I have a 1976 Bedford MJ (330 non turbo), which refuses to start when cold.
The lorry has been a timber tractor for most of its life, it only has 1500 miles on the clock (which I believe to be genuine but it will have done as many miles backwards as forwards). The guy it came from said that it started fine, unless it was cold and then he used some easy start.
I have replaced the battery (which helped A LOT it being a 12V system – discovered that BMW X5s have an equivalent 900A starting current battery!), replaced all the filters and changed the engine oil.
The engine starts first time every time if it has been running earlier on in the day (even if a number of hours ago), but if not it just wont start unless you use easy start (which I know is generally bad news for the engine). It just turns over (at a reasonable speed), puffs smoke out of the exhaust but dose not do anything else.
Having read the various posts on here, I don’t believe my cold start works (though I will check it next time im over with it), at least it doesn’t seem to make the whooshing noise others speak of. Having said that, it won’t start when “cold” even when the ambient temperature is at least 15-20 degrees.
Any ideas or suggestions as to what to try?
Tev