Start up problems

[surfergirlnz]

Hi everyone from NZ! I haven't been here for a while - surfs been running good until now. Every now and then (say once every few weeks) I am having trouble getting my surf to start. I turn over the ignition and it just wont spark. After about 10 attempts she goes and a big puff of smoke comes out the back! The rest of the day she starts first off no problems. I have noticed some mornings she is a bit "lumpy" to start with but that only last about 30 seconds. I have had her into the mechanic and he thought it was the glow plugs so he replaced those (apparently they were all dead!), but the problem is still there. It was the worst on Wednesday this week when it just wouldn't start. After a couple of tries she went to go and I put my foot down on the accelerator and there was no power and she spluttered a bit and stalled. Eventually she started. Mechanic seems to think it could be a head gasket problem??? We bought our surf 2½ yrs ago and the first day we had it the head cracked so it had a new head etc fitted back then (at the dealers expense!!).
As I said this is only happening every now and then NOT every day. I would really love to hear your thoughts as to what you reckon it could be....

[BUSHWHACKER]

Maybe put some injector cleaner in the tank, and change the fuel filter?

[surfergirlnz]

Hi bushwhacker

thanks - How often should you put injector cleaner in the tank? i normally do it when it gets a service. Should you put it in a full tank of diesel?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Depends on which brand. It will tell you on the bottle anyway.
Most of them say 'Empty contents into a full tank of fuel', But I always chuck it all in what ever the amount of fuel is in the tank at the time.
If you can find it, there is a fuel system cleaner you can buy, made by Wynns, and you pour it into the fuel filter and not the tank, I've used this a couple of times and it's brilliant!
If you can't find it, just put the injector cleaner in once a month or so to keep things clean.

[DaveD]

yor big puff of smoke is it white or black?

[surfergirlnz]

Hi Dave
It is white or greyish.....I think. But the times where is starts and it idles rough on take off we have a small puff of black smoke.

[BUSHWHACKER]

That sounds normal to me.
Another thing to check is remove the rubber elbow that connects directly to the turbo, ( the black rubber elbow in the pic) and see if there is black oil residue in there, could be that the turbo oil seals are on the way out. but mine has also been like this since I've owned it, so it can't be doing any harm. I'll get round to sorting it one day.