It had to happen again, just after 7 O clock this morning i got a phone call "the Shogun won't start and run, it keeps cutting out and won't tick over, can you come and have a look" which i duly did.
As I arrived my mate shouted "he is here dear, put the kettle on, coffee, white, no sugar" and we went to have a look at his Shogun which has been stood in his barn for 3 months while he fits it out for expedition use, it was on the axle stands with the digital electronic battery conditioning charger connected.
I asked a few rudimentary questions, he had changed the oil, oil filter, diesel filter, air filter, coolant, and added a proprietery compound to the engine oil to protect the engine while it stood as he fitted it out, so all should have been well and the vehicle should have run.
The usual checks were made, glow plugs fine, nothing obvious, then we tried to start it; it started fine and ran at very low revs on tickover and was struggling to maintain this, engine smoke poured out of the exhaust which indicated too much diesel or not enough air reaching the engine.
As it died we left it for several minutes and tried again, it started and ticked over erratically, then i saw it, the main air feed pipe from the filter housing to the engine was trying to suck itself in which is unusual as these are reinforced pipes, so off with the air filter housing cover and out with the air filter. It ran fine with the filter cover and filter removed, so where was the problem?
The base of the filter housing had an abnormally high number of small twigs in the bottom, considering the vehicle was serviced and stood it should have nothing in the housing, and the newly installed filter was as it should have been, clean as a whistle. After removing the air feed pipes from the filter to the air pick up scoop it became obvious, a considerable number of twigs fell out, and in the pipe we found a nest of some sort which had been built in the convoluted section of the pipe, there was the problem, something had built a nest in there and it was restricting the air to the engine.
Once it was cleaned and re-assembled everything was fine; it just shows the unusual nature of some problems you may encounter, and as my mate has suffered with an influx of mice it was most likely them which caused the problem, so he has put plenty of traps down.
Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:54 am