Gazbo
Well-Known Member
Bigwill, I have experienced a similar problem with starting/running in a VW Passat Diesel lots of years back, it was down to an incorrectly set "point of injection". or I guess you can say "timing". Not sure what pump the P38 diesel runs but the VW sported a Bosch VE, pretty much the same as on my Disco 300Tdi.
The symptoms in that VW were, cold starting, wind over and over and over, finally start, run rough as a hairy goat until warmed blowing sporadic bursts of smoke, whilst running fairly low on power on takeoff and trying to keep up with traffic, would start ok after running but more difficult the cooler the motor got, (bear in mind low temps here in Australia's East coast nothing like you can experience.
With the correct tools, (which I made), and the correct POI info it is not a hard job to correct, but I expect in a P38 RR maybe a job left to professionals, anyhow in the case of my VW Diesel it made a world of difference all around, hope this helps.
The symptoms in that VW were, cold starting, wind over and over and over, finally start, run rough as a hairy goat until warmed blowing sporadic bursts of smoke, whilst running fairly low on power on takeoff and trying to keep up with traffic, would start ok after running but more difficult the cooler the motor got, (bear in mind low temps here in Australia's East coast nothing like you can experience.
With the correct tools, (which I made), and the correct POI info it is not a hard job to correct, but I expect in a P38 RR maybe a job left to professionals, anyhow in the case of my VW Diesel it made a world of difference all around, hope this helps.
The mechanically governed VE is a slightly different animal than the EDC VE fitted to the P38. Static is important that is true, but it would have to be a long way out to effect cold starting, duff or non functional glow plugs will make cold start almost impossible. That is why i asked him to get diag on it and let me know what timing modulation is. Static on the mechanical VE is 1.54 mm lift at TDC number one firing whilst the EDC VE is 0.90 mm. You need a lock pin and a dial gauge and adaptor to do either properly.
