Diesel purge anyone?

Was just wondering if anyone has tried a diesel purge on the Hijet and what kind of effect it had? I don't put much faith in just adding redex to a tank, have tried 2 stroke oil to try and calm down the nailing noise and hopefully give the fuel system a longer life, but it still sounds like it could do with a bit of a clean out. I know diesel purges are often thought of as almost a miracle cure in old Mercedes circles, so figured it might be worth a punt for the 'Jet.

If you have a hammer gun noise on a diesel it tends to be exhaust side? Have not long sorted EGR, turbo/ Wastgate and intercooler on my merc which cured all the noise i was getting.

Is you MPG low?
Do you have an EGR valve on yours? if so take that off as well as the intake manifold and give it a dam good clean out with oven cleaner.
As for clean out out of fuel side instead of wasting money on fancy additives, good old acetone added to the fuel works great, used to add that with veg oil. Paint thinners from a proper car paint shop will give you the correct stuff. Nail polish removers tend to be an alternative these days.

Oh don't forget to clean all the connecting pipes and your cat may need a good flush out also?

Thanks for the ideas, I've always just assumed this kind of noise would be an injection thing. If it stops raining for a while I might have a poke around to see how much of a pain it'll be to get the egr and intake off. 50k miles... wonder how clogged it'll be. It's not exactly the cleanest burning little engine. It gets about 45mpg, no idea if that's good or bad for these.

Well I would be happy with that return for me. If the output is choked up then it can not breath out properly. All those diesel exhaust gasses choke up the intake because of the recirculation with the EGR, so it can not breath in properly either. There are plenty of magic potions to clean this without taking it apart. I know nobody that it has worked for and end up having it taking apart and cleaned. It is well worthy exercise to perform no matter what.

A good run afterwards keeping decent revs will help clean up the valves a bit as well with acetone added. Most magic potions just contain this anyway. Do google for homebrew fuel aditives and you will see what a con they are for the price.

Roadie wrote: try and calm down the nailing noise .

Is it knocking its arse off?

Have you dropped the engine oil to see if its full of big end bearings?

Derv hijets are known for spinning big end shells

Interesting scenario that one HJ and could fit with over heating problem these suffer from if they have the same cooling setup as the petrol (not seen a diesel version). If the shells get too hot the oil holes become blocked from cooked oil and can spin knocking them out of shape. If left too long kills the cam shaft and conrods.

Roadie could you post a vid of the engine running? there quit a distinct noise between the two scenarios here. And the noise would come from the top or the bottom of the engine depending which?

HJ, it's hard to say how bad it is because I have no grounds for comparison. My diesel experience so far has always been old Peugeots which sound nothing like this (if it should sound similar to them, yeah, it's trashed!). One of the first things I did when I got it was an oil change, but I always use a vacuum pump, so if there were bits of metal in it I'd not have seen. It's never overheated in my ownership, though the cooling system is weird. I have to look for the guide on here of how to properly fill and bleed the petrol, give it a try and see if it works. If I fill up the radiator at the front, the level slowly goes down as it fills then overflows the expansion tank, so there's always an air gap at the top of the rad. It doesn't seem right to me.
Back to the knocking thing, doing a video definitely seems like a smart next step, I'll dig out a camera and get something to listen to.
Cheers guys!

You need to fill and bleed your cooling system as per many posts on here.

I think HJ has done a "how to" post using a watering can with a length of hosepipe on it.
You need to get water up into the heater matrix and all the air out. It is the safest way as you can top the system up with a water/antifreeze mixture.
I use a mains hose pipe to purge the system but I lose some of the antifreeze mixture so not to be recommended.

But living on the Isle of Wight it's usually mild even in mid winter. In 41 years of living here I have only once had a frozen rad or engine coz I couldn't afford the antifreeze as it was the one and only time I have been on the Dole.

Here we go - that's it from stone cold. I think it gets a bit quieter after a journey, either that or I've lost some of my hearing by then.

Roadie it's only my opinion but it sounds quite normal to me. Small diesel engines tend to be quite noisy anyway until the oil gets a good coating across everything at warmup, hopefully somebody else on here that has a diesel will be better informed.

Drop the oil out into a clean container, then let it settle for an hour, then gently pour most of the oil into another container.

Then you can "pan for gold" (or more likely silver) in the first container by wetting it down with a bit of derv.

If you strike silver, you know you are wasting your time as its fucked.

If its all metal free, you have either a deisel injection timing or quantity issue.

I can't help you that though.

I would still look at the exhaust side of the system and give the EGR valve a good going over assuming no metal like HJ said?
Also worth thinking about is the viscosity of the oil. Assuming it was a jap import then the oil specification for there may be different than where you live. Texas being quite a warm place may specify a thicker oil. Japan is similar to UK weather wise so not a lot of difference. 10w 40 is what we use here but 10w 45 or even 50 may be more suitable?

With my limited experience of these atrocious engines ( 3) they have all been very noisy, particularly when cold but even when hot they are noisy.

I have one still in the van which starts on the button. If you want to hear that start up from cold and warm up to make a comparison I can do that. I don't know though what sort of length of time a video file you can send by email but you can ring me and listen over the phone if either helps you out.
Email me your mobile number first then I will contact you. Regards Woody hi.jetmaniow@gmail.com

I have just found out that the largest file I can send is 20mb. I tried to send my son a 1minute film of a Badger that comes into my hallway by the lounge to be fed and isn't fussed by the television or my flash pictures or the video light.
Also have over 25 pictures of him coming in and feeding.
He even bashes at the cat flap to come in and last night after opening the door for him, as he walked by me stuck his nose on my foot to sniff the delightful odour.
Pretty amazing living here in Niton. Badgers, Red Squirrels, foxes, rare birds in the back garden including a Nightingale, loads of Buzzards and occasionally even a Red Kite.
And that's the Bird variety Logi before I get any comments about wind or some other very enlightening comments.

That sounds pretty sweet, I feel lucky if I get a sparrow or crow or something in my garden.
I'll not bother asking you to make videos or anything just yet, I'll follow the advice I have so far and drop the oil. I'll probably try the diesel purge if I happen to see the stuff at a decent price, but making sure the engine isn't dissolving lower down is going to be my first priority.
One thing I realised is it might even be 5w40 oil I have in it, because on the Lombardini manual I got on here lists that weight and that's what I have most of lying around. It's rated for direct injection diesels but I wonder if that's adding to noise. I've never noticed any difference in noise changing viscosity on other cars but on an engine this unrefined maybe.
Hmmm... I wonder about an engine transplant...

Don't bother. Too much work. Unless like the diesel pickup rolling shell I sold last year, the chap is putting together a BMW 4LTR.V8 260BHP engine in the back.
He put a Honda 1000 CBR Engine in the previous pickup and sprayed it Orange and Black. It looks superb.
Sell it and buy a 1300 Hi-Jet. The difference is like going from a mini to a Golf GTI. 34bhp to 65bhp. No contest.

It's always just been a thought at the back of my head with it, if the engine were to expire, what would be possible. Other half also wants a Micra with a Nissan SR20 engine (2 litre thing known for being pretty tuneable) and a bunch of other things we talk about doing. Mine is a bit more boring, I was thinking Peugeot TUD5 or maybe XUD if it fitted. It would be mostly for the fun of actually doing it, not remotely looked into it. Might be factors I don't know about making it a no-go right from the start.