Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Greeting all good Pajero owners of this great forum.
Thanks for letting me in!
Being in need of a proper towing machine to haul my other projects around I´ve recently bought a 2005 Pajero with a 3,2Di-D 4M41 engine. The car had been sitting for about 4-5 years when I bought it, but according to the previous owner it ran when parked… Well, I´ve heard that one before… The price was fairly good so I decided to take a gamble. According to the seller he had started it up once every few months while in storage. I did an attempt to start it when viewing and after very long cranking it sort of woke up and fired up. It ran bit rough in idle, but would not rev at all and that’s when I noticed that there was fuel dripping from the bottom of the fuel filter. Turns out the thread on the water sensor plastic cap was nearly gone, so it would not go in properly and the o-ring was missing. Hoping it could be an easy fix I bought the car.
- Now I have installed a new fuel filter and a new water sensor with o-ring but it won’t fire at all.
- I have scanned the ECU with a DELPHI scanner and there are no error codes for the engine at all.
- I have checked the throttle butterfly by removing the boost pipe and it seems to be working. It’s the kind with the electronic actuator, not the vacuum one
- I´ve also had a look at the fuel filler pipe in the rear wheel well and it seems to have been buried in wet dirt for years. Can´t see if it´s leaking though. Can´t smell any fuel around there either, but frankly I can´t smell much at all since my fare share of COVID in March. Can barely distinguish diesel fuel from gasoline…

Is there anything else I could check or test doing before I decide to tear off the injector pump and have it tested/reuilt?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!

Did you bleed the filter? Injector lines may be airlocked.

They are mechanical injectors. They might need bleeding.

Crack the union nuts loose a few turns, swing the engine full throttle a few seconds. Tighten the union nuts and try again.

While cranking, check the exhaust. White smoke is unburnt diesel. No smoke means no diesel is injected.

Thanks for commenting and for the advice, Pikanini!
I did prime the filter initially, pressed a few times on the hand pump until there was noticable resistance and loosened the bleeding screw. Repeated that same procedure a few times making sure there was only fuel and no air coming out.
What I did notice though, is that there is almost no or little resistance in the hand pump after cranking. But after puming 5-6 times by hand resistance comes back - is that normal?

Today i tried to follow your advice and bled the injector lines. Unfortunately there was absolutely no change. It would not start or even fire a slightest little bit. Not at all. I did not remove the valve cover, so i cant say if there was any fuel coming out of the injector lines (I am guessing it would be visible with the cover off), but there was definately no smoke. So probably no diesel.

If the pump is bad - would it deliver any diesel at all, i am guessing in most cases it would, but the pressure would be all wrong, maybe even not enough to open the incetors.... So if i lift the valve cover tomorrow and check for fuel coming (or not coming) out of the injector lines, would that give me any hints?

On my KUBOTA tractor i once had a shut off valve gone bad not allowing it to start. Is there any way to check that?

And last but not least - in case i face a broken pump - would it be possible to find a write-up or tutorial somewhere on how removal is done?

Thanks !