826 German diesel hard to start

I recently acquired an IH 826 German diesel with a Bosch fuel pump. It has about 10,000 hours on it and it also has the gold paint. Anyway it will not start, in any weather, without ether. I have checked the pump timing per some posts here on YT and it appears correct at 16d btc. Once running it seems to run pretty well. I have little knowledge about these motors so I thought I would ask you guys what sort of checks can I perform before I begin spending big cash on it. What should the compression be on this model? Thanks in advance!

Don't know anything about this engine but your symptoms are telling me it is time for an overhaul. Low compression makes a diesel start hard. Does it start ok after it has been running a while then shut off and restarted? I've seen a lot of diesels with the same problem.

I've heard there is a sweet spot on the throttle when starting the german diesels. When you pull the throttle open there should be a little tough spot in the middle?

Pull the shut-off about half way out. There's a starting position on it.

You pull the fuel shut off cable about a third to half way out to start it. There may even be a little notch on the cable to show where to set it. It has nothing to do with where the throttle is set. Pull that tee handle shutoff out a ways and start cranking. I"ll bet it will start.

Hard starting problems can be several things . (1) your pump and injectors may need rebuilt . (2) the valves may need to be readjusted (MAY) (3) it may need a valve job as if the valves are setting down in the head to far then this will reduce cranking compression. (4) your sleeves and pistons maybe plum slap wore out and you are low on cranking pressure . You have no idea when or IF it was ever overhauled . So you maybe looking a a total rebuild and if you have to go that route then install the updated pistons and make sure the machine shop knows how to get the valves as there proper height. and do the fuel system at the same time . If it has been started with EITHER SHE GO OR EITHER SHE BLOW then i am betting on the total rebuild .

Hi Nathon, according to my I&T Shop manual for D-310 compression is 315 to 340 psi at sea level at cranking speed.
Valve tappet gap hot: Intake = 0.010, Exhaust = 0.012.
Re 10,000 Hrs is not that high of hours on a German Diesel if it has been properly maintained. Hope no one has had the injection pump off and put it back 180 degrees out of time. Believe it or not but the engine will be hard to start but will run and may smoke and slobber a lot.

JimB

Probably a compression problem with that many hours but there is a ton of wrong information on starting these engines. First off, does it have original style injection pump. That would be a Bosch CR version. The head of pump is circular configuration where injection lines are at. The sweet spot mentioned is where that engine runs the highest rpms with throttle set at lowest speed. This should correspond with the point where the lever on pump just touch's the spring loaded plunger and that is adjustable. Once you get that adjusted properly, to start you leave throttle in lowest speed position, pull cable until lever on pump just contacts that spring loaded plunger. This will give maximum fuel for starting. As soon as it start, just push in cable and adjust speed with throttle. If you put throttle just part way for more speed when pulling cable it will actually reduce fuel and start harder. If you have the CR, later version pump, then you advance the throttle part way when starting. The service manual gives complete instructions on which procedure is used with which pump. Also, IH released a higher compression piston for those engines and that starts much better. Very hard to determine what pistons you have or what your valve recession in head is (which has a lot to do with hard starting also) with a compression test as there are just too many variables.

The 358 was used in the 826
The 310 was used in the late 686