GVI Energy Cell how-to with pics

I had just noticed the "energy cell" chapter in my manual, and decided I would try to clean mine up. I had bought a tool from Tessman Tractors for around $84.00 shipped. It's very well machined, and well made. You will need a very large adjustable wrench I tackled it today. So, removing the large nuts on the outside of the head was easy. Once I got into the block, the "cap" would not come out. Asking around on a few forums, they advised to cover the Energy cell hole with a board, and crank the engine over a times, and the pressure would blow it out. Which was the case. I spent 2 hours trying to pull it out, as the manual said, with a pair of pliers. Good luck with that. The turnover engine trick worked excellent. **Be aware, the plugs will come out under extreme pressure** Have a board over the head so you don't lose the plug. DO NOT have someone hold anything near it. There is a distinguishable "pop" when they come lose.
 
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The tool installed in the head
 
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Here you can see the extracted energy cell. There is a lot of carbon buildup on the leading end (closest to the combustion chamber) and between the "cap" and the energy cell. I scraped and used carb cleaner to remove all the carbon and a scotchbrite pad (brown not green) to remove carbon. I have no reference to how clean it needs to be , so I scrubbed til it was shiny bare metal.
 
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This is the leading edge (in the block) of the energy cell. It has a tremendous amount of carbon on it and requires a lot of scraping and scouring to get clean. It reminds me of scraping an AR15 bolt carrier group, if you have ever had that pleasant experience.
 
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So I put this pic in here to talk about the Holder and the Energy Cell Cap and how difficult it is to get them out. Ideally, as the manual states, you should just be able to pull them out. You cant after they have been in forever. I took some extra fine sandpaper and cleaned the carbon buildup on the side of those caps, and the side of the energy cell where it mates into the block. This allows them to slide back in without much problem. I also took the cap, laid it on a level surface and trued up the mating faces so they would snug together. Obviously, you need to be VERY careful and not remove metal so the fit is not compromised.

After cleaning, they slide in easier, but you can tell they are a very close fit, if the caps are not squared up, they are difficult to place back in the hole.
 
(quoted from post at 17:52:27 09/16/18) I had just noticed the "energy cell" chapter in my manual, and decided I would try to clean mine up. I had bought a tool from Tessman Tractors for around $84.00 shipped. It's very well machined, and well made. You will need a very large adjustable wrench I tackled it today. So, removing the large nuts on the outside of the head was easy. Once I got into the block, the "cap" would not come out. Asking around on a few forums, they advised to cover the Energy cell hole with a board, and crank the engine over a times, and the pressure would blow it out. Which was the case. I spent 2 hours trying to pull it out, as the manual said, with a pair of pliers. Good luck with that. The turnover engine trick worked excellent. **Be aware, the plugs will come out under extreme pressure** Have a board over the head so you don't lose the plug. DO NOT have someone hold anything near it. There is a distinguishable "pop" when they come lose.
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This is the head with the Energy Cell removed. You can see the mating face in the block. It is very difficult to clean this. I used a toothbrush and carb cleaner and a rag after scrubbing it a bit. They mated up well after cleaning and carbon removed off the Energy Cell.
 
Total waste of time and money buying puller. Seldom ever give any trouble. You won't gain
anything by changing. Problem is never cells but compression or valves/guides
 


Your trouble now is that you need to lap both surfaces on a lapping plate

to make perfect fit or you will probably now have a compression leak.

george
 
I've had them carbon up on a buda. Seen a couple that MM engines o thought were plugged cells at auctions but never got one bought to find out.
 
I did. I had seen a previous post about doing that(you may have posted that in another thread)and I did it before I put them back together. I couldn't take a pic of that since I had nasty hands during that process. She runs great, given I was in the hurricane Florence at the time, I couldn't run it very long.
 
I bought an energy cell puller when I was in the US three years ago. I?m doing up the engine in my 604, have the heads off, and was about to pull the energy cells to clean them. Sounds like it might not be worth the effort. Hadn?t heard that view expressed before. Bit surprised - thought removing the carbon would be a good thing.

Jack
 
(quoted from post at 05:54:19 09/20/18) I bought an energy cell puller when I was in the US three years ago. I?m doing up the engine in my 604, have the heads off, and was about to pull the energy cells to clean them. Sounds like it might not be worth the effort. Hadn?t heard that view expressed before. Bit surprised - thought removing the carbon would be a good thing.

Jack

Couple weeks out now. It doesn't smoke as much. YMMV.
 
I ask out of curiosity. What purpose do these energy cells serve and are they unique to MM? I only have propane MM’s.
 
Not unique to M-M, they are used in any diesel that operates on the "LaNovia" (sp) system. The injector sprays diesel into the cell which is assumed to be hot so the diesel will vaporize better and then burn when the compression gets high enough.
 

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