Here are a few signs of a cracked engine head. These are the symptoms I experienced when my engine head cracked. I replaced the entire engine head myself and now it runs normal.
•Coolant level dropping in your reservoir bottle over a week time.
•Coughing out a black sooth from the exhaust onto your floor. (This was the coolant that got into your cylinder(s) through the crack and is now being pushing through the exhaust. The sooth is from the coolant mixing with the stuff in your exhaust and coming out the end).
•Lots of white smoke being thrown out your exhaust when the engine is cold started. Note: don't rely completely on this white smoke as blown glow plugs, bad fuel injectors, dirty fuel filter(s) and dirty air filter can also cause this.
•Van stuttering on cold start.
•When there is a really big crack, it can sometimes cause the engine to stall and will take a good 5+ seconds of tumbling to start. (Stalled on me twice while it was idling even though the engine was running at normal operating temperature).
Paullct wrote:domo check your oil level and that mesh strainer mentioned above, could be the fuel pump. why you doh just go by justin boy?
Who is Justin? A diesel mechanic? I too would like to know a good diesel mechanic.