Hi everyone,

Got an ’87 sedan OM603 that has a Grease Car two tank WVO installation put in by the PO. If this is as far as you get, no hard feelings.

After a month and a half of good driving, the engine began to bog down, initially stalling on idle. I could get it started for a while - with a rough idle - but now I can’t even get it to cough. I think it’s the IP that has failed or is failing, but I’m not sure cause I’m not an old hat with this engine and IP.

Here’s what I’ve done:

New battery, new starter.

Cracked some of the injectors and took apart two of them - they’re coked up pretty good, and could use new nozzles, but this shouldn’t be the culprit for a no start issue.

Tested two of the glow plugs with jumper cables off the battery and they are in great shape. Tested the glow plug relay with a test light turning the key to accessory, and all six circuits light up.

Tried starting the engine, after bypassing the veg and diesel tank as well as the filters, using a plastic bottle with a fuel hose going straight to the lift pump. No start. Also bypassed the fuel heater under the lift pump. Took off the lift pump and opened it up. A bit cruddy in there as you could imagine after running WVO through it and the piston was ceased. I’m suspicious of the PO’s collection and filtration habits, but like I said, it was running like a dream, and a lot of work was put into the Grease Car installation. Cleaned up the lift pump and got the piston working in its bore but I’m suspicious it may be ceased again as it didn’t get the full rebuild.

Time to bypass the lift pump. Got an electric pump and hot wired it to the battery. Bypassed the lift pump with a fuel hose going straight into the IP. No start. I pinched the return line to try and build up IP pressure and cranked the engine. No start. Cracked the injector lines at the injectors and there is fuel delivery to the injectors, but maybe not enough pressure.

I have yet to take off all injector lines to flush them with solvent or try and blow them out.

Gave the IP a 24 hr. acetone bath / flush. No chunks, but some brown came out.

Questions:

When cranking, if I crack just one injector line, should I get a big spray?
Can you flood the cylinders with fuel after all this cranking?
Anybody ever cleaned out their injector lines? How did you do it?
Any folks out there with OM603 IP rebuilding experience want to weigh in on this? How would the IP fail?
Any grease-ers out there had an IP fail?

Thanks for reading this far.

 

ive got an injection pump if you need one , I used a few years ago maybe 5 years ago, but its been inside my garage=, it does work

 

I have a 1995 E300 diesel and here's what I've learned with respect to your questions. At least the ones I have knowledge on...

"When cranking, if I crack just one injector line, should I get a big spray?" You want to be sure you have a nice, homogenious, conical spray going into the chamber. Your compression tests would also help you determine how clogged or clean your injectors are.

"Anybody ever cleaned out their injector lines? How did you do it?" I haven't but I've seen it done by bypassing the fuel tank and mixing clean fuel with Diesel Purge. You can tell when it gets clean because the return will go from black and murky to a yellowish amber.

 

I am gonna try to help you. There is 3 things your diesel needs:

air
compression
diesel fuel

lets begin with diesel fuel

pull the return line on your main filter, put it in a little bucket, then turn over the engine, bucket should fill quite rapidly

do this and report back

 

Hey sorry to leave this thread dead for quite some time. Engine ended up getting swapped...