glow plugs

[hodge911]

hi peeps bought a Lreg 2.4td ssrx a few weeks back and after doing the jobs that needed doing done about 400 miles when engine started making horrible noise so after doing the injectors and some other things it didnt fix the fault so decided to go the route of replacing the engine.
well anyway today i changed the injectors in the second hand engine for the new ones and thought i,d take the glow plugs out of both engines to test them on a battery .
the second hand engine ones looked normal if not a bit sooty but when i took the ones out of my noisey engine i was very suprised to find all 4 were missing the last 2/3mm and looked like something had chewed the ends off i cant understand how it still started [was a little lumpy for the first few seconds].
will post pics soon .
so any ideas ????????????????.
in the pic with 2 glow plugs the one on the left is normal the one on right is the damaged one [ all 4 are like that ]

[NiftyNev]

A diesel will start without good glow plugs if it has reasonable compression.

Nev

[Sammyk]

Just my 2 pennies worth.
Are they the right plugs? Did they disintegrate in the engine causing the noise you had?
My Pajero would take an age to start in the cold without decent glow plugs.

[ridgerunner]

Glow Plug Cycle

I own a 1991 Surf with the 2LTE and found the the glow cycle was not getting my plugs "hot" with the stock timing circuit for the colder climates we experience here in Alberta, Canada. They would glow for approximately 7 secs, but when tested with a battery and booster cables, they did not achieve maximum "glow" for at least 11 secs. I put in a momentary push button to manually give my plugs the extra length of time to full glow. It made a big difference on my truck.

[NiftyNev]

What brand are those glow plugs. Cheap ones can burn out because the powder inside them, used as insulation may not be completly dry, when made.

Nev

[potif]

I own a 1991 Surf with the 2LTE and found the the glow cycle was not getting my plugs "hot" with the stock timing circuit for the colder climates we experience here in Alberta, Canada. They would glow for approximately 7 secs, but when tested with a battery and booster cables, they did not achieve maximum "glow" for at least 11 secs. I put in a momentary push button to manually give my plugs the extra length of time to full glow. It made a big difference on my truck.

Even after fitting new plugs, I find the best method is to leave the glow plug relay click off before starting (just before the alarm goes off) - never fails to start smoothly when I do this.