Glow Plugs - L series Diesel

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Originally Posted by camel_landy

I would have to disagree with the comment about 'L' Series diesels not needing glow-plugs in cold weather. Mine had a glow-plug failure and was an absolute bitch to start unless I had run up the Webasto heater before hand.

3x of the plugs are easy to change...

...however, sods law states that it's the plug obscured by the injector pump that has failed!!

M

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As I have 3 new plugs I am going to replace them assuming no issues. Not doing the fourth as my logic is with three good plugs and maybe a dud fourth the engine should still fire OK on the good three - it only needs to fire once to get temps up.

Now what a stupid idea to put the fourth glow plug behind the injector pump - we constantly see this sort of nonsense in landrover products. Great ideas let down by its execution.

I will do the plugs first (bought a long reach 10mm socket yesterday) and if starting is still difficult I will try the fine tuning of the injector pump - I am surprised this process is not listed in the workshop manuals - landrover obviously thought that the accuracy of one tooth was good enough - however having the adjustment available on the camshaft end of the injection pump belt end implies that fine adjustment was always intended.

Garry

I went and replaced the three accessible glow plugs today. All came out relatively easily - noting that the fourth glow plug cannot be removed without removing the injection pump :confused: so that is staying put. To get the first glow plug out you have to remove the top radiator hose because it is in the way.

Here is a pic of the removed glow plugs - the two at the right only have a light carbon covering but the one on the left was covered in engine oil - maybe a dead valve seal.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...m/P4150010.jpg

On putting the new glow plugs in and turning on the ignition the first thing I noticed was that the glow plug light was on much longer than previously - now 15 secs where before was only 5 secs. On turning the engine over there was an initial fire but the engine did not start for a few more turns then ran fine - this time there was no unburnt fuel smoke on start.

So has started quicker without smoke but the outside temp was 22 degrees so not a definitive test but I would say I did have a glow plug issue.

I will see what happens in the morning when temp is about 3 degrees. On cold mornings I normal go through two glow plug cycles (summer just start) so if there is still is an issue I guess I will try fine tuning the pump.

Cheers

Garry

Went out and started the car this morning - not as cold as expected but did take some cranking to start but no smoke:) - so issue was/is a combination of glow plugs and injector pump fine tuning.

I took the injector pump belt cover off and found the sproket to be in the fully retarded position. The slots are about 15mm long so I moved the sprocket to the mid position which has advanced about half a tooth so now is in a neutral position. The engine started straight away but even the engine was cold, outside temp was about 23 degrees.

So again I will try early in the morning when temps will be much colder.

For those who have a FL1 L series here is a pic of the general layout of the injector pump belt - the injector pump sprocket on the left and the camshaft sprocket on the right. The four adjuster bolts can be seen on the camshaft sprocket. Loosening these bolts allows the sproket to turn a little while the actual camshaft to which the sprocket is bolted does not move.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

I didn't take a pic before adjusting the belt but the adjuster slots in this pic of the camshaft sprocket are covered by the bolt heads as the adjustment is now in the neutral position. You can see the bolt head marks on the sprocket that gives an indication of the adjustment range available.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

Garry

Went out this morning to start the car - after one glow plug sequence it fired first go and with no smoke :).

Thanks to Woko for his timing advice - worked really well. However I would have thought that there might have been a more scientific way of fine tuning the injection pump. To advance the timing until the engine fires OK when cold seems just a little crude.

Nevertheless the car starts really well now - thanks to everyone for your input.

Cheers

Garry

There is a more scientic way to check timing. you can check the plunger lift in the injector pump. you need a make a tool to fit into the plug in the middle of the injector lines so a dial indicator can measure the lift of the plunger. The lift setting is 0.8mm when on TDC. I have measured a few with starting issues and the lift has been 0.2 +-0.1 and 1/4 of a tooth advance lifted it to the required 0.8