Ok all, I know its been a few days, just been busy
but here's a quick update
As per your all's suggestion, I went to pull the glow plugs last week, and found that the far back wire had come off the plug... so I figured well maybe that was my only issue, so I put the wire back on and thought I would wait and see the next morning if it still smoked.
After that, I went back to work on the fuel filter base.
I finally found my vacuum pump... thought I had one, but some how the box I had it a timing light and a few other rarely used tools in had traveled to the other side of the garage and got covered up with a bunch of other junk. Didn't find it until I was cleaning the entire garage out last week. Anyway, I took the vacuum pump, connected it to on end of the line on the base that went through the pressure switch hole, and then pluged the other end of the line. I was able to draw 25 inches of vacuum. It seemed to be holding, but just to be sure I left it for an hour or so, and when I came back and checked it, it had lost about 1 in. So... I started to clean out the "right stuff" that I had filled the entire indention where the pressure sensor had been, and found that the top half layer was fully cured and actually pretty tough to get out. But I found that the bottom 1/8" or so was completely fluid like it just came out of the can. Except right around where the bolt was that I had threaded into the hole, around the bolt it was fully cured. So to me that seemed to also indicate that there was an air leak around the bolt.
So... took the bolt out, cleaned all the tape off and out of the hole... if the "propane/fuel" thread tape didn't seal it, I started to think about what else I could use.
So I tried some thick "liquid" type thread sealant thats applied with a brush, that was also fuel rated. Put that on the bolt, threaded it all back in the hole etc. Let it set for a while, then once again pulled 25 inches of vacuum on it. It seemed good after an hour or so, so I let it set another 3 or 4 hours. When I came back it had once again lost about 1 inch or so of vacuum.
So I decided I was going to try jb "stick" weld "water weld" which is also fuel rated for tanks and other things.
I do
Not like the jb weld that comes in the two separate squeeze tubes, nor the liquid two part "epoxy" type push tube.
But the "stick" types, like the one in the photo above, I have had really good success with the "plastic" and "steel" mixes. But this was only the second time I had used the "water weld" version, but so far I like it too.
I kneaded it up really well for several minutes, and put it in the hole, and filled about half the port where the pressure sensor used to be, making it thicker at the edge where the hole was. Kind of filling it in a wedge shape.
**ONE thing, BEFORE the jb weld set up, I ran a small metal brush "pipe" brush through the metal line to clean out any jb weld that went all the way down the hole and into the line. I then took my air hose and shot some light pressure through there, and a short cyliner shaped chunk came out. If I had not done that, it would have set up and blocked the fuel line.
Anyway, I let the JB weld set up for a couple hours. And then came back and put a vacuum on it all night. The next morning, it too has lost about 1 inch of vacuum.
At this point I was pretty sure this tiny leak was either my vacuum pump, or the plug I used on the other end of the line... I honestly don't know.
But I decided to leave it, and put it all back together. Thus far, I haven't had any more issues. If it ever does, I'm going to look else where, as at this point I just don't think the filter base is leaking anymore.
Also, I did get the replacement temp sensor for the idiot light the other day, just hadn't had time to put it on until today.
So I pulled the old one, plugged the hole with my finger, got the new down there and tried to get it in a couple thread to stop the coolant pouring out.... finished tightening it up... then cleaned up the mess of coolant afterward.
I also went pulled the glow plugs today. I first just pulled the 4 out of the passengers side head.
Tried to test them as per your instruction Cucvrus. But someone was borrowing my charger... so I instead used a set of jumper cables and a truck battery which had just been charged recently.
I put the plug in the ground clamp make sure it was only touching what would be grounded in the block. Dipped the tip in oil, then touched the positive clamp to the tab... nothing, nada, zero. Didn't even get warm to the touch.
So I thought Ok, maybe I found the bad plug on the first try. So I went to the 2nd plug... still nothing... At this point I was wondering about my battery, so I put my tester on it, and it was showing 800cca... I though
"Hummmm... that should be plenty of power..."
So I tried the 3rd plug... still nothing... Now I'm thinking that I can't be screwing this up... seems pretty straight forward...
so finally I tried the 4th plug... Presto it burnt the oil off almost instantly. So I went back and re-tested the previous 3, and still nothing on any of them...
WoW.... 3 out of 4 Glow Plugs are Bad???!
I knew I had also seen a short little puff of smoke this morning from the drivers side tail pipe, so I pulled the 4 gp's from the driver head too.
Tested all of them.
2 Bad and 2 good....
The truck was starting with just
3 working glow plugs in it. Good thing it wasn't winter I guess.
I was intending on just buying 2 or 3 plugs to replace the bad ones... but since I only have
3 GOOD plugs... I'm just going to go ahead and get a whole new set of glow plugs, and keep these 3 good one's as backups.
Cucvrus, you said the OE number is AC delco 13G?
These are AC Delco plugs, but they have some long number on them instead of the "regualr" part number.
If I remember right, I looked up the number here on SS when I replaced them about 6 years ago.
But I looked it up on O'reilly's, and for the civy truck they only show the
AC delco 60G ??? And they even have the 13G period.
Would this 60G by chance be an "updated" number?
I did find the
AC 13G on Amazon though. So I'll probably just order them from there.
I've reinstalled all these plugs for the time being. At least it starts easy... which is the weird part to me.
If it had been having hard time starting, GP's would have been the first thing I would have checked. But it starts pretty quick... it does run a bit rough for about 3-5 seconds, guess the cylinder warming up since the GP's aren't working. Of course it is still hot, as it was 90 something earlier, so I'm sure thats why.
Anyway,
You guys were right on about the smoke. Really glad it is just the Glow Plugs... Looking forward to getting the new replacements and getting them installed.
Thanks Again All