Hey all.

I just bought this quadravan recently so I dont have a lot of history with it as far as knowing its reliability but I was assured by the previous owner that it has been very reliable. Anywho.. I just drove it 300 miles without any trouble what so ever. Parked it for 8-10 hrs and now it wont start. It was on E when I parked it and since I havnt had it long Im not positive I didnt run it down to far. Although it made no indication of running out of fuel when I parked it. Also now when I try to start it I am seeing the engine temp light next to the light for the glow plugs come on. Could there be a bad sensor or something that will keep it from starting? It's not nearly cold enough for there to be any kind of issues with that.

Any help or ideas would be much appreciated. This is my first diesel so I'm definitely a NOOB! My plan was to look up how to prime the fuel system in my haynes manual and go from there. Hopeing you guys might have other ideas?

Thanks!

-M

85 Quadravan 6.9L

 

Might be a glowplug problem.Dose the starter crank?Do you hear the glowplug relay click when the light gos out.Dont use starter fluid.If you can get it started useing WD-40 or a cap full of diesel then it sounds like glowplugs.If your lucky it will be just the relay.

 

My Haynes manual says the control switch senses the temperature of the coolant and determines how long the glow plugs stay on for. The fact that I'm seeing the coolant temp light makes me think the control switch might be bad. But my question is if it really is bad will it keep the engine from starting?

Starter turns over fine and I do hear a click when the glow plug light comes on and goes off.

Thanks for the help.

-M

 

I would say you may have gotten air in the lines, these engines are very simple to start and stop, they are mechanically injected i.e. no computer chips on the injectors or anywhere for that matter besides the transmission(if you have an automatic tranny), the Injection pump(IP) creats the "pop off" pressure to "release" the fuel into the cylender, so you may have air in the lines or it could be your return fuel lines are junk and let air molecules in letting the fuel drain back down to the tank creating it hard to start, never crank for more than 15-20 seconds at a time with a 2 minute interval inbetween cranking sessions as the starter gets very hot very quick causing it to go bad very quickly, couple questions for you to answer, how fast does in crank over? when cranking can you hear the engine "jump" as if it were trying to fire? everyone here will get you back up and running it just may take some time, tell us everything about your vehicle as possible that its doing when your cranking it over, like i said these engines are simple, no computers to worry about, to me you may have gotten air in the lines from what i'm guessing but like crossbones will say never assume anything

 

It cranks over strong. But I've been reluctant to crank on it to much because I dont want to run the batteries down. It cranks but doesnt pop. Although it did once yesterday when I was trying it again. But only once. :-(

I've only owned it a few weeks so I dont have a long history with it but so far when its dead cold it takes a couple tries to get it started. But once it is warm it starts instantly.

Thanks for the help.

-M

 

Well if you know you have enough fuel and its just dificult to get started cold than i would say its your glow plugs go to autozone and only buy motorcraft/beru plugs they are like ten bucks a peice should solve the problem than let us know if that don't work

 

But even without glow plugs shouldnt it at least try to start?

Sorry I'm a carpenter not a mechanic so my understanding of this stuff isn't the greatest.

-M

 

Probably not without a lot of cranking.

For diesel fuel to self ignite, the cylinder temp has to be about 500 degrees.
Even with a compression ratio over 20 to 1, raising the cylinder temp to over 500 degrees with one compression stroke is very hard to do.

In warm temps, it may start without glow plugs, but it will be very hard on the starter unless you use the block heater.

At below freezing temps, glow plugs have to be working to get it started.

 

I think I am going to try replacing the control module first. Mostly because this is a e350 and everything engine wise is a bit of a bitch to get to. Plus the fact that it stopped working in the matter of a few hours makes me doubt all of the glow plugs would go bad like that.

Anyone see a flaw in my logic? I'll try to replace the module this weekend and then give an update on my progress. :-)

Thanks guys! Forums like this are a godsend for guys like me!

-M

 

gotta agree with caterpillar and say you got an air intrusion problem in the return lines. got a '90 with the same problems. yeah, the lines are gray and original and just haven't taken time to replace them. truck is a mean dog to crank, but it will crank, just takes patience(which eventually i'll run out of and fix the problem.) and getting enough fuel into the system to fire up.
speedrdr

 

Are the return lines fairly easy to replace? I am a carpenter not a mechanic and so I have next to no mechanic tools. I ordered a replacement glow plug relay with a bypass switch and installed that. Didn't make my rig start but now I have manual control of the glow plugs.

So.. Do i replace the glow plugs and go from there? I'm about to just hire somebody to come fix it for me. If I do replace the return lines is it a huge deal to bleed them myself?

Thanks for the help guys.

Here is a pic of my rig.



-M

 

When my f250 had glow plug trouble (every last plug fried), I was able to start it using a heat gun, it worked very well actually (didn't even use the block heater).

If your block heater works and you have (or have access to) a heat gun, I would plug the block heater in for 2 hours, and have some one hold the heat gun on full blast in the intake while you crank the engine. Don't use a blowtorch or anything else that will displace oxygen (not to mention the fire hazard).

If it wakes up, then the glow plugs not working properly, of not, than I would say the fuel system is the likely culprite. If it does wake up, it will likely take several full revolutions before the hot air gets to the combustion chamber, but as others have said, do not crank for more than 20 seconds.

If you have a car battery charger, you may also want to top up the batteries before attempting this.

Sorry to have to ask a dumb question, but did you ever put more fuel in it?

Either way, good luck.

 

Right before this happened I drove it 3-400 miles then spent the night and started/stopped 3-4 more times then stopped and it sat a few hours and that night when I went out to start it it just wouldnt start anymore. Thats sort of what baffles me but before that it was a little hard starting when it was cold. So maybe that is an indication that the plugs were going out. Sounds like I could probably replace those myself and hope thats it. Dealing with the fuel lines sounds like a pain in the *** to me so I hope I dont have to go there.

I dont have a heat gun or a helper for that matter. $80.00 worth of glow plugs and I should be able to rule out the glow plug system as the problem since I've already replaced or bypassed the rest of the system.

Any more ideas for me guys?

thanks.

-M

 

Like someone else mentioned before. Did you put more fuel in it? My truck will stop dead on an eighth of a tank because there must be a problem with the pick-up tube in the tank. You think it's weird to run out of fuel exactly at shut-off? My wife has done it several times in her new car. Did you notice any surging of power before you stopped that last time? From what you're describing I say put some diesel in tank and filter and crank her up. Start with the most obvious first.

 

I've got a full second tank.