P38A 2.5 Diesel won’t start after new injector pump fitted

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Dhog4n

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Hi, I’m a newby here from Ireland, with a 2001 P38 2.5 diesel with 157,000 miles on it. I’ve found loads of useful info here and I’m hoping that someone might have an idea what’s going on with it before I give up on it. I’m not usually one to post up threads on anything, but I’m at a loss.

I fitted a new injector pump last week and it all seemed to go swimmingly, with a successful test drive around the local dual carraigeway. I parked it up and since then I have not been able to start it again.

It sounds like it wants to start initially when the key is turned, but then it reverts to just turning over like an engine that’s not getting fuel (If it was petrol I’d be checking for spark).

The Nanocom shows no issues with immobiliser codes or EDC codes. The immobilser was disabled via Nanocom by the previous owner so it shouldn’t be an issue anyway.

I’ve just gone over the injector pipes, refitting them in case of leaks at the pipe nuts and bleeding everything, but no luck. The only anomaly was that no. 4 bled slowly, while the rest of them spat fuel when turning over the engine with the injector pipe nuts loosened. I’d have thought that it would at least start on 5 cylinders though, and that would be enough to drive any remaining air out through the system.

The stop solenoid appears to be working - I can hear it activating when 12v is applied.

The reason for the new injector pump was poor power and hot starting issues, which seemed to be resolved on the test drive. I resealed the old pump but didn’t get anywhere with it, except to make it worse. The replacement pump is allegedly new rather than refurbished, and is sourced from Germany via eBay. It does look new as well - no wear marks, etc.

I had the injectors tested while I was waiting for the pump to arrive - again no issues found.

This car was supposed to replace my tatty but solidly reliable 32 year old 2.4 Hilux Surf once I got it sorted. I still have it a year after getting the P38 and it’s looking like I’ll have it a while longer. I’m no stranger to unreliable cars either, being the owner of an X1/9 as well, but I had pinned my hopes on the BMW engine not being too difficult to manage.

I won’t get around to trying again on it until next weekend, so any thoughts that anyone might have in the meantime would be very welcome. Thanks, Dave.
 
Just a thought, how old are the glow plugs and will it start with easy start or a small sqirt of brake cleaner.
If you have one failed flow plug, the engine is a damn pig to get going had you checked the modulation when it was running and at running temps? 🤔👍
 
The glow plugs are new last year and about 1,000 miles ago. That’s not to say there couldn’t be an issue there. There’s about a third of a tank of fuel in it. I have a hand primer bulb fitted before the fuel filter, so I can confirm that the injector pump itself is bled and full of diesel.

I set the injector pump timing to 0.90mm on the dial guage before the test drive and the modulation was 44%, which is as close as I think I’m going to get to the ideal.

I have a possible culprit - I pulled the camshaft cover after I put up the first post. I think one of the chains might have slipped a tooth as the cam locking tool is sitting at about 10mm clear from the passenger side of the cam box. Would that be enough to prevent it from starting if the lower chain skipped a tooth and put the injector pump out of time?
 

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The glow plugs are new last year and about 1,000 miles ago. That’s not to say there couldn’t be an issue there. There’s about a third of a tank of fuel in it. I have a hand primer bulb fitted before the fuel filter, so I can confirm that the injector pump itself is bled and full of diesel.

I set the injector pump timing to 0.90mm on the dial guage before the test drive and the modulation was 44%, which is as close as I think I’m going to get to the ideal.

I have a possible culprit - I pulled the camshaft cover after I put up the first post. I think one of the chains might have slipped a tooth as the cam locking tool is sitting at about 10mm clear from the passenger side of the cam box. Would that be enough to prevent it from starting if the lower chain skipped a tooth and put the injector pump out of time?

Sure it is in the TDC hole?

A skipped tooth would cause issues.

The cam is set with a 12 thou spacer when tightening the cam stretch bolt. 10 mm is way too much.
 
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