Help!

[fabricator]

I bought an 8/1 from DES, stripped her down and got everything cleaned out, I installed an actual 21st century fuel filter and an oil filter, got her all put together, got the tappets set to their lowest point and set the valve clearance at .015
My next step was to fill with diesel and prime the pump, by gravity I got fuel to the banjo fitting on the pump, crank,crank,crank,crank, no fuel from the pump. I removed the pump and lengthened the pump cam follower longer, put it back together and now I got fuel at the top of the pump, and crank till I got fuel at the injector fitting.
Next step is to try to start it, crank her up release the compression release and get a poof of white smoke, I tried it several more times and get the same results, a pretty big chuff and white smoke.
What am I doing wrong?

[rcavictim]

If you changed the length of the cam follower that drives the fuel injection pump then you have altered the injector timing.  You need to use the technique called 'spill timing' or connect the injector with it out of the cylinder and watch for the injection pump release while watching the timing mark on the flywheel while slowly turning the engine over by hand.  DO NOT allow the injector to spray fuel mist against your skin!!!  This can make your limb literally fall off from blood and tissue poisoning.  Very serious!

[Ronmar]

Yep, the length of the cam follower/pushrod determines injector timing so you will have to re-set the spill timing.  Search the forum and you will find the procedure.  Basically you are setting the point where the fuel inlet port in the IP just closes.  This is the point in time where the injection stroke starts. And pressure in the injector hardline starts to build.  On a 6/1 it is about 19 degrees before TDC, but the injector dosn't actually fire till within a degree of TDC. 

Fuel may not have been initially coming out of the pump because the rack was closed or the pump and hardline was airbound.  Pulling the pump probably cleared the air:).

White smoke usually indicates not enough fuel.  If you lengthened the pushrod, you advanced the timing, so the fuel sprayed early, before the peak heat of TDC compression.  In a properly timed engine it usually indicates the governor not fully pulling the rack to wide open, or air in the high pressure line causing the injector to not fire fully.  This makes the injector firing sound like a series of rapid clicks instead of a single solid creak sound...

[fabricator]

Sorry I didn't reply guys, I didn't have the right boxes checked so I wasn't getting notifications, one thing I can't find is any sort of timing mark on any flywheel, I did get the injector timing sorted out though.

[Tom Reed]

That's because there isn't one on a Listeroid. You'll need to find TDC and make your own mark. An easy way is to remove the injector and use a dial indicator on a small wooden rod.

[fabricator]

Yeah that is an excellent idea and I happen to have a dial indicator with extension rods and a flat base attachment.

[Carlb]

If this is an IDI engine i don't think you can get a probe to reach the top of the piston.  What I did on my 6/1 was remove the injector and thread a long piece of solder through the injector hole and above the top of the piston. Using a degree wheel attached to the crank i rolled the engine over until the piston stopped when it hit the solder solidly but not enough to crush the solder.  I marked that as zero on my degree wheel.  I rotated the engine backwards until the piston hit the solder again.  I took a reading on the degree wheel. I divided the difference in two and moved my degree wheel by that amount.  Removing the solder and turning the crank to zero on the degree wheel is now TDC.  While the degree wheel was attached i marked the flywheel every 5 degrees for 50 degrees on each side of TDC and BDC.  By the way I had already drilled the crank for a 1/2 x 13 bolt so attaching the degree wheel was simple.  It also made setting the spill timing very easy.

Carl

[fabricator]

It's a DI engine.