Copper O-rings for glowplugs 003

[Crawdaddy]

How important are the copper o-rings that seal the glowplugs to the head? Will it work fine without them, work but have some leakage, or cause catastrophic damage? I think I'm short at least a couple, and I have been unsucessful in locating some more so far. Is there a civvy part that will work in its place?

 

[PeterD]

It will leak... An auto parts store might have the right sized copper o-rings, and (long shot) I know Harbor Freight has a copper o-ring kit, but the sizes in it are a bit limited.

 

[doghead]

How many do you need? What happened to the old ones? Your new plugs came without them?

 

[Harleyd315]

I have had to replace one on my mep003 and the gasket that sealed the injector to the head was not copper. It was a metalic fiber gasket that ressembled the exhaust manifold gaskets I used on heavy machinery engines. I got my new gskts from Delks Surplus.

 

[Crawdaddy]

I have had to replace one on my mep003 and the gasket that sealed the injector to the head was not copper. It was a metalic fiber gasket that ressembled the exhaust manifold gaskets I used on heavy machinery engines. I got my new gskts from Delks Surplus.

You're talking about the injector, I'm talking about the glow plugs.

When I pulled the glow plugs, 3 of the 4 did not come out on the glowplug. They may be stuck in the head, I need to get in there with a pick and see if I can find them. I would have thought they would have come out on the glowplug like it did for one of them. If they're not there, I'm going to need up to 3 of them.

 

[runk]

If you do find the old ones, it helps a lot to anneal them (heat to red hot with with a propane torch, then let them cool slowly - leave them sitting on the firebrick or steel plate you heated them on), then sand them flat (I use very fine wet/dry sand paper on a chunk of plate glass) before you try and re-use them. They work harden when used, and don't seal nearly as well on the 2nd use without the annealing. It has gotten much harder to find replacement copper washers lately, as no new applications use them. Most of the old school auto parts houses around here are out, and even McMaster Carr only carries a few sizes these days.

 

[storeman]

I have had to replace one on my mep003 and the gasket that sealed the injector to the head was not copper. It was a metalic fiber gasket that ressembled the exhaust manifold gaskets I used on heavy machinery engines. I got my new gskts from Delks Surplus.

On your injector, if you remove the injector body from the heat sink, there
is a thick copper washer in there. That is in addition to the fiber one between the heat sink and the block.

 

[Hasbeen]

Any diesel injection shop will have a "junk drawer" full of assorted copper washers left over from various repair kits (I know the one I worked in had several), as well as "on size" or application specific individual washers. If you have a fuel shop in your area, and the sample washer to match up, they most likely will give you suitable replacements.

Good luck.

Hasbeen

 

[storeman]

Hasbeen,
Glad to see you back on the board. Hope all is well.
Jerry

 

[NJ_Toolnut]

Hi Everyone,

The TM-24 calls it "gasket, glow plug", and it looks like a flat washer in Figure 46 on page 144. I have not had to remove a glow plug (yet), so I have not seen one of these up close and personal. If it is an ordinary flat washer made of soft unalloyed copper, I may be able to machine some, but not if it is an o-ring or is made of some special copper alloy. Can anyone please post an image? If it is a flat washer, I would need thickness, outside diameter and inside diameter to duplicate.

Best regards,

Stan

 

[Keith_J]

These washers are 3/8" OD, 1/4" ID and 0.032" thick. McMaster-Carr have metric equivalent, only they are a bit tight in ID. No problem, I used a letter sized F reamer to fix that.

Or you could just order 94397A542 which they now carry. Perfect fit.

 

[Crawdaddy]

I finally got a chance to take a look at my genset to see how many copper washers I have. In short, I have none. I do have one, but it's forever stuck on a swollen glowplug. I found the remnants of a second that was mashed and mangled and partly in the threads for the glowplug hole. The third, I'm not sure if it's a washer, or the bottom of the glowplug hole. I tried pulling it out with my pick, but it wouldn't budge a bit, so it's either firmly entrenched in the hole, or not a washer.

Assuming that what might be a washer in the hole is indeed a washer I can't get out, what would the consequences be of leaving it in there and putting another washer on the glowplug? On one hand I would think there might be sealing issues, but on the other, it seems like between the 2 copper washers, they would conform to each other and seal fine.

Anyone have a set of 4 copper washers to spare? If not, I guess I'll be ordering the ones from McMaster-Carr.