RedArrow Refurbishes d24t from a brown 740

[RedArrow]

Okay,
so...
I don`t know what hit me when I thought a jumper cable would do justice... what a mistake. I went through some long thinking for a day to figure out what causes the engine `stuck` and `holding starter from doing its job`... ugh... till I decided to set the valves instead...

While doing that I discovered how insane of an idea it was to trust a jumper cable from daily driver d24t car new battery to starter to attempt a start-up.

This poor thing couldnt handle half of the juice that battery has and proper power never reached the poor starter lol. Upon inspection I saw that the jumper cable kind of melted away bigtime at places.

So, I grabbed the red thick positive cable from the donor car`s crossmember and used that and the car`s original earth connection and cable. Connected the battery to the d24t engine the right way as if it was in a car still. All connections were double checked (also on the ground on the motor):
All got OCD cleaned till bare metal and tightly safely hooked it all up and managed to achieve a super strong and fast rpm cranking immediately.

I installed the glowplugs back again and tested them again... and redid again the injectors with new seals and proper torque and set up the hard lines and the fuel system for a nice AND SAFE startup.

Filled the motor with 2gallons of Mobil 1 turbodiesel truck 5W40 motor oil and also for fuel at the IP I added a new, transparent bottle with fresh diesel in it.
Prepped the 12V hookup for the IP and made new ring connectors for the low-pressure inline fuel pump I added the day before.

For now, there is no factory fuel filtration set up but I kept surgical cleanliness around the fuel system, IP, injectors etc.
Earlier, and again, the injection pump has been flushed multiple times and appeared to be transfering fuel beautifully without dirt popping up...no hiccups no signs of scary goo whatsoever. At first, for the first days of hand cranking and pump flushing, the fuel return line was placed into a different bottle separately (not where the fuel was sucked into the IP from) but today for the initial first real startup I used only one bottle and drove both hoses into it to make it easier for me to handle the fluids and to not have to watch levels or refill the small bottle. But again it cant be run without coolant for too long...

The glowplugs needed to have power too and I activated them manually for 12seconds which I tested before and knew it was enough. All six were glowing red in 6-8seconds and I monitored that thru the injectors` holes earlier when injectors were still out... so later for the startup I only did glowplugs once, but I did 12seconds. I never cycle my d24t glowplugs. I use Bosch Duratherm quality plugs.

There was a huge amount of air in, so it took about 4 tries of 30-45seconds of cranking (5mins apart) to go thru some bleeding that was enough finally to let me power up the 12V to the IP. (There was a lot of cranking done earlier for the oil pump and for the oil to reach places) EXCITING!!!!
Hurrayy the shutoff solenoid also clicked (and I verified 12.x Volts both at the ip and at the starter too).

I used a wire as `rope` thru the throttle linkage holes in order for me to pull the throttle linkage into WOT when if it was necessary.

Prepared a 2x4 wooden piece and kept it handy at all times, didn`t give this nice d24t a chance to go thru a runaway situation due to stuck internals of the ip or whatever (would use it to block intake / or turbo inlet / if the engine developed a runaway, to choke the engine to a full stop).

I never needed it but it is a must when a car sat years. Or when you dont know IF it sat...

Ready to do glowplugs, hit the `key`, Sure it fired up very soon! On all cylinders! And all at once! and no weird running or acting up. 3 straps also supported the engine to the beams in the ceiling, just in case if it wanted to wobble off the stand or anything.
Started!!!!!! RUNSSSSS!
And it runs really well, I think.

I forgot to disconnect the coldstart device so the first idle sounds too high... but now that is done and tomorrow I will finally check timing...
It doesnt seem to be off though. The cellphone microphone picked up all kind of noises and the motor sounds way louder than it was in real life. The garage echoes but anyway it ran so nicely.

The motor smokes a little, i think only because the ip had a flush earlier using the mixture of wd40 and atf, 1 to 10 ratio I think. All of that has left remains in the system so I think that is why it smoked so much. The coolant passage at the removed thermostat started to give out some ``smoke`` too, I`m hoping it is just some coolant vaporizing from the internal ways of the cooling system within the block. To be confirmed later...

It roared up to life and ran relatively smoothly. The rpm was too high i think or it isnt perfectly set, idk for now. Tinkering will have to wait until tomorrow...

I could only run it for 30 seconds bc theres no cooling system for now.
In the next hour I ran it for another 1minute and then after waiting another hour I ran it for 90seconds. Someone could give me advice on that because for now I do not think anything over a minute is safe.

It seems to run flawlessly and I am so so happy!

I can hear 1 injector knocking just a tiny bit, i think.
Im not sure bc the little fuel pump also has this weird sound as it is helping the IP receive constant fuel... not like it needed it. Im especially glad about that, too. Soon after it deserved fresh paint for the IP cover as Farm Equipment Green from Rustoleum which I like a lot. Close to the color it originally had, I think.

So, time to share pictures and videos but I am feeling knocked down a little. It was multiple days of diesel bricking but it was definitely worth the try to resurrect this one.
And, it was worth saving it from the sedan that got scrapped right after I saved whatever was savable.

Another d24t car died but its heart lives on and hopefully it will make it one day into a nice clean wagon.

Cheers everyone, thank you for this forum for the endless great info and advice.
Happy Bricking, dieselers!