Need Some diesel help please

[Fudd]

well my Dad picked up a 93 XJ that was originally exported to Canada and now has been brought back here. The previous owner took it to a shop for a tuneup and they decided to replace the timing belt, problem is they got it a few teeth off and busted some rocker arms. So my Dad buys it for 1500, gets some custom-made rocker arms from Germany (long story lol) has the belt lined up right but we can't figure out how to get the timing right on the fuel injection pump, there's no marks on the pump, the engine runs good the way it is but there seems to be just too much smoke, Is trial and error the only way to get this right or is there a better way?

 

[Fudd]

O forgot to say it has the 2.1 Renault Turbo diesel

 

[RichP]

Somebody will chime in but keep in mind alot of the members are at paragon this weekend so the responses may be a bit slow.
Bet that 93 draws a crowd at a jeep dealer service shop. Thats one rare puppy here.

 

[wilcharl]

Its almost worth the drive out to winchester to see your XJ... Its truely a rare bird... Any idea what year they stoped putting the Renault in and went to the VM Moturi?

 

[Fudd]

not really sure what year, I think it was 90 or 91 they stopped offering the renault for US models, He bought the car in DC it was somebody in the Canadian Embassy who brought it back to the US. wilcharl ever check out www.novajeepers.com ? There's a trail ride we're going on sat the 18th If we get Dad's XJ running right I may get him to bring it along.

 

[wilcharl]

never seen it! thanks im going to check it out

 

[Fudd]

Thats one rare puppy here.

Yeah it seems to have all those options people say "supposebly this was availble but I've never seen it" It has front and rear factory towhooks (or at least it did I'm "borrowing" his front hooks) 5spd not all that rare but not exactly common and get this, a factory limited slip rear. Scared the junk out of him when he backed it around a corner for the first time, clunk clunk clunk. He says, that sounds like that locker you put in your cherokee, so we pull off the cover and sure enough a LSD

 

[bajacalal]

Wow, 5spd, turbodiesel, factory limited slip, towhooks, sounds like 1 sweet ride. Make sure your old man takes good care of it, not many of them around. Since I'm too tired to do anything tonight, and b/c your rig is interesting I dug out the manual. It has information about installing/adjusting the diesel injection pump, its kind of long so I can scan the pages and email them if you want. Otherwise the FSM is on CDs for a reasonable price. Oh yeah, have you guys figured out what mileage you get, and, how does it accelerate? How 'come Diesel is much more popular/avaliable in Canada?
Winchester, VA, huh? I wound up there once when my grandpa was supposed to take me to Dulles. By the time he realized that he missed the turn, we were in Winchester. This, coming from by Hancock, MD.

 

[5-90]

Smoking Diesels are usually caused by one of two things:

1) Not enough air.
2) Too much fuel.

Remember that Diesels don't have throttles - engine speed and output is regulated by fuel metering. If your engine is not getting enough air, that usually indicates that you're running at an altitude higher than the engine is rated for, or that your air filters are either clogged or AFU. Turbochargers are put on Diesels to help eliminate the altitude problem, since Diesel engines are derated ("leaned") slightly at max power to allow higher-altitude operation (by cramming more air into the chamber.)

The more common problem is fuel metering - Diesels are all fuel injected, with fuel injection taking place at/near TDC compression. Since the fuel injector nozzles are placed right into the combustion chamber, they are subject to the flash temperatures therein. With your engine being the Renault (I'd guess...) I'd be only mildly surprised to find that the nozzle orifices in your fuel injectors have opened up and you are running too rich.

I'd take a propane torch and use it to trickle a small amount of propate into the intake (DON'T LIGHT IT!) and see if that gets the smoke to go away - it's a trick we used to use to get downchecked trucks out of the weigh stations so we could get them to the shop and work on them. The propane acts as a "primer" for the Diesel fuel, which then assures combustion. If the propane clears up the smoke, look to your fuel metering for the answer.

Before you do that, tho, check the air filters (which I'm going to assume you did but mention anyhow) and the intake air ducting down around the turbocharger.

Also, I'll have to check my Archives for any more information on timing the injector pump - but if you made your witness marks before you pulled it to bits, you should be pretty close. Gimme a day or so to see what I can find out...

5-90

 

[Fudd]

My Dad was a diesel mechanic for about twenty years before he switched jobs so he knows all the little tricks to get it running, we're just trying to get it perfect ya know, (Its got an Isuzu glowplug in one cylinder until we find the right one) we're pretty sure the metering is a tad off on the pump, it had already been pulled off by the previous idiots with no marks so we're just guessing on the alignment. 5-90 I didn't know the FSM had the diesel info, we asked at our local stealership and they said their books didn't have any info but if we brought the jeep in they were sure they could fix it for us (yeah right! lol) But if you've got the pages I'd really appreciate it. e-mail addy is [email protected] o yeah and he's replaced all the filteres and cleaned the lines too. it doesn't have near the power of the 4.0 but it is better than most four banger diesels I've driven, its got 4.11 gears so that helps too. We've just been test driving around the block w/ it but we're hoping for 35-40 mpg. I wouldn't want to use it for a trail rig, doesn't seem to have the power to turn bigger tires but its gonna be a DD for my Mom, hopefully a little less thirsty than her 6.2 Suburban.

 

[Eagle]

Yeah it seems to have all those options people say "supposebly this was availble but I've never seen it" It has front and rear factory towhooks (or at least it did I'm "borrowing" his front hooks) 5spd not all that rare but not exactly common and get this, a factory limited slip rear. Scared the junk out of him when he backed it around a corner for the first time, clunk clunk clunk. He says, that sounds like that locker you put in your cherokee, so we pull off the cover and sure enough a LSD

A factory limited slip should not make a clunk-clunk-clunk. In fact, it should not make any noise at all. Been driving my '88 XJ with factory limited slip for 250,000 miles, not to mention other XJs and MJs with LSD -- they should be transparent to the driver. If it's making noise, it needs service.

 

[Fudd]

well that's the least of our problems at this point maybe we'll see another thread in a month or two on that he's never going to need the LSD anyway. If it ever goes out I've got 4.11 open rear as a spare.

 

[Fudd]

*bump* any of you guys in the UK have any ideas?

 

[X86mjxj owner]

Get your propblem fixed yet, The diesel injection system is a Bosch VE so look that up on the net for tuning the system up. Any more questions fire back and I'll se if I can dig up my old info that might help. Jim

 

[Fudd]

Well we think we've got it set up as good as its going to get, it still starts hard on cold mornings, (15-20 F) so not really that cold for you Canadian guys. But once it gets warm it runs great. It blew a head gasket a month or two ago, ended up having to get the head shaved. but its a great winter DD, about 25-30 mpg mix of town and highway driving.

 

[X86mjxj owner]

I used to cycle my glow plugs 2 or 3 times when it was cold. Made a big differance and not so hard on the starter. Do you plug it in a couple of hours (use a timer) before you need it?

 

[Fudd]

Yeah, cycling the glow plugs definitely helps. We tried plugging it in but it didn't seem to help, I guess its possible the oil heater coil may be bad. But its not that bad since we don't really get any deep freezes here in the mid atlantic.

 

[MyJeepXJ]

Off topic, but Id *love* to have a Diesel version of an XJ. Only, they sell diesel for $2.59 where unleaded is $1.97 (prices for today at least). I cant figure, diesel has less processing, it should cost less.

 

[DieselPioneer]

I recently bought a 85 Cherokee Pioneer 4x4 with the 2.1L Renault diesel. Renault offered some very good manuals specifically for the Jeep application of the J8S (J8S 814 & J8S 815). I don't know if the 91 has either of these two engines. If it does, it may be worth looking up a copy. I bought a couple on ebay recently, one for the engine and one for the Bosch fuel injection (Items 8013824910 and 8013821117 which I believe can still be viewed). I believe books4cars.com has copies as well. I am looking for parts sources for an overhaul myself. I'll share the couple I have found thus far:

winnebagoparts.com has maybe everything for this engine including pistons, liners, rings, valves, gaskets, etc. I think they are genuine Renault parts as well.

rockauto.com has some parts like filters, gaskets, I believe they even offered a crankshaft kit.

napa has some parts as per one of the previous threads

Hope this helps someone out there. I am looking forward to getting mine on the road!

 

[Fudd]

Well I think we're going to give up on ours. It just blew another head gasket. Maybe 2k miles since we replaced the last one. So either there's something wrong w/ the head or the mountains around here are too much for it (even though they're not all that big). We've got a four banger Isuzu diesel we're going to try to mate up to the AX-5, I'll keep you posted on that. O and a little FYI even though they list the stuff on their site, winnebagoautoparts.com doesn't carry any renault stuff anymore, they did give us a number of a winnebago dealer somewhere in the midwest who stocks the stuff but his prices were insane... 150 for each rocker arm, (not a set, each arm). A friend was over at the base in Mannheim Germany so he asked at a Renault dealership there but by the time the euro got through w/ our dollar it was still about 120 each, we ended up lucking out and found a machinist who made us a set for 150. But the moral of the story is unless you've got an already running engine I wouldn't mess w/ the Renaults in the US it seems to be a good little engine but the parts are just too expensive.