Diesel from a drum.....?

Andrewcupra TDI said:

i couldnt get the rocker cover off , tried to remove egr yesterday and couldnt even get that off either ,

i have searched for ' what happens when you run out of fuel , and posts seem to suggest you just keep cranking , from what we believe there is no fuel coming through,

it will start by spraying stuff down the airbox , but wont keep running even on full throttle ,

anyone have diagrams of the fuel lines (or colours of the pipes to go where ,

we had the fuel sender /pump (not sure of term) and cleaned that up, but want to make sure the lines are back in the right place there was a blue colour and grey/silver i think

cheers

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What are you spraying down the airbox to get it running?

I would stop spraying into the airbox if I were you, you could do more damage than you think.
There is no point taking the rocker cover off unless you are planning on taking the injectors out. Its not a staright forward job as the leaves from the cam to injector will need to be removed, the injectors are not outside the rocker cover on a pd engine!
There is an awkward bolt on the corner of the rocker near the egr, you will need a uj joint on your socket to get to it.
Is there fuel delivery to the pump?
If not you may need to clear the lines through.
You cant really connect the lines back up incorrectly as they are formed to go round bends and where they connect back up to the tandem pump.
Glynn

I don't know too much about the oily bits on the Seat, but is it the cannister fuel filter type whereby filling up the fuel will help to prime the system otherwise you could be a long while waiting for fuel to come through.

Please excuse the ignorance as the Seat is serviced by the garage and not me - a decision made due to time and choice (I look after the Honda and the Pug when necessary).

Failing that it should be a case of checking the lines at various points to see if the fuels coming through. Obvioulsy be careful at the sharp end due to pressure.

It make take quite some time naturally for the fuel to come through.

Have you had the lift pump out of the tank? Maybe you've blocked or buggered the pump and not getting sufficient pressure to the tandem pump?

So have you checked delivery to the pump on the right hand front corner of the cylinder head area?
Glynn

Jesus wept, man, this is a PD engine and you put dodgy diesel in it? On top of expensive additives (you talk about Millers)???

Diesel is lighter than water, you should always take fuel from the top of the container, never the bottom. Particularly if you don't know how clean the drum is.

Chlorine is a gas, there won't have been any lurking at the bottom of your drum. Bleach, on the other hand . . .

Fuel filter drain is designed to let out the water separated out by the filter. Chlorine smell is coming from that,not the fuel. Still doesn't sound good.

Get Rid Of That Drum!

Stop Cranking It Over! All you're doing is pushing contamination further into the system. You've a long job ahead and it won't be made easier by pushing sludge everywhere.

You're going to have to clean out the whole system. That means taking the tank off and cleaning it out, cleaning the lift pump that lives in the tank, disconnecting all the fuel lines to clean them, cleaning the filter, the fuel cooler, the tandem pump on the cylinder head and all four PD injectors, which are under the rocker cover.

The fuel cooler is a suspect for blockage, but if you've sludge there your injectors have already seen it and will be clogged as well.

The PD injectors are fed from a common low-pressure fuel channel in the head, pressurised by the tandem pump. If you're very lucky, you might get away with flushing and cleaning this low-pressure rail (and everything up to it, of course, tank, pumps, filter, cooler), so not needing to dismantle the head. Removing and refitting the PD injectors needs special tools.

But just cleaning one bit or the other isn't going to help. The sludge, contamination or whatever is all through the fuel system, which is continuously pumped all the time the engine is on. Get rid of it all or it will come back.

The tandem pump is driven off the end of the camshaft, so if it isn't turning you've got bigger problems than just fuelling.

There is a tap for a pressure gauge on the pump but it needs a suitable adapter.

There's a couple of things you might try to get an idea of how bad the problem is.

Check the new filter you put in. If there's contamination in it already, that's a pointer to the system still being dirty.

Take off the return pipe at the fuel tank end, put it in a jamjar and turn the ignition on. The lift pump should work and returned fuel come out of the pipe. Have a look to see if it's clean. This doesn't mean the head is clean, the fuel could be circulating via the bypass in the filter.

I still think you're wasting your time by not cleaning out all the fuel passages systematically. Cleaning the tank then reattaching it to contaminated pipes, head and fuel cooler just causes the remaining sludge-or-whatever to be redistributed around the whole system. If the contamination is fine enough to get past the fuel filter then it's everywhere.

I think you'll have to remove the tandem pump to see if the dirt has got that far, and to get access to the fuel galleries in the head for cleaning.

Special tools: There is a slide hammer device for getting the PD injector out, and a guide for making sure the injector is seated squarely in the head on reinsertion. If it isn't, the clamping screw can loosen, leading to the destruction of the injector and head.

There's three o-rings, a washer and a gasket on each injector that should be replaced.

you sure your telling us everything here?
seems a bit odd that a drum of diesel from your local garage that you say was definatly white diesel,
yet you could smell chlorine?
It wasnt Kerosene your mates gave you?

Andrewcupra TDI said:

thanks for the input,

it was def white diesel from a garage put into a drum , what the guy is now saying he may have put it in a drum with a bit of chlorine, when i put the fuel in the car it looked and smelt the same as derv, i have had this off the same guy before without fail , when it started to act odd , when i checked the fuel filter drain off only then could i smell chlorine ,

any rough ideas how much pumps or injectors are , im gona ring a few specialists tomorrow

cheers

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More than what you might have saved in a year of buying fuel in this manner that's for sure - some of the race injectors go for over a grand a set and IIRC that's often on an exchange basis.

Andrewcupra TDI said:

gutting , not even saved much really , had about 6 drums in total,

not like i been runing red or cooking oild for the past year or so ,

there goes my plans of upgrading things

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You might be able to get a set from a scrappy or from a dealer that's take them in in exchange and cleaned them up - i'm thinking somewhere like kermatdi.com ? That's IF yours are shot - either way they're a royal pig to get at and impossible without the right tools.

http://www.kermatdi.com/servlet/-st...l-System-cln-Nozzles-and-Injectors/Categories