Newbie to the Van!

[Fatmobile]

Not much fuel flowing at idle.
Just small spurts sounds about right,.. unless you are holding the accelerator lever open,

[WAgrower]

yes forgot to say that bit; I have the throttle at full open.

I just read a thread talking about pressures coming out of the pump and it sounded much lower then the 2000 I got from the bentley manual.

I think I'll just keep cranking it until the fuel spits out instead of dribbles. Am I in jeopardy of harming anything by cranking it? not long intervals just 15sec on then 30sec rest then crank again?

[WAgrower]

It's alive!

After cranking it several times with the hard lines installed but cracked open I got clean diesel to the injectors. Tightened it all back up and she started after a few tries!

Ran for about 5min pretty smooth and the white smoke cleared out after about a min.
However it was lagging when accelerating and if you dropped the RPMs from half open throttle to idle it would die.

How normal is that? Do I just need to let it run for a while to work out all the kinks or is this telling me something?

Thanks for the help!!

[coke]

There may be an air leak in the supply line, causing it to suck air instead of fuel. Do you have clear line from the filter to the injection pump? Is it sucking air, or does the fuel going into the pump look air bubble free for the most part? Does it die if you bring the throttle down gradually?

[WAgrower]

No clear lines. I think I have some urethane tube I can swap in...

It stays stable when the throttle is let of slowly; only dies if the throttle is let go.

[coke]

Thats strange. Just for kicks, why dont you hardwire a 12v line from the positive terminal on the battery to the stop solenoid on top of the pump and see if that still happens? You'll have to pull the wire to kill the engine, but I'm wondering if the sudden reduction in engine speed is causing a vibration and a wire to break loose or something.

Its a long shot really, but its always worth checking. You can try running it from a bottle of fresh clean diesel fuel and see if that problem persists. Basically bypass the filter and just hook the inlet line into the bottle, and if you want you can pipe the return line in the bottle too to keep the supply recirculating the fuel from the bottle.

[WAgrower]

the ELX connection could make sense. The spade terminal is pretty loose and there is a fair amount of diesel in that region of the pump

I'll keep running clean fuel and some cleaner through; seems like that's been the solution so far!

Now I also noticed when it was running the tach wasn't responding and the oil pressure was at 100 (top end of the gauge). Guess I'll be tracing some wires tomorrow.

Thanks for your help!

[rsxsr]

A cold diesel on a cold day can see 100 pounds oil pressure on start up. It could also indicate a stuck relief valve in the oil pump. Does the gauge peg with the key on only? I am not sure of your location, but the Vanagon diesel in the US did not come with a tach. It had a clock. Only some later gassers did. A tach can be adapted to work by getting a signal from the w terminal on the alternator. But the tach would still need to be diesel specific to work with the W terminal. I have read some interesting solutions to getting a tach working in a diesel vanagon on some other forums.

[WAgrower]

Good to know about about the oil PSI. It only spikes when the engine is running and I've only had it running for about 5min so I'll watch to see if as it warms it drops a bit. It's a prosport gauge if that helps any, tied into a sender on the head -I think... I also noticed the oil level on the dip stick was easily and 1/8" over the max line so I'm thinking it may just be too full. Time for an oil change anyhow.

It's definitely a tach and the van was converted into a diesel so I'll have to do some investigation to see if it has been modified. I took a quick look this morning on my way to work and didn't see anything other then the main tap on the alternator.

Does anyone have a pic of what the W terminal looks like? If I understand it right it just comes off the stator which shouldn't be too hard to tap into.

Another question for the world too!
It has a new head installed and hasn't been broken in yet. I've only had the engine running for about 5 min max so it never reached full temperature. How soon after it reaches full temperature should I torque the headbolts the 1/4 turn? Right after shutting down? or can it cool completely before torquing? The comment in the Bentley about torquing without interruption has me a little confused...

Thanks all!!

[coke]

I do it right after its shut down. Warm it up to temperature, shut it down, and go a 1/4 turn. What the Bentley manual is saying is the 1/4 turn has to be one motion, you can't do half a quarter, than another half a quarter, or in 3 steps, it has to be one fluid motion from start to finish. The only exception to this rule is the initial torque of 1/2 turn can be done as two 1/4 turns.

[WAgrower]

Thanks coke that makes sense! Am I doing any harm with these test runs and not torquing yet? Next time I run it I'll do it, my 12mm bit came in yesterday!

[coke]

Yeah, warm it up to operating temperature and do a 1/4 turn. And hope the PO put antiseize or some lubricating agent on the bolts.

[WAgrower]

AGGGGGGGG!!!!! I really hope I haven't screwed things up now!!

This morning I went down and let the van warm up for 15min. Ran well, very little smoke, held a good idle (seems high but that's the least of my concerns)

After the 15 min I popped the head cover off and went to torque the head bolts. I started on the first and it was really hard to turn even with an 18" breaker bar on my wrench. It stared turning in pops; meaning it would turn in little small pops. I got the 90deg and went onto the next one. It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th when it actually turned a little that I realized the bolts weren't turning but rather the 12pt bit was skipping!!! I finished what I could on all 10 bolts; I figured I should do to all of them what I do to one...
Bottom line is I really don't know how much each bolt turned. I think 1 or 2 may have turned slightly and the rest just popped the 12pt bit.

How much did I screw up this morning!?!?! I'm really afraid I may have royally screwed this one up...


Other events of the morning also found that the number 4 injector (closest to the belt) has a leek between the 2 parts of the injector...
Also the temp light came on while I was warming it up; not sure if it's accurate but it's on....

[coke]

That isn't good. Are you sure you got the right bit? Are you sure its an actual 12mm block, and not a 11mm block someone put gas headbolts in? I come on to mine with 1/2 inch breaker bar and a huge pipe and they never skipped once. This requires further investigation.

[WAgrower]

its a 12pt 12mm bit and it seems to fit fine in bolts, not alot of slop, but enough to skip I guess.
these are the bits
http://www.buy.com/prod/lisle-lis60750- ... 18541.html

I'm looking for a new one now, any suggestions of brands?

I'm using a 3/8 breaker bar and an 18" piece of cold rolled; I'm also not a wimpy guy (broke my 1st 3/8 to 1/2 adapter) so these things are stuck in there.

I have a receipt for a set of 12mm head bolts and a receipt for a 1.6tdsl 12mmMECH JQ/86 form the PO.