My 1969 Datsun 521 kingcab

[waynosworld]

I don't really know what your offering me but I can guess, it's a glow plug unit(brain/ECU??) that would operate the glow plug relay and somehow it also has an afterglow option, does it have a stand alone harness?
Would I have to delete my existing glow plug system?
Could the afterglow part be integrated into my existing system?
This does interest me but I need to know a little more.

[dieseldorf]

it's a glow plug unit(brain/ECU??) that would operate the glow plug relay and somehow it also has an afterglow option, does it have a stand alone harness?

Yes, but it comes with no harness, just the electrical plug for it. I would suggest to you to get familiar with the Maxima GP system and then decide, if it'll work for you. There are schematics on this forum. Just search in the LD82 or Maxima sections.

Update: After reviewing the LD28 GP system I came to the conclusion that it will NOT work correctly in your truck, because among others, you have 4 glow plugs and the ld28 has six.

[waynosworld]

Thankyou for looking into it for me, I would rather keep my existing system in-tacked and use this work around for heating the intake air to help it start easier than to re-invent my wiring harness, I have a separate relay operating "Air Heater Element" with a stand alone harness I made, something automatic would be nicer but it is low tech enough for me to understand.

I suppose if I looked into it I could likely find some kind of thermal switch that would fit into one of the thermostat housing holes I am not using that would cut the power to the "Air Heater Element" relay once the coolant got up to a certain temp, but for now I will test this setup I have out for a while, and when I get motivated I will remove everything on the intake side of the engine and drill the upper starter mount bolt hole all the way thru so I can use a long bolt to hold it tight, then I can mount the EGT probe where it should be mounted before the turbocharger, and then if this "Air Heater Element" works I can mount it under the throttle body where it will likely work better.

[dieseldorf]

An engine block heater would be more effective and practical. I don't know if Nissan ever made one for your engine. My Mercedes 190D had one, but never needed to use it.

[waynosworld]

I already have block heaters in all the diesel trucks, this "Air Heater Element" thing is for starting it right now if I forget to plug it in an hour ahead of time or if I were to stay somewhere else where it is really cold and there is no where to plug it in.

An engine block heater would be more effective and practical. I don't know if Nissan ever made one for your engine. My Mercedes 190D had one, but never needed to use it.

It has gotten to the point where I use this Air heater Element to start it all the time now(below 50 degrees), it starts so much easier and smoother if I use it and it hardly even misses, if I don't use it it misses like crazy and I have for floor it and keep it there till it gets above 1500rpms, if I don't sometimes it dies and I have to start it again, it's just so much easier on the starter also as I don't have to turn it over so long either.
In the past when I have started it when it is cold outside I hit the starter and I kept it in the start mode till it was running, if I let off the key once it started hitting it would just die, so I just kept turning it over till it was running, I don't have to do this anymore.
Today I am going to test some glow plugs I got in an Ebay diesel parts package auction I won, they look almost new(don't look cleaned up), if they work good I may change my old glow plugs out with these and see if it starts better, all 4 have 10.5 volt stamped on them, my other glow plugs I have removed in the past from SD22 engines say 11 volts.

[waynosworld]

I pulled the glow plugs and the glow plug harness today(wire going to all 4 plugs), it's kinda a pain as there is hardly any room to get my hands where I need to, the real hard one is #3 as along with no room and I can't see in there very well either, I didn't pull the injector lines either, I just don't want to stress the starter by turning over too long as replacing it will be a major all day job, anyway they all appeared to be fine, I was going to just replace them with the extra ones I tested today that I mentioned in my last post, they worked well and turned bright orange/yellow, but they appeared to be slightly shorter by about an eighth inch, so I tested the ones I removed and they glowed just as bright, I cleaned them up and put them back in and started the truck cold without using any heater, it started but missed for around 5/10 seconds before smoothing out, it was 50 degrees outside.
I also cleaned up the radiator upper supports, I shaped them to my truck, they came from a Volvo.
I took photos of the way they were on passenger side.

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The driver side finished

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I painted them and I am going to let them dry overnight, I will install them tomorrow between rain storms.

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[plenzen]

Just one thought here. What kind of shape are your injectors in. ? One of the "fixes" the Nissan techs here used was to increase the break point in the injectors to 2200psi.
Their thought was a finer mist and more of a snap when they fired. They did say that starting was improved.
Not sure if that's an avenue you want to go down as there would be an expense involved from an injection repair facility. Or even to have them checked as to their present condition.
Just $0.02.

Nice job on the rad mounts.

Growing up in Vancouver until 1977 I don't miss the Pineapple Express at all. I still have friends and family tell me "we don't have to shovel it" to which I reply, " Your right, and I don't have to pump mine" we laugh and laugh.

[waynosworld]

I don't know what kind of shape the injectors are in right now, I suspect at one point I did pull them and look as it was kinda a habit of mine 10/12 years ago when I bought a diesel engine, the engine runs so good right now that I just don't want to mess with it too much.
To actually check the injectors I would have to remove the injection lines, that would create the issue of having to turn it over for an extended period of time to start it when it was all back together, well that is not going to happen, I have mentioned before that my upper starter mount bolt is stripped out and the starter is being held up by a turnbuckle thing I made, here is what I did.
This eye bolt goes over the nipple on the end of the starter.

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This is what I made.

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And this is where I made the top connection.

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This is why I don't want to mess with my starter in any way, I have it held in place and the turnbuckle is tightened just right(there is no way to measure this), and if I were to mess it up somehow to replace it would likely take more than a day as I would have to either remove the transmission or remove absolutely everything on that side of the engine to get the starter out and fix the issue with another jury rig, the only way to properly fix it is to remove the transmission and either fix that hole in the case or replace the front case, I am just not interested in doing that unless I have to, it starts pretty good and runs really good right now, I will leave it alone until I have some other issue that necessitates pulling it apart.

[handcannon]

The next few days the weather is supposed to turn colder. The Columbia Gorge can create it's own microclimate and you live close enough to the Columbia River that it could possibly affect the temps where you live. I*'m looking forward to a report on how well the in-line heater works for you.

Don

[waynosworld]

I have been waiting patiently, the forecast depending on who you listen to has had it very cold Tuesday thru Thursday, I plan on trying to start it in below freezing temps without anything but the Air Heater Element(won't plug it in), I have never been able to get it started in them temps before without plugging it in.
Last night the low was 41 degrees, lately when I drive this truck I have been using the Air Heater Element to start it because it starts so much smoother, like I have already said, it has always been hard to start when it is cold outside on this truck, so the turbocharger has nothing to do with it, recently it dawned on me that maybe the issue is where I have my injection pump timed, it is timed for HP power and has been for the last 10 years, it is not timed for easy starting and running/idling quietly, it is very noisy/loud when idling, this may be my issue, but again I will change nothing as it runs great the way it is except for starting when cold outside, maybe this Air Heater Element will fix that issue.

[asavage]

. . . recently it dawned on me that maybe the issue is where I have my injection pump timed, it is timed for HP power and has been for the last 10 years, it is not timed for easy starting and running/idling quietly, it is very noisy/loud when idling, this may be my issue . . .

Yeah, I mentioned that upthread:

If hard cold starting is encountered, the usual suspects should be investigated: cold compression, valve lash, fuel quality, air-in-injection system, fuel restrictions (fuel quality + ambient temps), battery condition (stay above 9.5v while cranking), starter condition (sufficient cranking RPM, likely 150 RPM minimum), correct lubricant viscosity, GPs actually running for correct amount of pre-heat time and actually receiving within 0.5v of battery voltage, injection timing at spec (not guessed-at), and so on.

Two or three degrees change makes three times the difference that much would on a petrol engine.

That said, the early VW diesels (Rabbit, Golf) had a manual pull knob to be used for cold starts, that supposedly advanced the injection timing a bit. I forget the details, though I owned two of them.

[waynosworld]

Again, this engine runs too good to be messing with it, I would rather spend some time/effort starting it than change it and have it not run this good, and then fighting it trying to get it back to where it was.
To be honest I personally could not believe the result I got on my first drive when I figured out the piping, and then I found more power when I went thru that pre-filter issue I created myself, I have never been in or driven any diesel powered truck that drives like this truck does, it is fast for a diesel, it acts more like my LZ23/dual SUs engine I built with a race quality head that I have in the work truck which weighs 3900lbs, the only reason that one will go faster is because it will rev up to 5000rpms no problem while this diesel is limited to around 3500rpms, it sounds over revved any higher and it has 3.3 gears in the rear which is the best freeway gearing Nissan made for the H190 axle, I can start in second gear if I want but I suspect it is a little harder on the clutch and I would not want to tow anything starting out in 2nd gear, I do wish they made 3.0 gearing though, this engine has the torque to handle it.
This engine is going to have to have a serious problem before I will change anything, the only thing my friend had to say while he was driving it up and incline on an on ramp to the freeway was "we are already doing 70mph" and we were not even on the freeway yet.
My 720 with that Passat turbo is not like this truck at freeway speeds, my foot is deeper into the pedal to do the same speed, it just isn't the same on the freeway, this Datsun 521 truck is an all around great driver just the way it is.

[waynosworld]

Tomorrow morning should be the morning I test start this engine in below freezing conditions, it has never started below freezing in the past without plugging it in, it is 30 degrees right now but I drove it today and got back home after dark(4 or 5hrs ago), so I would say that would not count as cold soaked.
I will let you all know how it turns out tomorrow, by the way I left the air heater element on today by accident today, the light is not bright enough to be annoying during the daylight hours, for me it really needs to be on some kind of timer that shuts off automatically to be set up correctly, it doesn't really matter though as when I turn the key off it is disabled, but it needs to be a habit to turn that switch off, I mentioned this issue of mine in an earlier post.

[waynosworld]

When I got out of bed and looked at the temp outside it was 36 degrees, I went out and there was melting ice on the windshield, I started it anyway and it started fairly easy, the Air Heater Element was on a couple minutes total, it missed a couple times but in my opinion it was not really cold out like it was last night when I went to sleep, this was not really the test start I was hoping for, I will try the test again when it is colder outside.

[handcannon]

I'm surprised that the weather was that warm. I don't know the temperature here, but just before 7 AM our daughter left for work and I helped scrape Ice so she could leave. The car (2 wheel drive and studs all 4) wasn't totally in the open, the house on one side, a 30 ft tree on the other side, and several 100 foot plus fir trees less than 50 feet away on the south side of the driveway that she has to go under their overhanging branches. I would guess that the temperature was about 27 to 30 degrees.

Thank you for the update.

Don