Glow plugs are in!

I did the driver's side glow plugs, and now I have 8 new (ish) glow plugs! It was relatively easy.

I wish I had done this back in March, when I did the first 4 glow plugs (on the passenger's side). The driver's side were MUCH easier to do. No problem at all.

It takes a few cranks to start, but it does definitely start. But it's also warm and sunny this week. We'll see how it goes once it gets cold and foggy again.

I also changed the fuel filter. It was FILTHY, yet again! I think this is the fourth time I've changed it. I cleaned out a ton of gunk at the bottom of the filter housing, but couldn't get all of it because there is some kind of plate separating it. It's inaccessible. I did the best I could.

It's possible that the seals disintegrated on the fuel return lines because the filter was so clogged. The return line appears to head back into the filter. Perhaps the clogged filter was creating a high pressure area, and that's what was stressing those seals and caused them to blow out on me.

I don't know if I was able to clean out the fuel filter drain pipe though. That gunk might have it totally clogged still. I couldn't access the hole to poke anything through it to clean it out. And I can't access the drain hose from underneath the engine either; it's just not accessible.

So it's possible that the WATER IN FUEL! WATER IN FUEL! light was blinking at me because... there was water in the fuel! That'd certainly explain the hard starting in the mornings! Water doesn't combust very well.

It's possible that I have some kind of air bubble in that drain line though, because when I remove the filter then fuel comes gushing out of there! Doesn't seem very clogged to me. I still don't understand the physics of how that fuel/water separator is supposed to work anyway, and that's probably why I haven't figured out how to fix it yet.

But anyway, at least this thing has all new glow plugs. I hope that eliminates the hard starting problem.