Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Biocide kills algae and bacteria that can grow in diesel fuel. I buy mine (Racor) from West Marine, who sell several different brands of the stuff. They told me this is more an issue with storage tanks and boats that don't run very often, and is rarely a concern for road-going vehicles that are driven regularly. I run a bit through each month, anyway. YMMV.

Biocide has nothing to do with lubrication. Petro Canada (where I fuel up) claim their ULSD has ample lubrication for older diesels. So far, so good, but 5,000 km is hardly a test.

...laura

Sounds to me like the fuel injection pump timing is off a little, that'll give rough idle and harder starting. A lot of these van get their timing belt replaced without having the timing re-set and that can cause these minor problems.

I had my pump timing checked today....zero degrees is what it was set at. Considering it is supposed to be around 7 degrees I am thinking that this might have something to do with my smoking issue and likely the hard to start issue. So I would agree with what Schwa is saying. The timing belt has been changed on mine but it would appear that they didn't check the timing afterwards.

I have my fingers crossed that the next cold start will be easy and the timing being waaaaay off was the problem. I let you know tomorrow.

Actually if I could get a Delica Canada collective finger crossing I'd appreciate it!

-Mark

I've run 60,000 km without using any additive for lubrication (except maybe 10,000 km). Everything is working great. If I were a major fuel supplier, there is no way in hell I would put out a fuel that could potentially damage an engine or components without some huge warning labels on the pumps. A class actions suit is just too expensive.

But that is just my opinion.

James

I've got my fingers crossed for ya! Besides, if you give up and sell your ride, who will be the black spy?!!

NO Starting and more...
This thread has got some great info into what my problem might be but I can not even get my deli started.
Here is the scenario..Drive up to Mt Washington on Tuesday, running on veg. I am almost empty in the diesel tank. Purge for at least 4 minutes before shutting down. Leave mountain and drive on diesel down mountain. Run veg around town and then purge before calling it a night. Very low in diesel.
That night is a cold humid night with the temps at minus 3. Go out in the morning to start it up. Starts but laboured doing it. Runs for 30 seconds and then stalls. Get it going again but it slowly dies after about 40 seconds. After that, attempt to get it started fails. I am thinking fuel supply problem obviously but I can pull some diesel after the fuel filter with my suction gun, although it does seem enough. I get 40 litres in Jerry Cans and fill her up. I crack the injectors to get fuel to the engine. I see diesel coming out. Close the injectors, still no go.
Question, can the low fuel issue created ice crystals in the filter that may be blocking the flow. If a filter is blocked, will it allow any fuel through or just enough to make it seem like there is flow but really not enough?
My glow plugs seem to be doing their usual thing. Clicking at 3-4 sec.
BC Delica (Kev) wrote:

AND don't go WVO to you get to the bottom of your starting issues, throw a little veggie into your system and you wouldn't get it started in the morning.

I wonder if this is my issue but I did purge enough and had it going for over a minute.

Any opinions. Thanks everyone.
Sean

Start then immediately stall sounds like a fuel delivery problem.

Diesels don't need much to run: compression and fuel. Assuming the engine has compression (you can hear when it cranks, though measurement doesn't hurt), the only alternative is fuel.

...laura

My thought exactly Laura. SO I bypassed my pollack valve for my veg and went straight from filter to injection pump. Pulled fuel with suction gun right to that point, and also pushed the filter hand pump to clear any possible air. Turned the key and it fired up on the first shot. But then it died again!! Tried again but my battery was all of a sudden dead...ahhh yes, throw another wrench into the works. So the charger is on it right now and I will try in a couple of hours. I guess I should keep the pedal to the metal. But if it dies again, where could this delivery problem be?? I looked at all my hoses and no kinks of any sort.

My starting has continued to be OK-ish. Only needs 30-45 seconds of xtra fuel to reach it's steady idle (again, just under 750 rpms) Still haven't experienced the lack of power since adding the biocide the first time.

Ran down till the fuel light came on today. Filled just under 40L (saw fuel foaming up the filler pipe so it was full). This is only my 2nd tank of diesel. Added a bit more biocide, more lubricity additive, and some injector cleaner. Seemed to run very nice after filling. Oddly, it felt different IMMEDIATELY on starting it at the Husky station. I might have expected it to improve after a minute or so, so maybe it's just my imagination.

I'm too tired (15 hr day, plus travel today) to calculate the milage on the last tank, plus, it will just be a guess, cuz I don't have accurate numbers.

Later,
D

Polytek your starting sounds like it is getting better and mine is getting worse! The injection timing clearly was not the problem with mine. I say this because it was a pain to start this morning. It really seems to be more related to time than to temperature for me. The longer I leave it the harder it is to start. It must be something fuel related but I can't seem to figure out what. I don't think there is a fuel leak anywhere because I would think I would smell it.

What do people think about changing the fuel filter? It was supposedly changed but maybe it has been clogged up with the first few months of running the van after it sitting for a while in Japan???

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

-Mark

Sean, Kinda sounds like an air leak in the injection pump. Saw a few threads dealing with this kinda issue(starting and then stalling) on the UK site, although they actually drove a bit before it stalling...

Sean, my 2 cents. Assuming the ignition/fuel cutoff system is all good, the most probable cause is a fuel restriction, probably the filter. Since you can manually pump the hand primer (fill the system with diesel) and get it to start but it dies. Next likely is the lift pump but that is inside the injection pump, good luck. I would probably change the filter but if you are feeling energetic, have someone crank the truck and get it running while you pump the hand primer like a mad man. If it doesnt die, it is going to be the lift pump. Option a: rebuild, option b: add an electric aux pump.

Well, it seems I spoke too soon. This morning and tonight after work the start was initially great, but then quickly degenerated to SUPER rough idle, and very little changed when I gave it lots of throttle. Idle settled back to "normal" (for me) after a short time. Lots of smoke tonight. Experienced some lack of power/bad throttle response again, too.

It seems like there is a gap in fuel delivery for a short time, until the engine is warm(ish). I'll try to investigate the injection pump timing as soon as I have time.

D

I've now noticed repeated clicking (glow plug relay) after the vehicle is started. This lasts 30-60 seconds until the really rough idle and near stalling is over.

Yikes,
Darryl

PolyTek wrote:I've now noticed repeated clicking (glow plug relay) after the vehicle is started. This lasts 30-60 seconds until the really rough idle and near stalling is over.

That's what they're supposed to do.

This is the phase where you want to use the hand throttle to hold the revs around 1200 to 1500 RPM.

...laura