Need Some Help from the Diesel Gurus

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by sww914

I honestly cannot understand why you guys all stay in your cold hells. Many complain but few move.

Cos spring is lovely (I guess that's like how nice it feels when someone stops standing on your foot) and I still love this area in the summer/early fall.

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by Ryan H

Looking for some help from the diesel gurus. I've recently started working on my third project boat... Sigh... Opening up the engine well shows a goldish two cylinder diesel with no block casting or ID plate anywhere to be found. That's the easy problem, trying to figure out what model this is so I can get a book and order parts.

Second and more importantly, it won't start at all. Owing partially to the several hundred other posts that have already been asked on this forum I can tell you both fuel filters are clean, fuel bled all the way up to the block with no air bubbles, raw water intake impeller in good shape, oil looks really clean and at the right level, coolant looks fine too.

So here's the symptoms. When I hold the glow plug switch every light in the boat dims, I have zero access to the plug even when I crawl upside down and sideways into the stern so for now I'm taking that as a sign that its getting its 12 volts. When I turn the key to on my fuel, oil, temp, and volt gauges light up, also what looks like the fuel pump, set in between the two fuel filters clicks repeatedly, faster when the glow plug switch is held down. When I turn the key a little more all the lights really dim and the engine (sort of) turns over. I say sort of because it seems really slow to me. At this point I first checked the battery voltage (good), then tried spinning the crank by hand. It spins easily both ways and gradually gets harder (I'm figuring this is compression in the cylinder, hopefully good)

Next I thought that maybe the glow plug isn't working and/or the engine is just too cold (I'm in Massachusetts, its pretty cold here at the moment) without removing the cockpit I just can't get to the plug so I ran a space heater under the block and left it there all day while I tried other stuff.

Following my hunch with the electrical (just a hunch really, I've got no experience whatsoever with diesels, it just seems to me like its turning over way to slow and shouldn't be dimming the lights quite this much) I first swapped the battery out with a newer, larger battery with about 300 more cold cranking amps. No difference. Then I connected both batteries, no difference. Then I hooked up a buzz box to the first battery, no difference. And finally I ran jumper cables from my car to bank no. 1. Despite all of this, the lights still dim when I crank the engine and it cranks very slowly. I traced the wires from the battery, checked the negative connection at the block (good) and followed the positive to a barely visible solenoid and finally to the starter (connections all good). The starter felt unusually warm but at this point I've been cranking on it all day. While I was doing a yoga pose anyway to reach the starter I tried the old mechanics trick of tapping the starter gently with a hammer (no help at all this time).

That's everything I tried with the electrical. I also tried shoving a hair drier down the intake in case it was an air restriction, and finally shooting a bit of WD40 into the intake in a final glow plug be damned attempt to get her to start. After spending most of the brain power I've got rationed for the year on this one day, the motor didn't so much as sputter even once. At this point I'm not expecting good news from anybody, but any ideas at all?

i am a diesel tech.
start rpm should be 400rpm ish.
if you tried wd40 and still nothing, its spinning too slow.

connect jumper cables direct to the starter from the batteries.
if that fails

rebuild the starter, $90
then if that dont work
check fuel. look for water, how old is the fuel?
at this point it will start on wd40. if not you have no compression.

if it only runs on wd40....

remove fuel pump and injectors, send for testing. ($150 for two injectors and pump) rebuild if necessary (350-500)
at the same time drain all the fuel.

any more questions?

[DumnMad]

Scoobert; Could problems in the gearbox cause it to run to slow?

[Irish rambler]

Westwinds, I moved from Ireland to the Med to escape the grandkids ! we go ski-ing , SKI spend kids inheritance....

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

Scoobert; Could problems in the gearbox cause it to run to slow?

if the gearbox is stuck in gear perhaps.
get the starter out and have it tested. if it is shot it would be obvious to anyone who knows what they are doing.
thats your first step.
once that is eliminated it will answer a ton of questions.
if the starter's bearings are shot or the brushes are screwed then it would create a high load situation.

if it is 2 cylinder i don't see it needing more then 600 starting amps to spin over fast enough all else being ok.

[captnrog]

My sailboat is in Guatemala all torn down for a rebuild. It's an older Yanmar 2qm15. I can order all the parts but the oil pump, which has been out of production for like 30 years.

So does anybody know of one on a shelf somewhere? Or parts for one somewhere?

At a loss and don't want to have to buy another motor just because I can't find an oil pump.

thanks

[Irish rambler]

Hi captnrog, I can't help in your area but if you contact john.day@barrus.co.uk at E.P.Barrus who are the main dealers for UK and Ireland and should get you a pump and ship it out to you no problem.
I would also try Engine Re-manufacturing in Mc Hale Industrial Estate in Ireland who may have/source/remanufacture/make a pump for you, unfortunately I only have a fax number for them, the number is 00353-9023994, they are very helpful. Both companies are happy to ship worldwide.
Good Luck.

[sanibel sailor]

There was a guy parting one out in Seattle on craigslist a month ago, but the posting expired. Maybe post there with an inquiry or search periodically. I use www.adhuntr.com

[gjordan]

The guy parting out the 2QM 15 in Seattle is still listed Name is Jeff, 360-739-8748. It might be worth a try and call him._____Grant.