New to diesel engines. Just a simple question. When I turn the key off, the engine really shutters to a stop. Is this normal?

 

It's normal. Mine shakes the whole truck when I shut it down. Due from the 400 lbs of compression.

 

Thanks. Someone told me the engine always finds TDC on shutdown...

 

When you first start it, that's when it finds TDC on number 1 cylinder. Something to do with the electronics and emissions.

 

If the engine doesn't know where the cylinders are, then it won't know when to inject fuel. That's why every electronic engine I can think of needs either a camshaft or a crankshaft position sensor to start or run.

Your engine has a crankshaft and a camshaft position sensor; the crankshaft position sensor is the one that reads the external tone ring on the tip of the crankshaft, the camshaft position sensor is down underneath the injection pump facing into the timing case. Normally the camshaft position sensor is used for injection timing and the crankshaft sensor is used for engine speed, but either one can be used for the other in case one fails; this will set a code and keep the engine running.


That doesn't have anything to do with shut-down, though. If you look at your harmonic balancer you will see that it doesn't always shut down in the same place.