'94 945SE TD - Why does it take so long to start?

[Jonathan_angelo]

I recently bought myself a 94 945SE TD from ebay for this years Home2Rome. The car is fab, but takes ages to start when cold. The car had new glow plugs in April when the engine was rebuilt, so not sure if that could still be the issue? Also the car is fliipin slow until the Turbo kicks in, a friend suggested that the timing might be retarded as these shoul be 10deg not dead centre on the top pulley? If i get the timing adjusted, do you think that the cold start issue will rectify itself?

[Clan]

It's probably either glow plugs which this engine depends on , even if only one is faulty the engine struggles to start. Another cause the compressions could be low .
10 degrees top pulley? any marks on the camshaft pulleys front or rear are not relevent as there is no keyway they are infinatly adjustable as they are on a taper and you can put the pulleys on anywhere . I wonder how they set the camshaft timing when they re-built the engine ?
The refference points are flywheel 0 mark , and the camshaft setting plate on the rear of the camshaft with the pump drive pulley off and cam cover off to set the camshaft in the correct position , and the third is the fuel pump which is set by a tool to measure the height of rod in the pump . about 0.9 mm is correct .

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by Jonathan_angelo

I recently bought myself a 94 945SE TD from ebay for this years Home2Rome. The car is fab, but takes ages to start when cold. The car had new glow plugs in April when the engine was rebuilt, so not sure if that could still be the issue? Also the car is fliipin slow until the Turbo kicks in, a friend suggested that the timing might be retarded as these shoul be 10deg not dead centre on the top pulley? If i get the timing adjusted, do you think that the cold start issue will rectify itself?

What do you call ages Johnathan? I take it you wait until the glow plug light goes out before you try and start it? Then how long? Mine was almost instantaneous.

First Diesel used to tell me they tuned my engine for power, which means that there must be a range of timings possible. That engine should feel pretty poky. The 0 to 60 time is about 10 sec. if I remember correctly.