Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Ok, good to know I didn't cook it that way. On the other hand I took out the GP's today to see what they looked like and test them on the MM and I found this

kinda looks like it made contact with the piston maybe? This one had come loose from the body of the plug and I had to get creative to get the whole thing out. My big mistake was taking off the small nut on top of the GP, because the Mitsu ones did not have a nut there. I'm an idiot. I'm really hoping that the Deli does not have a F**k'd piston now. Shite burnt-out GP"S...maybe.
Oh, the wife will be SOOO happy to hear that I have to buy 4 new and more expensive GP's before christmas.

150 dollars poorer now....just bought 4 genuine Mitsu GP's from RMI. I only hope this sacrifice of legal tender will appease the angry Delica Gods. I am going to dig out the GPCU out of the drivers side pillar and have a look. RMI said the lack of clicking could be a burned our board and that it's repairable by any good electrical tech. I really want to rent a bore scope and have a peek at the piston but nobody rents one near me and they cost as much as the GP's.
I'm hoping that the gash is from me taking the GP out and not impact with the piston. I'll be going in there with the magnet for chunks all the same.

Bottom line is that you don't use cheap GP's. I knew that rule for the 7.3 (only Beru ZD-9's) and should have followed it for the Delica, especially for the Delica.

The glowplugs and injectors are safely away from the piston in the precombustion/swirl chamber, which makes a borescope fairly useless but also means they're safe from touching the piston.
Glowplugs sometimes explode if you apply power to a glowplug that's shorted internally. The factory ECU monitors the voltage drop on the glow rail and won't apply power if it thinks one or more glowplugs have failed- genuine Mitsubishi glowplugs are ceramic and if they explode then you get bits of ceramic through the engine. It's unlikely to be instantly fatal but it can damage the valves, seats, and turbo.

I wonder if your failing temperature sensor fooled the glow ECU into applying more power than needed and blew out the cheap glowplug?

Ahah! So the damage was probably from me extracting the shite plug. I'm only out 30 bucks for the crap GP's (shoulda known at that price...). So yeah, now to wait for the right plugs and see if the new sensor changes the situation. I'd still like to put eyes on the GPCU, just to know that there is not a burnt-out component on it.

Yeah, it looks like the plug had exploded and bent a bit, which would have made it difficult to remove.

One note of caution- check the new factory plugs for cracks in the ceramic tip (shipping damage) and don't drop them. They can handle the insane pressure and heat of a combustion chamber, but for some reason the workshop manual says to discard any plug which has been dropped from a height of 10cm (4") or more.

I will give those new plugs a very close inspection. I think I dodged a bullet here by pulling them now. I wonder if I'll get any bits out with the magnet? I also wonder if I can get a refund on these crap plugs...I could use that 30 bucks for more shop beer I have a feeling that the response will be that I voided any obligation by taking the nut off the top of the GP's, even though I emailed them about it before running the Deli, but maybe not.

Success! New Mitsu plugs in and she turned right over. Stable temp gauge now too. So in retrospect...overheating solved by a faulty Temp sensor, and no-start caused by shite GP's being burnt out. Thanks to everyone's help and patience while I figured this all out.