I received the engine in reasonable condition, but with a few problems:
The circlip on the governor arm shaft was missing and the pin on the governor arm that engaged with the governor was loose. I installed a spare circlip and fastened the pin with high strength thread locking compound. The pin on the starter drive fell out every time I used it so I also fastened this pin with high strength thread locking compound. I straightened up the external plumbing to get a neater appearance. Eventually I do plan to replace the (ugly) line from the pump to the injector for appearance reasons. This will be done with 4mm copper tubing and brass compression ferrules from Amazon. I obtained 4mm tubing with 1mm wall thickness and this also might seal better than thinner tubing.
After priming the injector line, I got the engine started using a heat gun and controlling the governor manually. Once running it became obvious that the injection cam was advanced too far since there was heavy knocking. I reset the cam by trial and error (approximately 7 degrees advanced with reference to the crank pin) and got the engine running quite well, but still with manual governor control. Note: small changes in injection advance from optimum can make a big difference so experimentation is in order. For example, there is more leakage than I would like from the injector line and this may require more ignition advance.
I shortened the governor spring by about 70% and it was still too weak. I installed a stiffer spring I had lying around was finally able to obtain automatic governor control (see video). I am still looking for a better spring...
Once the injection timing was “optimized” the engine started much more easily (but still needed prewarming with the heat gun) and responded to different governor settings by speeding up and slowing down as expected and was mostly free of diesel knock. With incorrect advance (too much or too little), the engine only ran at one governor setting and speed. A minor glitch during my experiments was that the hinge pin on the governor arm fell out. I replaced it with a 2 mm screw that actually threaded into a tapped hole in the governor arm, and for extra security, I locked the screw in place with a nut.
From the video soot and oil can be seen spraying from the exhaust stack. I will put a drain fitting in the bottom to prevent unburned fuel from accumulating in the stack which should keep things much cleaner.
Note that there is a “gasoline” can in the backgrounds of the video. It is actually an empty container I filled with diesel flue to create a local diesel supply.
