I am looking for advice on what to do when trying to bring an old diesel back to life that was pulled out of a field after sitting for an unknown period of time. I have drained the oil and it had a little sludge but no water or coolant and didn't seem too bad. After changing the oil and fuel filters where should I look next before trying to give it a crank?
Revive old diesel
- Thread starter beastud
- Start date
FDChappie
Well-known member
I'd be inclined to start putting it on a stand and checking the compression to see what you've got. It probably was not sitting in a field because it was a great engine. If that's good pull the pan and check the bearings. Poke all the freeze plugs with an awl to see if they are solid.
Good advice. I didn't want to tear the whole thing down, but it's worth putting a little extra work in to avoid any catastrophic issues. I am a little leery of messing with the injection pump since I haven't really messed with one before. Is it worth pulling the injectors to see what they look like?
FDChappie
Well-known member
You'll need to pull the injectors to check the compression. Clean well around the connectors and cap the lines and injectors as soon as the connection is opened. Dirt is a major no no in diesel injectors. Unless you see evidence of leakage around the injector pump don't mess with it.
Does the engine rotate?
If it won't go round and round you are dead before you get started.
I would agree that if you don't know the reason why it was out in a field the most probable reason was the engine no longer ran or if it did it didn't run very well.
By the way, are we talking a Nissan diesel in a Scout II?
You May be able to resurrect it by adding a little lube oil in the intake to seal up the compression rings in order to give you some better compression. Don't use too much or you will hydrolock the engine.
Make sure that when you start to crank the engine you have a really hot battery with more than enough cca's to crank a diesel engine. The speed of the cranking will greatly determine how hot the combustion process becomes in each cylinder. Without sufficient heat it will be a real hard starter. It will also be a non-starter if the glow plugs are non-operable.
Once you get it going you will have a better idea as to what you have.
If it won't go round and round you are dead before you get started.
I would agree that if you don't know the reason why it was out in a field the most probable reason was the engine no longer ran or if it did it didn't run very well.
By the way, are we talking a Nissan diesel in a Scout II?
You May be able to resurrect it by adding a little lube oil in the intake to seal up the compression rings in order to give you some better compression. Don't use too much or you will hydrolock the engine.
Make sure that when you start to crank the engine you have a really hot battery with more than enough cca's to crank a diesel engine. The speed of the cranking will greatly determine how hot the combustion process becomes in each cylinder. Without sufficient heat it will be a real hard starter. It will also be a non-starter if the glow plugs are non-operable.
Once you get it going you will have a better idea as to what you have.
