This winter my CRD's turbo shot out, and I'm getting it replaced here in the next couple weeks. My mechanic is a "big" diesel mechanic but he's been happy to help me out with my "little" diesel. I've got him going over the information for doing the Timing belt job. I'm only at 86k miles but being 7-8 years old (don't know if the Jeep was early or late 06) I'm just trying to preempt any catastrophic failures. I want this Jeep to be problem free for the next few years.

Which brings me to my question. What is it about the ceramic glow plugs that makes them have issues coming out? And would there be any reason why I couldn't have him apply some penetrating oil/pb blaster to all 4 of them while we're doing the turbo here shortly so that I could have him replace my glow plugs at the timing belt service with the 7v metal ones?


Turbo, Timing Belt w/ water pump, thermostat, and glow plugs. Anything else that I have to take care of to keep this thing from grenading itself prematurely?

Removal of the ceramic glow plugs is generally as simple as unscrewing them. That said it is important to remove anything, that especially includes the intake elbow, that is in the way of clear straight in access to each glow plug so that they can be, once unscrewed, pulled straight out of their holes. Some recommend once they start unscrewing that you push a piece of proper size tubing (fuel line, vinyl tube, whatever) onto the glow plug to serve as a "handle" to finish unscrewing and removing. The ceramic tips are not particularly fragile but they will snap off if too much sideways force is applied during removal as I well know.

A bit of penetrating lube and a slightly warm engine (about as warm as the block heater makes it) can also help if a gp is "sticky" about coming unscrewed.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Thanks! I was worried that they were frequently troublesome, but I guess we see far more posts on the forums (and in search) about the ones that had problems, right?

How many shop hours would you guess it takes for the whole job? Three? Would it be best to schedule my mechanic to do the timing belt and the glow plugs simultaneously while he would have things out of the way?

I would allow at least 8 hours for someone who has not done this before. You can save a couple hours by just replacing the front half of the pump, but my estimate assumes that. The Weeks 101 intake elbow saves about 3 hours when replacing glow plugs, but again, my estimate assumes that. Does he have all the special tools needed?

Your dilemma is whether to remove cam tray and install ARP studs and check/replace rockers if head gasket is leaking. You should check for for coolant loss and see if you have residual pressure in the header tank after an overnight cooldown. Also pressure test intercooler for leaks and check turbo for excessive shaft play.

DOC

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2005 KJ CRD Ltd Detroit TrueTrac Bilsteins G2 GDE "HOT" ECU GDE TCM "Tow Tune" "euro" TC SEGR Weeks Elbow New HG at 130K ARPs Clean CAT aFe Filter Magnaflow Exhaust EHM Cumminos In-Tank Lift Pump Hayden Fan Clutch Nylon Fan VH Enabled with GDE lower shutoff point Recalibrated Temp Gauge Tekonsha Prodigy Sears P-1 ZDDP

The turbo definitely had excessive play, to the tune of gobbling oil out the exhaust side!

Head gasket and coolant are all fine, just the thermostat is failed open. It'll be getting replaced with the timing belt. Intercooler will get checked when the turbo gets replaced in 2-3 weeks.

Sorry, my time reference was for the glow plugs. I'd gathered that the timing belt was a solid 8 hour job. I'd rather pay for 10 hours then have a short cut wreck my rockers. I can't wait to get this preventive maintenance over with so I can start doing the "fun" stuff.

Knowing what I know now, I would absolutely install ARPs and replace rockers in your current situation. Ours has been perfectly maintained with GDE tunes for most of its life and NEVER overheated. At 130K, it needed a head gasket because of badly configured OEM head bolts losing torque. If you are replacing the water pump, you have to remove the back half of the timing cover. It is very little additional work at that point to install ARPs and prevent an inevitable head gasket failure in 20K to 50K additional miles. Easy to replace worn rockers at this point as well.

Wish I had known to do this when I did the full TB service at 100K miles.

DOC

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2005 KJ CRD Ltd Detroit TrueTrac Bilsteins G2 GDE "HOT" ECU GDE TCM "Tow Tune" "euro" TC SEGR Weeks Elbow New HG at 130K ARPs Clean CAT aFe Filter Magnaflow Exhaust EHM Cumminos In-Tank Lift Pump Hayden Fan Clutch Nylon Fan VH Enabled with GDE lower shutoff point Recalibrated Temp Gauge Tekonsha Prodigy Sears P-1 ZDDP