when starting. Idles less in Neutral or Park, even with the brake on. (Checked that just to be sure.)

6) I changed the daisy chain of fuel return lines between the injectors today and when I pulled the line off between the second from the front and the third from the front, some fuel came out of the line and I noticed that there was fuel in the front tip/nozzle/little-brass-thingammy-that-I-just-pulled-the-line-off-of of the third from the front injector. I put the new line on before pulling off the next on, so I couldn't observe if the fuel went away when I pulled off the line between the 3rd and 4th injectors. I didn't notice fuel in either the next line or in the back nozzle from that 3rd injector. This didn't happen on any other. Is this a problem? Seemed odd.

Any takers?

Tanks!

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Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey

1984 300SD: Hilda the veggie vundercar