I am struggling with my freshly rebuilt 88' idi 7.3l.... i have tried just about everything... i have not gotten it to run for more than 2 seconds... at first i had the the injection pump over advanced and it was billowing black smoke from the pipes while trying to get it started... So i went back to the factory setting of zero for the injection pump... The book i have showed me that to set up the timing for the pump, all i had to do was line up the 2 "y" markings together when the cam gear and crank gear were aligned properly and apparently this was tdc for #1 cylinder... now this was a bit perplexing because i never moved the oreintation of the ip from its body, so the markings on the body and pump are set correctly... but something is off... otherwise it would run... the motor has great compression... brank new valves, pistons, rings, bearings, starter, batteries, glow plugs, and glow plug controller... i have mixed the currently fresh diesel with a little under 20% 91 octane, and also mixed 1 oz. of 2 stroke per gallon in along with it, to try and get this puppy to fire... there is no air in the lines, great fuel pressure, and plenty of oil in the case... turns over great... just will not run... so currently with the ip timed in at zero degrees all i get is a lil' white smoke out of the passenger side manifold... very confusing... because with it over advanced, and all of the black smoke before; it almost ran... PLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEE HELP! =)

 

you are sure you have all the timing marks lines up? O to OO and Y to Y? sounds like it is 180 off.

 

Need to time the crank and cam gears first, then time the cam and ip drive gears.

 

great news! Engine is fired up and running well... But i am am getting too much black smoke... I believe I need to retard the up pump just a bit... So I'm just trying to find the fine line in between too lean and too rich... My ear tells me its great.. yet my eyes tell me otherwise.. so any suggestions on amount of black smoke through pipes? I know I may be getting some from the 2 stroke i mixed in.. but i wanted to make sure that the rings were well lubed... Appreciate the good advice!

 

Black smoke = too much timing. Should be timing marks where the pump mates to the engine. Line those up, and you should be good to go.

 

wrong bill. those marks are just static timing. it will run with them lined up, but not to full potential. to have the timing set, you either need to find a timing meter( or someone who has one) or get a ferret timing adapter and a GOOD timing gun. timing should be set to 9.5 degrees BTDC.


where are you located, i know many people over the us with meters.

 

I'm located in southern california... Orange county area... I thought it had to be advanced quite a bit to get get its full power potential... Thanks.

 

to advanced will melt the tips of the glowplugs off. there are many guys in SOCAL tht have meters, but they are all over on OBN, none here.