Rough Cold Weather starts.

[mac_stang]

I have positive news regarding my rough starts. It is well known I've been dealing with extremely rough starting in cooler weather, and have been actively gathering ALL information I Can and doing as much hands on diagnostics as my time could afford. I decided to re bleed my fuel filter, and my issue has pretty much disappeared! The white smoke and stalling seems to be eliminated. I bled it quite a bit and left a positive pressure in the line. I think it helped.


Brad.

[claude]

Thanks Brad I will try that. I have two options left the glow plugs or the IP seal. It does not stall with a cold start But but rough and White and black smoke for around one minute than it run smoothly. May be the RPM are to low.

[mac_stang]

UPDATE.

The issue re appeared 2 tanks later. And in the time since, I've found out that if I don't treat each tank with Howes diesel treatment the starting problem appears again. If I treat it 30ml/20ltrs each time. It starts(and continues running on its own) almost every time while treated.


Brad.

[Mr. Flibble]

UPDATE.

The issue re appeared 2 tanks later. And in the time since, I've found out that if I don't treat each tank with Howes diesel treatment the starting problem appears again. If I treat it 30ml/20ltrs each time. It starts(and continues running on its own) almost every time while treated.


Brad.

Try not using the treatment, and before every few starts, loosen your filler cap, remove it and replace it. It sounds like your tank vent is a little clogged causing a bit of negative pressure, which shows up in the hard starts. Not a certainty, but quite possible from the description.

[mac_stang]

UPDATE.

The issue re appeared 2 tanks later. And in the time since, I've found out that if I don't treat each tank with Howes diesel treatment the starting problem appears again. If I treat it 30ml/20ltrs each time. It starts(and continues running on its own) almost every time while treated.


Brad.

Try not using the treatment, and before every few starts, loosen your filler cap, remove it and replace it. It sounds like your tank vent is a little clogged causing a bit of negative pressure, which shows up in the hard starts. Not a certainty, but quite possible from the description.

Thank you,A good idea, but the cap is new, I know it's the IP seal already, the Howes just helps keep the seal softer. I'm just holding on to the $1000 for the IP repair as long as I can.

Brad.

[negativentropy]

Ensure all your glow plugs are working correctly - even one faulty plug will give you horrendous starts. Also ensure all the wiring and contact points are super clean. If the plugs arent getting adequate power they will not work to there potential.

From my experience cold rough starts are rarely just one problem - its usually a combination of several things.

[mac_stang]

Ensure all your glow plugs are working correctly - even one faulty plug will give you horrendous starts. Also ensure all the wiring and contact points are super clean. If the plugs arent getting adequate power they will not work to there potential.

From my experience cold rough starts are rarely just one problem - its usually a combination of several things.

That's why I know it's the IP, Second new set of plugs in 2.5 yrs, and everything has been tested...other than the ip, but good info none the less.

Brad.

[tonydca]

Ensure all your glow plugs are working correctly - even one faulty plug will give you horrendous starts. Also ensure all the wiring and contact points are super clean. If the plugs arent getting adequate power they will not work to there potential.

From my experience cold rough starts are rarely just one problem - its usually a combination of several things.

That's why I know it's the IP, Second new set of plugs in 2.5 yrs, and everything has been tested...other than the ip, but good info none the less.

Brad.

FWIW, I'm also fighting to delay what I think is an IP seal rebuild.

A week or so ago, my van started doing something annoying; Whenever it sat for more than about 1/2 hour, it would burn some oil on startup (bluish smoke).

The same behaviour pretty much every time. It would always start first or second crank (whether it was stone cold or warmed up), then puff out anywhere from a little to quite a lot of blue smoke for around 10-20 seconds, then the smoke would stop dead - like someone flipped a switch. Or like a seal suddenly started sealing again.

Once and only once my wife had a really hard time starting it, with *lots* of bluish-white smoke.

The fact that the behaviour is the same whether the glow plug circuit is used or not points to the IP for me.

To make a long story short, based on some reasonably convincing internet research I've done, I'm trying a treatment with Lucas Engine Oil Stop Leak in the fuel.

I'll post a long report in a couple of weeks when I'm done, but for what it's worth my problem is certainly not getting any worse at the moment, and no repeat of the really hard start. I'm checking my oil level regularly, and at $14 a bottle, I figure the treatment was worth a try.

The jury is still out for me, but if you want to hold off on your rebuild for a bit, I'll see if the miracles promised on the Lucas bottle come true!

[psilosin]

Re: Engine Stop Leak in the fuel. I have been doing this for a few years now in my Hilux Surf and it works like a hot damn. 1-2 bottles of cheapest engine stop leak added when fuel is down to 1/8 to 1/4. Swells up my IP seals for ~6months for relatively smooth starts (which were otherwise 10-30seconds of smokey bucking bronco embarrasment). Repeat when needed. I did that originally with great skepticism to postpone some work a few months...that has turned into a few years lol. Hopefully it works as well for you in the L400.

[tonydca]

... 1-2 bottles of cheapest engine stop leak added when fuel is down to 1/8 to 1/4... .

Nice to hear. I admit I was a bit more nervous about putting too much of that stuff in the tank, especially since the Lucas stuff is the consistency of honey. I opted for a single bottle on a full tank of diesel - I had nightmares of my injectors clogging up with thick glop I'd need paint stripper to remove.

Right now I don't know if any blue I'm burning is engine oil or the Lucas additive in the fuel. A flush-out tank of clean diesel will let me know later on.

[Dino]

I used a Kleen-Flo stop leak when my pump started leaking externally. It was a thinner fluid so I dumped the whole thing in on half a tank, but it didn't seem to help at all. Although my leak never caused a tough start issue, it just always left a small patch of drips wherever I parked it :P

[macro]

I had the same problems and tried everything else before going for the IP rebuild. What I didn't realize was that I had a brutal IP seal AND no glow plugs so with new plugs, a manual switch and the seal rebuild the difference is amazing. Starts and runs like a totally different vehicle. A lot of money but totally worth it.

[phil-lester]

I have been having rough cold starts for a while now (spitting out black smoke and soot, shutting off if gas isn't pushed through the engine). I've had my glow plugs tested and changed and the IP seals changed and no change. It also seems to get really bad after the glow plugs turn off on the third click. If I bring the RPMs up to 1500 it helps. Any thoughts?

[delicioso!]

so lemme get this straight, you guys are using the stop leak stuff that's supposed to go in the crankcase with the oil, in the fuel tank? hmm, i have an extra container of bardhal engine stop leak..it's THICK

so dump this in my diesel tank?

http://www.bardahl.com/products/oil-add ... -stop-leak

http://www.bardahl.com/products/oil-add ... -stop-leak

[tonydca]

so lemme get this straight, you guys are using the stop leak stuff that's supposed to go in the crankcase with the oil, in the fuel tank? hmm, i have an extra container of bardhal engine stop leak..it's THICK

so dump this in my diesel tank?

http://www.bardahl.com/products/oil-add ... -stop-leak

http://www.bardahl.com/products/oil-add ... -stop-leak

Yep. Others have done it before.

No kidding it's thick - "What the h*ll have I done?!?" I thought to myself as I poured that honey-like glop into my fuel tank.

Haven't burned through the treated fuel yet; no more hard starts, still blowing blue on startup but more than pre-treatment, so I'm hoping the blue is the stop-leak burning off. A litre of stop leak is 4-5x more than the amount of two-stroke I normally put in, so I have my fingers crossed.

I'll post more once I have some results with clean fuel.