Need advice - 1C Diesel

[RS13]

As per topic, I'm not too flash on diesels, having never owned one, so I need a little guidance from those who have worked on these particular motors. Its' an 1800cc 1C Diesel, in an 88 Corolla, only done 170km.

I think the headgasket is poked. It uses water as fast as the owner can fill it up, and if you turn the car over with the radiator cap off, the water shoots out in time with the cranking, so I assume the headgasket is poked? The car won't start at all, we managed to get it going roughly to get it home, it overheated a little, but not majorly and not for too long. It just cranks without firing at all now.

I've done plenty of petrol headgaskets, but are diesels any more complicated? The large amount of piping and fuel lines running around the motor look somewhat complicated.. I understand I would need to bleed the diesel pump afterwards, can anyone explain the process?

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

[sergei]

it is all straight forward, just make sure you mark where the fuel lines are coming from and to, to bleed the system you can undo 17mm flare nut just at the injector and crank the engine, you can skip bleeding just prime the pump with the hand primer on fuel filter and crank it over.
There is a chance that the head is cracked as well.

[Lloyd]

As above, they are nice and easy. Just remember where you lines go and try not to bend any of the injector lines. Might pay to write on them where each one goes just in case also.

And as Sergei said, bleeding is easy too. Take the hose off that goes out of the filter and pump with the hand pump until you get big squirts of diesel coming out, put the hose back on, crack the injector flare nuts open a little bit and crank the engine. After a few cranks it should start squirting diesel out the flare nuts. Close them back up, glow it and away it should go. Might run a bit rough for a few seconds but clear themselves quick enough.

[RS13]

Awesome, cheers guys. Are these motors bad for cracking heads? I suppose the only way to tell is take the head off and examine it?

[Rob]

I've done enough diesel headgaskets to sink a boat and I'd say that unless its a very fresh blow then the motor will be shagged.
Probably better to hoof the car and start fresh.

I you really want to replace the gasket then make sure you've got the fuel pump aligned, and you'll most likely need to set pump timing again