Won't start trouble shooting and electronic manual source

[turbomart]

Best way to figure out whats happening with a diesel is look at smoke coming from exhaust.
No smoke means no fuel injected ,usually air in system or injectors not firing.
White smoke means unburnt fuel or coolant, unburnt fuel is glow plugs not working ,wrong timing or lack of compression.
Black smoke is incompletely burnt fuel, usually not enough air ,wrong timing ,dribling injector.

[ryanh1006]

Originally Posted by turbomart

Best way to figure out whats happening with a diesel is look at smoke coming from exhaust.
No smoke means no fuel injected ,usually air in system or injectors not firing.
White smoke means unburnt fuel or coolant, unburnt fuel is glow plugs not working ,wrong timing or lack of compression.
Black smoke is incompletely burnt fuel, usually not enough air ,wrong timing ,dribling injector.

So could the cam shaft sensor cause the injectors to fire at the wrong time? I don't really see much smoke. Last time it was warm and I got it to start it made a large cloud smoke that smelled like diesel when it started. I've managed to check one glow plug and it wasn't an open circuit and it had power. I need to go buy a set of long nose pliers to do the others. Both relays click over and the light comes on on the dash, so I figured it was probably good...but maybe I figured wrong.

G'day Ryan, got no answers for you but am a little jealous of the unique countryside you're able to drive through. Passed through Bishkek in Feb '10 and Feb '11, bloody cold but looked like amazing terrain! Good luck with your fault finding and Happy New Year.

Yeah, we love it here! Come visit any time. You can rent a jeep (hopefully reliable by then ) or we can give tours! It's truly an incredible place, especially staying with nomadic families, nothing else like it (or maybe that's just the fermented horses milk... who knows...)!

[turbomart]

Yep that sounds like white smoke which is unburnt diesel.
Sounds like glow plugs are not working, several of them anyway.
Crank or cam angle sensor can have similar effect but as long as one is working motor will usually start but run poorly.

[ryanh1006]

Ongoing saga...

So one part wasn't exactly right on the high pressure pump, finally go it right, nothing destroyed. Ended up going to a local Mercedes mechanic and letting him have a look. He redid a part on the high pressure pump, rebuilt the low pressure pump, replaced two fuel lines, replaced the fuel filter, and rebuilt two injectors. Set me back about $340, but overall, seems like good work. The problem is that it still won't start cold. Unlike before it tries to catch and belches huge clouds of unburnt diesel out the tailpipe. I pulled the leads to two of the glow plugs and one reads about 130 ohms, the other seems to be open. Told the mechanic that it still wasn't starting cold and he started talking about rechecking injectors numbers 4 and 5. I put the kabosh on that idea and told him to just replace the glow plugs. It's minus something and snowing so I really don't want to mess with it. Should know on Tuesday morning if that solves it.