Hey everyone. Have an older mini with a Isuzu 3LA1 3 cylinder diesel. Been sitting under cover for a few years. Changed fuel,filter battery glow plugs and bled lines. It turns over but will not start. With the glow plugs out It seems I’m getting fuel from 2 of the injectors. Would it start with just 2 injectors?
Is there any puffing smoke from the exhaust while cranking? did you check to see that the glow plugs are actually getting voltage and current?? how did you bleed the injector lines... give a detailed response please Also pics of the motor and injector pump areas would be great... and yes it would probably start(really rough) with just two injectors working... but I'm guessing you still have air in the system or something else is wrong.
If it's blowing fuel mist from only 2 cylinders? then it sounds to me like the other cylinder's injection pump plunger is stuck, which will stick the rack, which won't allow it to inject more than the minimum amount of fuel. (speculation, but that's what you get, this is an inline injection pump right? or three separate injection pumps? or rotary injection pump?) Slam that throttle back and forth a few dozen times, then see if it blows fuel from the third cylinder.
And be ready to block the air intake with something.... just in case you have a runaway!!!
It has 3 separate pumps. Verified all the pumps are pumping fuel(with the lines off)and the linkage moves back and forth with the selonoid like it’s supposed to. I cracked the lines at the injectors and cranked until there were no air bubbles. All the glow plugs are new and I verified with a test light that they are all getting power. Also it puffs black smoke while cranking.
black smoke? but no start? how does it sound cranking? take the air inlet off and see if it's plugged, it won't hurt it to run without the air filter as long as you don't suck anything in there. Look into the manifold too, for mouse nests etc.
Take the suspect non firing injectors out & hook it up to the line OUTSIDE the engine & SEE if its firing..
Check the "pressure" to the inlet of the 1st pump.. dont really need a gauge unless u have 1.. just crack the banjo bolt & crank the engine.. u should get wet.. {lots of pressure} Hope its something simple.. 1 bad injector or a bad lift/supply pump
It has an electric lift pump that has good pressure. It cranks good and sound like it wants to catch slightly. The air filter was a little dirty so I took the whole housing off and have an open clear intake. Fuel comes from the lift pump to the inlet side of each inj pump and loops around to each injector then goes back to the tank. Have flow on both ends of that so it’s feeding and returning properly. Haven’t tried to fire the injectors while there out yet but without the glow plugs in I’m not getting any fuel out of the hole.
so maybe it's just low on compression and not quite spinning fast enough.... do you have one of those magnetic block/pan heaters or any way to warm it up... hair driers.... would take a while How cold is it where you are? night temps too...
Don’t really have a way to heat it up. Afternoon temps are in the high 30s low 40s. Night temps mid-high 20s. The oil looks pretty old. Was planning on taking all the injectors to the diesel shop by me and buy a compression tester and see what I can come up with. The place in Kentucky that sells and services IHI said I should have minimum 315psi compression. Does that sounds right?
probably, but at those temps you probably won't get it started if it ain't spinning really good since it has set a while....
I’m sure the temps are not helping me one bit.
Does it matter if you compression test from the glow plug hole or the injector hole?
Nope.
What would be the easiest way to get this thing to "freewheel" if I needed to move it indoors?
Have you tried with startgas/ gasoline in the inlet to see if it will fire than? If you don't have startgas you can put a cap of gasoline in the inlet works almost as good as start gas on can.
Does the engine seem to turn fast enough? could be some load on the hydraulic pump is keeping it from taking off. The black smoke is odd. Heat will help, fresh fuel will help also, #1 diesel if it's handy.
It seems to be turning fast enough. My buddy bumped the lever while I was cranking and the hydraulics creeped some even with the lock out lever up. There is a control shut off switch that did disable the controls though.
Did you get to doing a compression test yet? or a video
Sorry been busy with Christmas coming up. I haven’t had a chance to do a compression test yet but i did take the injectors to a local diesel shop. One of the injectors doesn’t spray at all and he said the other two aren’t atomizing the fuel. Getting them rebuilt so I can rule those out... I’m going to try and get a compression test done while the injectors are out of it.
So I got the injectors back.. I put them in and bled the lines. I was cranking it and it really sounded like it wanted to start but didn’t. I cranked it a few more times and still the same thing. I decided to hold the glow plug a bit longer and bam it finally started! Seems to run good. Some of the hydraulic cylinders are leaking so I’ll have to get to that next. All the shafts look good with no nicks or scratches. Any suggestions on that or should I start a new thread. Thanks for all the input guys.
Good to hear the outcome. Typically it's easiest to leave the cylinder in place. Might as well start a new thread with some pics of the cylinder in question, especially the style of gland you have.