Dexta filled with water

I have drained it down, replaced the oil filter, and re-filled with oil. The engine will turn over well but will not start. There is fuel up to the injectors. As the engine turns over, whitish blue smoke comes from the exhaust but the engine shows no inclination at all to fire.

Has anyone any ideas, please?

Regards

Howard Neil

Please see the second message in this thread (the engine is now running). I posted it earlier as a message for you but it has ended up looking like a reply to my original message.

Thank you for the information about setting the valve gaps. I have saved the information for future use. At the moment it seems as if it is my gap checking which needs practice.

It is such a relief to hear it running again. I have gone from "where is the nearest breakers yard?" to "I think I will give it a wash" in the space of a few seconds.

Once again, thank you very much for your advice.

I tried turning it over again today (having re-charged the battery overnight). At first, nothing. Then there were a couple of strange metallic noises. Then one cylinder started to fire, quickly followed by the other two. I suppose that it was a sticky valve after all and the oil had finally freed it (them). A bonus was that, after running for a while, I checked the oil expecting it to be white. It wasn't. It was good clean oil.

Thank you for your advice, Majorman. I suppose that the moral is to never give up.

A small amount of ether might help but it must be a small amount. Too much and you can damage these engines.

You could also try a tow start.

I have tried a small amount of ether (not having a usable pre-heater means that I need it on very cold days) but this made no difference. There was still no sign of firing.

A tow is out, I'm afraid. I have a front loader which is on the ground. I need the engine to work in order to lift it.

Another way which is a bit cruel but might just do the trick would be to remove the air cleaner hose at the manifold and direct the flame from a blow lamp into the manifold as you crank her over.

This is no more than what the heater does so you are not going to hurt anything. Don't use ether at the same time though.

Another way which is a bit cruel but might just do the trick would be to remove the air cleaner hose at the manifold and direct the flame from a blow lamp into the manifold as you crank her over.

This is no more than what the heater does so you are not going to hurt anything. Don't use ether at the same time though.

If the valves have become stuck, is there a safe way of releasing them, please? I presume that I would check for this by removing the rocker cover and doing a visual check. I will, of course, try the flame method first.

Using a blow lamp directly into the manifold only produced a lot more blueish white smoke out of the exhaust. I presume it was the diesel being burnt. There was not even the slightest sign of the engine firing.

I took the rocker cover off and turned the engine slowly (by way of the ring gear). There was no obvious sign of any sticking valves but three of them failed to produce any obvious gap at the rockers at all. Could this be due to the cold engine or could there be a problem at the camshaft? The engine had been working well when I last used it.

Try resetting them to 0.010" by the following method.
Turn the engine to the TDC mark on the flywheel with numbers 1 and 2 valve closed. (No.1 on compression). Set valves 1, 2, 3,and 5. Numbered from radiator end. Turn the engine 360 degrees back to TDC. Now set valves 4 and 6.

It is possible that they have been set incorrectly. This would cause your problem. The above method is from the official Ford produced workshop manual.

We adjusted the gaps when the engine was warm. We haven't run the engine yet. The rocker cover is still open (we haven't got a new gasket for the cover yet). I rechecked the gaps when the engine was cold (a few Celsius below zero). The gaps were quite small, I had difficulty inserting the blade between the valve and rocker. You said earlier that the gaps should be wider in a cold engine. Does this apply to the Dexta only or is this the same for every engine? Or did I do something wrong and I need to readjust them again?

The gap will close as the engine warms so set them warm. I normally set slightly wide when the engine is cold/first start, then reset after pulling the head down when warm.

Think you may need to recheck yours but its better to check twice than risk burning them out by being too tight.

Sorry about this. I was obviously using the wrong reply button. I have now posted two messages for you and each one has mis-threaded. They are messages two and three in the expanded list. Sorry about the confusion.