You Guys are going to hate me..

[smithy010]

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

A cheap car always comes with its problems. Not major ones, and i'm ironing them out one by one. Not quite used to such a crowded engine bay yet..

[smithy010]

Well, i've been doing some ironing out on the pug.. First i bled the cooling system, which stopped it from pressurising (i was scared before that, could've easily been a head gasket)..

Following that, i removed the door cards and started diagnosing the problem with the LHS Electric window and mirror. Turns out i have traced it to a broken wire where it goes from the body to the drivers side door (wires must've fatigued).

FYI, the engine in this vehicle is an indirect injected intercooled turbo diesel engine. Too bad it doesn't have the bosch VE pump.. Instead, it's got a lucas. Anyone know about the lucas pump as far as tuning goes?

I like the fact that it's got less electronic bits than the TDI.. There's enough crap on it already let alone having electronics on the engine as well..

Next Job: PUll the glowplugs and test them, so i can iron out a little Cold starting problem.. At the moment it cranks for about 5 seconds after a 15 second glow, then it will fire, and run on 2 cylinders, then about 3 seconds later it will fire on all 4. If it's not the plugs, then it's probably compression..

All in all, though, for a car with so many k's, i reckon it's doing pretty well, and it's a pleasure to drive. It's great to give it a little squirt now and then on the way to work. The real power band (as Aydan said, with the IDI it is a bit higher) is about 2500 to 3500..


Please tell me if i should shut up about non VAG cars.. ok?

[cetane]

Hey, Smithy... Don't worry. It's great that you haven't forgotten us!

My guess is that the starting problem is glow plugs. A quick way of testing them in situ is with a multimeter or test lamp. Take off the bus bar and you should have virtually no resistance through the glow plug. Test them all and suspect the ones with high resistance.... or if they're open circuit chuck 'em away. ebay UK is good source of replacements.

There's nothing wrong with Lucas ips. Lucas and CAV used to jointly manufacture them. My 1964 Inter tractor has a Lucas ip and it's done 12,000hrs without a problem. It doesn't evern leak when using ULSD.

[gldgti]

some of the early 1.5's had CAV pumps...

correct me if i'm wrong, but i think they might even have similar external mounting points? not sure about that one.

IDI is good for you, it means your 100% bio compatible still, and no electronics to annoy you in fault diagnosis should you get into tgrouble.

well, theres just a few things for you to do then - read up on how strong the pug diesels are, and get the boost and fuelling sorted! heheheheee. i know im a sick puppy.

anyway, like has been mentioned, definateyl just start with your glowplugs - very likely. after that the injection timing might be worth checking - not enough advance really hurts the cold starting.

good luck

[Volvo Driver]

There's a bloke at trade school who owns a 01 306 HDI, and we gets better economy then Dad's Mk3 does, which i a bit dismal lately IMO, only 500km's or so out of 30 litres.

But our 307 has that sort of high RPM powerband compared to the TDi in the Golf.

[smithy010]

I've been reading a little bit about tuning the pug turbo diesel engine.

There are rumours (unconfirmed as yet), that the XUD9TE engine was detuned in the factory so that it didn't beat the ass off the sports model that was out in those days.. So apparently it's a piece of piss to up the fuelling and adjust the wastegate up to 19psi with no problems. The only little thing that pisses me off is that you have to drain the IP every time you want to adjust the smoke screw because it is actually INSIDE the lucas pump, which is a real pita. No "dynamic" tuning for this pump!

Anyway, before i do any tuning, i want to make extra sure that i've got no problems. I'm thinking a compression and leakdown test will be the order of the day, followed closely by an injector test.

[gldgti]

highly likely that your pug has been factory detuned - see VW/audi diesels from 1985-onwards and their "rpm governors" (read: "fun governors").

get that thing hauling mate!