Questions from a new SD33T owner (long)

[jdh]

Well I recently purchased a 1980 Diesel Terra.

I moved to Northern California a few months ago for a new job. As soon as I got out here I knew I wanted a diesel scout.

I found one for sale in San Fran for 2k but was too late (that was the one that recently got flipped on ebay for 3k)

Then I saw a posting in the binderbulletin's classified section that someone was selling a diesel Terra near Sacramento. I called, I drove out there, I purchased the scout.

Previous owner was a nice lady, mid fourties, former boyfriend talked her into replacing her Geo metro with a diesel scout a little over a year ago. She loved the scout but boyfriend became ex-boyfriend, and keeping it on the road started to get expensive.

Needless to say it has been rather neglected.

I got it home and I've just recently solved the front end issues. (dead autolocking hubs not releasing)

So I'm on a mission to get this beast in working order. I've done a lot of searching on the DieselTalk forum but I'm still unclear on a number of issues.
I have what look to be the standard set of new nissan diesel owner questions.

I'm not a complete diesel novice, but I'm also not that much of a mechanic.
Here are my questions:

1. Lots of black smoke. I mean a LOT of black smoke. When I drove it home, the engine was fully warmed up. But I was producing a lot of black smoke during acceleration and hill climbing. I'm hoping most of the smoke was due to the fact that I've never driven a standard transmission scout, and the T19+SD33T+my lack of skills was causing the problem. But I'm not positive. What should I be checking, in what order? How can I tell whether I have a wide or narrow T19? Any good suggestions on shifting technique for a novice SD33 driver? And can someone recommend a good injector service shop in the San Francisco Bay Area/San Jose Area.?

2. Landing at Normandy style startup. I'm in northern california. It was 75 degrees F and I started her up. Glow plugs until light goes out, hold button another 30 seconds. Turn key. 15 seconds of cranking and no fire. Glow 'till light goes out, hold 30 seconds, turn key, crank, fires up, *** load of white smoke for 2 minutes.

I read about the full throttle technique and haven't tried it yet, but I can't help thinking that more fuel has to mean more smoke.

I own an '85 Mercedes 300D and an '01 Jetta TDI (and a '79 Scout II 345) I'm trying to help people see how much better diesels are. But its a hard sell with that much smoke. (My neighbor has a Prius, so the "who's greener" contest is on, right now with my TDI and biodiesel I'm obviously in the lead) But I'm killing my diesel street cred with the massive cloud of white smoke. The benz has never done anything near as bad even at 0 degrees in Maine with no block heater.

I know the thing is suppose to smoke, I understand that thats what the SD33T does, but at 75 degrees and sunny, there's got to be something wrong if it's creating a whiteout condition on my street.

Glow plugs? Has anyone tried to install a post glow relay retrofit. Bosch and Beru make relay retrofits for the mercedes that lights the glow plugs for three minutes after startup.

I understand that if you lit the NGK Y-103s for that long after startup, you toast them pretty quick. Beru lists the GN 044 glow plug for the nissan patrol's SD33T, and the GN series is designed for post glow. (I'm worried that the GN 044 is a 24v application, but I can't get any useful information from beru)

I'm going to replace the existing glow plugs with new Y-103's but any help you can provide would be great. The smoke's not a big deal for me, but when you're trying to make a case for diesel/biodiesel/svo/wvo, smoke clouds really hurt your cause.

3.The battery is getting cooked. Previous owner had a reman'd alternator put in and some point after that had a new voltage regulator put in. The is a lot of battery acid and corrosion on everything below the battery (battery tray, steering box, brake line, axle) I'm trying to clean it all up. The wiring is a mess, splices everywhere, and I think the battery is still getting over charged because it had fluid leaking down it from the ride home. The voltage regulator is the right model (same number as the old one, and same number as listed on this forum) and looks brand new. Where should I be checking voltages and what should I be seeing. Does anyone have a wiring diagram I could look at?

4. Give me a laundry list of things that should/must be done for an SD33T that has been neglected for a long time.

• Oil filter/fuel filters/Air filters
• oil change (does anyone feed these things synthetic? I run Delvac 1/Mobile 1 Truck/SUV 15W40 in the benz with great success. I know how expensive it is, but the benz behaves so much better, I deal with the cost)
• Injector service (where?)
• The turbo is scaring me, there is a lot of oil on the hose from the turbo outlet to the intake manifold. What should I be checking and how?
• EGR?
• What else?

Well, there you have it. Thats a pretty good start on my list of questions.
I'm sure I'll be harassing you guys for additional information shortly.

I can't thank you guys enough for the incredible resource that has been created here on this forum.

Take care.

"The grease must flow..."


PICS!

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Jinnah Dylan Hosein

Triplediamond Fourwheelers Webmaster

1979 IHC Scout II Rallye 345 V8 727
1980 IHC Scout II Terra SD33T T19
1985 Mercedes-Benz 300D Turbo
2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLS TDI 5-Speed

[David Lang]

1. Black smoke is useually an indication of runnign fuel-rich

start by checking your injectors. given the lack of maintinance you are describing it's likly that they are a large part of the problem.

he other thing is that restricted air intake can produce more output smoke. how long since you cahnged your air filter (and if it's not a high-flow variety, get one). also lookat punching more holes in the side of the air cleaner to let air in better.

let us know what speed you top out in for each gear and we can probably tell you. if you have a wide box it has REALLY large holes between the gears, if you have a narrow box the only hole is between 2nd and 3rd

2. the throttle technique will significantly help the thing fire up. it could easily be the glow plugs as well, measure their resistance and look at the option of direct wiring them rather then going under the dash (basicly get a good relay, like a ford starter relay and run from the battery to the relay to the plugs, triggered by the wire from under the dash) the difference in power to the plugs can be significant.

also check your battery, if someone replaced the monster group 31 batery with a normal car battery you will not glow as hot and you won't crank as fast, both of which make it harder to start. remember that your starter wants to draw 700A so you are looking for a battery with >1000CCA (since you are definantly not starting it in the cold )

you shouldn't need to run the glow plugs for an extended time after it starts.

3. this definantly sounds like a problem. hook up a volt meter and see what it reports. see my notes above about the battery size.

4. you basicly have the list. there are a few of us who run synthetic oil, at 3 gal every 2500 miles it's not cheap as you say.for the turbo, clean everythign up and tighten the lines and see where it is leakiing.

[Henry Penry]

jdh,
I'm a freshman as well, but I can share a couple of things brought to mind by your post. I just learned some things from Dave Lang...thanks for posting.
Until you get a pyrometer, you might need to be more careful about how you drive it as well, since the amount of black smoke you are getting reminds me of how I drove my Traveler before I was enlightened. Being only familiar with gassers, I would stand on the throttle alot and invariably(especially uphill) I'd get ALOT more black smoke when there was no more umph to be had. Maybe the extra fuel burning, blah blah blah doesn't seem so bad, but you don't know how you're abusing the guts. Work on your patience maybe. My first motor had some significant cracks in the pistons....which may have contributed to the smoke, and which may have been partially caused by abuse. A pyrometer is one of the must hve doodads/subjects the old farts drive into the ground here. Take note, there's a reason. Something about melting aluminumiumianum. Clear aluminum?
I'm also in competition with neighbors/community to be green(Portland Oregon) and the start up smoke IS embarassing....but I only drive my rig in the summer on weekends. I wish/work on it the other 9 months
. It's going to smoke...that's what I've been told over and over and that's what I've experienced. Sorry. I had a block heater installed to help and it does immensely on the chilly days. There are a ton of posts here about biodiesel if you haven't seen them. I think it's a great thing.
It had at times been suggested that my turbo blowing/leaking oil into the cylinders might have been causing extra smoke. If yours is in sad shape...that might be your case.
gottagit
Good luck
HP

[jordanvezina]

I'm pretty new to Diesels as well, just got mine four months ago. The one thing I wanted to interject is that I don't think your Diesel vehicle HAS to smoke. Though this is definitely through no doing of my own, mine blows a little puff when I first start it and then no more, except occasionally when I accelerate. The guy I bought it from builds diesel trucks for a living, so I know it was perfectly maintained and I know that has a lot to do with it. Of course for all I know no smoke could mean my engine is about to explode. Hope not. I like the lack of smoke because I live in San Francisco and I can mock all the hippies. Hey, if my engine's about to explode someone tell me. Thanks.

[David Lang]

one thing to remember with diesels is that they don't give you any control over the air, only over the fuel.

in a gasser when you want to accelerate you let more air into the engine and then add the right amount of fuel to go with it and you accelerate

in a diesel you can't do this, the engine is sucking in all the ait that the intake restrictions will allow and you are strictly controlling it's speed by the amount of fuel that you put into it.

this means that when you accelerate you usually put in more fuel then the engine can really use and the 'extra' fuel becomes smoke.

in a perfectly tuened engine you may only see this at startup and at full throttle, but real-word engines will see it a bit more

becouse of the way that diesels accelerate it really doesn't help to floor it if half throttle gives it more fuel then it can burn, so if you notice you are smokeing back off the juice a smidge and you probably will not loose any power (and your milage will improve)

when I was routinly driving the GM 6.2L diesels I got to where I could feel the point in the throttle where more throttle didn't result in more power, by coonstantly riding this point (wiggling the throttle to feel where it moved to as road conditions changes) I was able to match or outrun others in identical trucks while getting ~30 mpg to their ~15-20.

one of my biggest disappointments with my scout is that the power reserves that it has are so slim that I have trouble finding this sweet spot to ride it and instead find myself with to much throttle while climbing (adding propane does wonders for this problem though )

overfueling gives you a little more power, but mostly it just gives you smoke. if you are after every last bit of power (i.e. diesel drag races) you overfuel and put out a TON of smoke, but for the best fuel economy you want to ride at the edge just below where you are putting out smoke if you can