Did find something interesting today, a few injectors are leaking past the copper washer i assume. Had some bubbles around the injector thread when i rinsed the engine off. I will check the supply lines to the pump. If everything goes as planned should be able to play around with the timing tomorrow.

 

At the front left injector return line always seems to have a small air leak, i had replaced my ip and injectors and return lines all at the same time. due to some starting issue i was having. The forward most injector on the passenger side is the one that notoriously leaks air, after installing the new return lines i notice a very slight leak that eventually when away with break in. If you can pick up thumb clamps i would through one above and below the nipples on the return lines to see if that is where you are getting air from. I had that problem before i replaced everything. Now it seems i have a timing issue, it doesn't want to start even in warm weather with the glow plugs. Calling a private diesel service to have it looked at. Air is a diesels worst enemy.

 

Have you tried plugging in the block heater yet? Mine was doing the same; glow plugs cycling their normal time, but wouldn't even try to start. Turned out my GPs were dying a slow death, plugged in the block heater a couple of hours and it fired up like it'd been running all day. Put a new set of Berus in and problem solved. Looking at the old GPs, never would've guessed anything was wrong. Could have just been age, or could've been the 800+ miles I drove with the timing just a little too advanced. Just my .02 before you pay someone to check it out...

 

well tried the good ole trick, and ill be damned, it worked.. well seemingly. Had the hubs off last night to grease the bearings and i decided to pull the FF off and put about half power service diesel clean and 1/2 ATF. Fired it up let it set while doin the hubs. Drove it back to the house, about 1.5 miles, oh boy was she smokin. Sat over night. went out, fired right up and i mean PURRREEDD. I was shocked, smooth even, no miss no smoke, more power. WAY less smoke at WOT. I wonder if there had been stuff in my pump /injectors that i picked up that running good old farm diesel / stove oil started breakin stuff loose in there. Now, i wonder how long it lasts or if its just coincidence. On another note... not looking forward to buying spindles and bearings for the D60.. The whole damn thing needs rebuilt.

 

Air intrusion can be bad enough that it totally messes with the pumps timing and even ability to start and stay running. I have an old little jetta that I am having problems with the pump right now and starting with another rebuilt one. When I turn it off, fuel is draining back to the tank from prepump side so every cold start is a purging of air directly through the pump. So rough start, rough running, and you can tell the pump isn't doing its job because it won't rattle as much until it clears out and can work properly.

My truck was always doing the drain back thing so could starts were also rough but both it and the jetta would seem to run ok like this when warm and even with minor leaks.

I just installed an electric pump on the truck and various clear lines under the hood and can't find any external leaks and its doing the same thing. So I need to redo the runs from the bay back to the tank in a few weeks when I take the bed off.

So if air intrusion was really bad it absolutly could show its face after the initial startup.

Also that kind of air directly relates to how the engine runs rough, the pump/injector noise and white smoke. As soon as my air purges from my clear lines, it runs through the pump a bit and in a minute or two all of a sudden the pump is able to maintain the pressures and you can hear it finally advance itself correctly and then start running smooth.

Also when I got my jetta the pump and injectors were mated originals and worked pretty good in that I was getting 45+mpg and ok smoke and start patterns. But when winter hit and I upgraded the pump, I simply could not time the pump properly and was scratching my head.

Got the injectors rebuilt and pop tested and it was like a different car. Smoother, better starts and the smoke patterns. I was able to time it and easily take away the white smoke that previously took 10 minutes of warming up on the driveway to go away, with the pump timed. I could go on a hot run and it would then seem ok but come back and start to idle and cool down and you could see a hint of smoke again.

My old trucks injectors developed a knock out of nowhere in the 1st year we had it a handfull of times. Every time I ran the filter full of atf and let things sit for a day. It went away but now comparing to new set of injectors, again things just sound way more smooth and even when tuning.

Also they make some cool stuff called diesel purge that you run from a bucket until it burns up. For me I am going to keep using diesel kleen in the tank fillups since its cheap at walmart in the big container and every 6 months or so use a can of diesel purge to hopefully keep everyting in top shape. I think its like $10/bottle.

 

I use diesel treatment approx every other tank. My air intrusion- if it is that- is intermitten. Every couple weeks it will act up for a couple days, then it goes away on its own and is fine again from then on for another week +. I appreciate the diagnosis of your vehicles to compare to mine. It sounds like i do have air intrusion when its acting up. but lately the more drastic events im very confident are not related to intrusion, or at least not in the same method. I will keep posted how it runs and acts over the next few miles to see if it stays running good, or starts to go downhill again.