Hi all,
I am just wrapping up a swap of a mercedes om617 from an 82 300sd into a 97 jeep cherokee with ax15 tranny. I bought the car and made sure that the engine fired up and ran well before I pulled it. After I pulled the engine I replaced the timing chain, valve seals, main seals,etc. and cleaned the engine up a bit. I got the engine in the jeep and was ready to fire it up, so I bled the fuel system, and then set about bleeding the injectors by cracking the injector lines open while having someone crank the engine over while holding full throttle. I cant' seem to get but a little fuel weeping out of the injector lines no matter how much I have tryed to bleed them. It is certainly not enough to get the engine started. There is no good sized squirt like I would expect there should be. I have checked to make sure I am getting plenty of fuel flow and even installed an inline electric fuel pump. It is getting good fuel flow all the way up to the injector pump, but it sure seems to stop after the pump. I checked to make sure the vacuum solenoid shutoff switch was not stuck shut or something but if I suck on the vacuum line I can hear the shutoff lever cycling. I am beginning to wonder if I have a bad injector pump, but what gets me is that it ran fine before I pulled it out of the mercedes and I didnt take it off or change any of the settings during the install. Is there any other switch or something on the pump that would stop flow in the pump? I would sure appreciate any suggestions that someone familiar with this engine might have. Thanks!

 

I would double check the cam timing and then check compression. The injection pump does not squirt out a lot of fuel when cranking. Tighten all the lines and make sure your glow plugs are working then try to start it. If you have any smoke out the exhaust that usually means the engine is getting fuel.

 

I dont know if you got this going yet...

For priming:
The owners manual for my 91 says to hold the pedal to the floor and crank till it starts. The exception of course is to not overheat the starter.

The way you are doing it is the way I had always primed a dry diesel. I was kind of suprised to read that in the manual.

Do you have any pics of your install? It sounds like a great project.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Been kinda busy lately and haven't got around to doing a whole lot with the Jeep. I did double check the cam timing and she seems to be dead on. I had also tried bleeding the air up to the IP with the hand primer and then cranking it with an injector line open to bleed air but kept killing the battery . It almost seems as if the pump just isnt pumping fuel or maybe I have a small air leak in the fuel line. Are there any kind of seals in the pump that could wear out and leek air into the system? I do have a spare IP and am thinking about changing it out if I can't find the problem here soon. As far as pics go, unfortunately I didn't really take any of the build process, but I'll see if I can get a few of it and post them up on here soon. Thanks!

 

I just realized my Mercedes doesnt even have a hand primer. My advice on that portion is useless to you.

Before I would start taking things apart on an engine that dis run I would double check and triple check everything.

Have you tried the gasoline on a rag method to get the engine to start? Dont use ether!

 

I worked on some medium duty trucks for a couple of years. One certain truck would never prime itself when the fuel filters were changed. The filters were always filled with fluid before installation. Then the hand pump was primed. We even cracked lines a time or two. We eventually just used ether on that thing. Was not the right thing to do. The truck never exhibited problems starting besides that. Maybe the lift pump was not priming?

 

I have no input, just questions about your conversion.
Good Luck with finding the answer to your question.

I too have an XJ and I am wanting to replace the I6 with something like a OM617. I am on a serious fact finding mission. Anything could help when anyone has time.
Thanks
Yep another newbie needing help!