Yeah it feels like they still spring pressure there. I took the e shutoff bolts of and can feel it push against the manual shutoff as well. They feel like they're working... I get fuel at the injectors so that should be ok. Any way it's just not spinning fast enough to pop of the injectors?

Well I'm complete baffled. New battery, new starter... still nothing. I get a little smoke now but not much. Engine turns over at about 180rpm not sure if that's fast enough but it was only at 100rpm with the old starter.

I checked the fuel shut off rod on the injection pump itself and it is free and the springs open. And from what I can see everything looks good inside there.

I pulled all the glow plugs out and turned it over and am getting decent spray out of all of them. I even tried a shot of ether and get absolutely nothing. Not sure if this is just a lack of rpm and air in the system still, but I had priming issues when I first started it up but it at least sputtered and hit on more then one cylinder then.

I guess the next step is to pull the valve cover and see if the valves are actually moving. Its just so odd, because it ran fine and then just instantly shut off and wont start now

now I'm leaning towards bad compression... either valve train or bad rings... most likely rings. I can see the front valve working through my oil fill hole. I can turn the engine over with a ratchet. Its not easy to turn over but doesn't take a ton of effort either and there are parts that feel like it has more compression then others. I also get smoke through the injection pump when I have the mechanical shut off cover off. It doesnt look like it has bad blow by though. there is nothing really coming out of the valve cover breather

Ran a compression test today.
#1 = 140 psi
#2 = 20 psi
#3 = 40 psi
#4 = 450 psi

Which explains why I'm getting one to fire and none of the others to fire. I'm going to pull the valve cover just to rule those out. Then I guess its time to pull her apart and see what the damage is. I'm crossing my fingers its just a head gasket.

I would say try some sort of top end lubricant like marvel mystery oil or pb blaster, but since it was running and then quit, maybe not. one of my engines had almost no compression when I got it, I guess because it had been sitting for a long long time. I kept putting marvel oil and pb blaster in thru the intake valves and after about a week it started up and runs good, at least on the bench.
it sort of sounds like you have a broken ring or 2 two . maybe you will get lucky.
The other way to look at it is if you rebuild it , you will know what you have, and it will no longer be a mystery like both of my engines

good luck

Dang, looks like you had an air lock in the coolant and got it hot.

Deja vu

Well, FTE was right one the money with the overheating. I pulled the head yesterday and cylinders 1, 2 and 3 are all toast. Turns out there were some blocked water passages around cylinders 2 and 3. They are filled will some nasty stuff. Its brownish black and gritty. Im guessing its some sort of stop leak but I'm still going to get the block tested for a crack. If I remember, Ill take some pics tomorrow.

Ive only found +.5mm (.020in) oversize kit for these so hopefully thats enough (barring no crack). Pretty sad since it was running so good

I've got a quick question, and at this moment I can't remember if I've already read the answer. But, do these motors have sleeved cylinders? It seems I've read that somewhere,but it may be another motor I was reading about. I've been reading/researching about several different small diesel motors.

Don

wow its been a while since I have been on here. Not sure if you can sleeve these or not. They aren't sleeved tho and I forgot to ask my machinist today if its possible or cost prohibitive to sleeve them.

Thought I might give an update while I'm at it. Heres a pic of the cylinders after she melted down. Im not sure if the block is salvageable yet, but from what I have found you can only go .5mm or .020in over on these motors. I ended up getting a .5mm kit from Kumar Bros. which includes new pistons, rings, wrist pins, rod bearings, main bearings, and a complete gasket kit. Looked like pretty quality stuff, but only time will tell.
http://s102.photobucket.com/user/flyinmonkeys32/media/20150322_175307_zpshxhpwz3a.jpg.html
I ended up getting a different motor to try and use and found water in the oil... so I sent that one to the machine shop and so far so good, so in the next week or two I should hopefully have the motor back.

Here's a few pics of the dis-assembly in case anyone is curious whats on the inside of these things. You can see how nasty the water passages were. They are amazingly simple when you dive into them.
http://s102.photobucket.com/user/flyinmonkeys32/media/20150403_193336_zps2vljysff.jpg.htmlhttp://s102.photobucket.com/user/flyinmonkeys32/media/20150403_193321_zpsz1u1gskr.jpg.htmlhttp://s102.photobucket.com/user/flyinmonkeys32/media/20150403_193241_zpsxlbgtioz.jpg.htmlhttp://s102.photobucket.com/user/flyinmonkeys32/media/20150403_173602_zpszdi3rnkw.jpg.html