Progress Report: No-Start N/A D24
 

Well, I finally ended up swallowing my pride and taking my 245 Diesel to someone. I read the procedure for pump timing and decided that even if I was able to determine that it was out of time, setting it back would be beyond my current skills. The place I took it to is called Dumas Diesel Injection. They say they've worked on Volvo diesels before, but not in a long time. I asked if they have the tools for holding the cam and pump gear in place and they said yes. They've confirmed that the timing is off. I'm somewhat concerned however, as the head mechanic insisted that the pump cannot get out of time once it has been set. Pumps can get out of sync by themselves, right?

I would agree with the mechanic. It really cant change unless the pump came loose and moved on the bracket, or the timing belt jumped a tooth. It would have had to been very loose for that to happen. Did the car used to run and just stopped one day, or did you buy it that way?

Jason

I should clarify, the pump timing does change over time with wear, which is why it should be checked. It wont, however change overnight to where it wont start, unless one of the above things happened. I also forgot to mention its possible the cam sprocket came loose and slipped.

Jason

I replied to your thread over on Tbricks... but yes those are some other possibilities I forgot to mention. If the front or rear cam bolt is not tight enough, those sprockets can slip, and if the pump bolts where it attaches to the bracket are loose the pump could shift too. However, I think the mechanics would have noticed if the pump were wobbling around, and you probably would have seen it too because the marks on the end of the bracket would not be lined up. (Unless you didn't end up checking that.)

Either way, there is something going on here... it came out of time for a reason, not just out of bad luck. ;-)

You haven't mentioned how this all started...

It would be pretty rare for the timing to change significantly without some obvious reason; loose sprockets, loose mounts, damaged belt...

More often, an engine that won't start isn't getting fuel to the injectors or has low compression. Crank the engine with an injector tube loosened and see if fuel leaks from it.

If there is fuel getting to the injectors, check the preheaters: Are they getting power during the preheat stage? Do they all heat? You can test them individually with an ohmmeter and compare.

If you are getting fuel and preheat, you can try to increase the compression for starting: Remove the front rubber boot from the intake manifold and squirt engine oil in, trying to reach as many cylinders as you can (don't inject enough oil to cause hydraulic lock). The oil helps the rings to seal, and as it occupies space in the combustion chamber it increases the compression ratio. I ran a worn-out NA Volvo for several months that way; it lacked power but otherwise ran fine. I usually only had to oil it first thing in the morning; the rest of the day it started OK.

Let us know what they find.

Jason

Here's the thread I made on tbricks for the whole back story: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=170595

Jason, when I bought the car it started up fairly easily but then became increasingly more difficult to start until finally it wouldn't start at all one morning.

I called the shop this morning and now they tell me it's not the timing after all. They now suspect low compression is the issue. The head technician said something about checking through the intake. Maybe they're going to try the oil method heavyequipment mentioned?

I will be posting updates exclusively in this thread from now on.

How long did it take for the starting problem to get worse? Seems like that could be a glow plug problem, or maybe injectors with a crappy spray pattern or partially clogged tips. As the engine wears and compression gets lower, thats a pretty drawn out process unless you are sucking sand down the intake. Its not like your wear the rings enough each day to loose 10lbs of compression to where its not starting by the end of the week, see what I'm getting at?

It could be the rings are coaked up with soot from dirty buring, have you heard of or tried BG 109 compression restore? If you go to their website it tells all about it. Its for diesel engines only. I have used it once, and plan to use it on my D24T on the next oil change.

Jason

http://www.bgprod.com/products/engineoil.html


theres the link, a couple down on the page.

Jason

Thanks for the suggestion. I've used BG products before with great results. I've only had the car since the middle of March and the starting problem got worse and worse since day 1 until the middle of May when it finally just wouldn't start at all. I talked to the mechanic again today and he was saying something about "getting explosions from the intake" every time they tried firing it up. Maybe the valves aren't sealing?