[Vwdiesel] More Dasher?

[William J Toensing]

I am originally from Minn. Moved from Mpls to LA in 1969. Moved from LA (Pasadena) to rural Nevada City in 1993. I actually live between Rough & Ready & Grass Valley but with a Nevada City mail address.

In winter of 2005-6 I replaced the head of my Dasher. I then had some health problems that zapped me from enough energy from working on the Dasher (first Shingles & then CLL, a form of Leukemia), finished chemo in Jan.'07, & still lack some strength & ambition but managed to replace the LF wheel bearing & driveshaft & finally get the car on the road. Ran fine the first day, then on day two, while taking it to a local A/C specialist, it started missing & smoking under the hood. Smoke seems to becoming from the front of the engine, as if the head gasket is leaking. I thought I should wait till I get 600 miles on the engine but in view of what happened, will re torque the head & hope it fixes the problem, but fear it won't. Then I will run a compression test & fear I will have to remove the head again. Or, I may run a compression test on the '80 dasher diesel parts car & if good, replace the entire engine, if it runs OK.. 

I installed quick start glow plugs. Yesterday, I bypassed the timer with a jump wire directly from the battery to the glow plugs & it started right off. Today, I cycled the glow plugs about 5 times in rapid succession when the glow plug light went out, & it started right up, although missing. How much current do the glow plugs draw when all 4 are activated? I am thinking of using a push button starter to  activate the glow plugs manually, using a 12 volt starter relay to carry the current directly from the battery to the glow plugs. But maybe there is a better way, besides replacing the glow plug timer relay.