Glow Plug Reamers
 

Why are these bloody things so expensive? $90? Really?

Someone please enlighten me on what must be an arduous process of manufacturing these things.

You can rent, borrow or make one.
 

Reamers for old engines are a half as much partly due to people having one already or borrowing one from a friend. The patent protection has expired on them long ago so there are more than one company making them now.

Maybe the demand for the newer style is high or the supply is low. It's all economics.

Actually, I'm looking for one of the large sized ones. I have a 77 240D I'd like to clean out when replacing the plugs.

You need to say which Engine the Reamer is for!

There is actually 4 ramers available for different engines/glowplugs

There is one for the loope/filiment type glow plugs.

One for the pencil type glow plugs that as an example work on my 1984 300D.

Then there is a longer one for the 606 Engines

Then there is one for the newest Mercedes diesels that is the thinnist of the bunch.

You don't need to buy the most recent Hazat Reamers. The older style ones work fine and can be had on ebay or maybe amazon.

The tumbnail is a pic of the older style Glow Plug Reamers. The sort one is for 617-952 engines (cost around $37) and 240D engines from the 1980-1985.
The longer one is for the 606 engines (cost around $62) but not the indirect injection Engines. Both reamers have 12mm threads.

There is no older style reamer for the indirect injection engines that have 10mm threads on the glow plugs that I have seen.

I saw one for 50 online
You just gotta shop around, I'm sure there are even cheaper ones than that.

The later om617 pencil glow plug reamers are the same to use on om601/2/3?

If this is the vehicle you Have : I have a 77 240D W123 Automatic." is Engine 617.912.

That needs a reamer with 18mm threads and that reamer is harder to find and more expensive.

There is a thread somewhere where I posted the Shot Gun Cleaning Brush sizes. I am sure a stainless Steel Shot Gun cleaning brush would work fine.

The engine in my 77 240D is a 616.912. So, I need one of the larger reamers.

Diesel911, I'll look for that thread, although, I'm a touch paranoid about a bristle breaking off in there.

I've got the entire set of MB reamers

they don't do any better of a job than a well greased drill bit wiggled around by hand...

And there are threads on how to make a reamer out of an old glow plug and drill bit.

Do a Google Image search for Diesel Injector Tube Brushes.

In the pic is an example of some of the used on direct injection truck engines. Note the wire bristle brushes.
Where I worked the handle was removed and the brush was chucked up in a Drill Motor and you shove the brush down the Injector Tube and gave the drill motor switch a few squeezes and pulled the brush out.

We had compressed air and a air gun that had a long needle nozzle on it. We stuck the air nozzle all the way into the combustion chamber and gave it a long shot of compressed air as we slowly pulled it out. See the red arrows.

Also there is only 4 or 5 small holes at the bottom of the pre combustion chamber.
In 18 years as a diesel mechanic I never witnessed or had someone tell me that wire bristle damaged their Engine. And, the bristles do come off especially if you use a Drill Motor to turn the Brush.

Also the bristles on the Injector Tube Brushes are a whole lot thicker then the ones on a shotgun cleaning brush meaning that the real injector tube brush bristle is thicker and you would think more likely to cause damage.

In short if using injector tube brushes was a issue they would not be on sale.

So if you follow the procedure in the service manual of cranking the Engine after you ream to blow out anything in the pre combustion chamber that should take care of any issues.

I've got a nice universal mounted reamer for the 18mm glows...

it's in the rental forum, just drop me a PM.

I picked up a used 9/32 inch reamer, to use on my 82 300D-T (OM 617.952 engine) at a local tool shop, for about $4.00. Haven't tried it out yet, though.

I don't think you have to spend a whole lot of money, unless you want to. There have been threads here which show how to do it with a drill bit.

The factory made reamer size is 7mm on your engine.

I just used a tap from my metric set. Hardly any carbon came out on it and the pre-chambers looked clean when I have had the injectors out, so doesn't seem like reaming is needed on my two OM617 engines.