cold starting trick

[Nesikep]

well, I had to fire up the old ford county the other day to clear snow, and it was -15C outside, and it has no block heater, so I had to think of another way to get it going, and it worked amazingly well

I cut a hole in the intake pipe just before it goes into the intake manifold and welded a little bung on it, then I stuck my heat gun in it and turned it on full, it heated the intake pipe and the air cleaner that way (oil bath air cleaner), and when I saw a bit of smoke coming from the air cleaner inlet, I turned it over and it fired up nearly right away, and idled like on a warm summer day, after running for a couple minutes, I removed the heat gun and plugged the hole... I'm sure this is a lot better for the engine than using a lot of ether. I tried removing the heat gun right after it started and it didn't like that much at all, started smoking and sputtering.

just a thought for all of you with cold temperatures and diesel engines... I got my idea from the way dodge cummins pickups have the intake heater rather than glow plugs

 

[AngusLimoX]

I cut a hole in the intake pipe just before it goes into the intake manifold and welded a little bung on it,

Being from BC, did you mean to say BONG! :cowboy: :lol:

I can't wait for some great stories from folks not used to cold weather using ether AND glow plugs!

 

[Angus Cowman]

I cut a hole in the intake pipe just before it goes into the intake manifold and welded a little bung on it,

Being from BC, did you mean to say BONG! :cowboy: :lol:

I can't wait for some great stories from folks not used to cold weather using ether AND glow plugs!

can you say BOOM :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[JHH]

An older farmer around here tried to ether his little geo tracker. It now sits in the shop with the head at the machine shop :lol: . Them little gas engines dont like ether to well

well, I had to fire up the old ford county the other day to clear snow, and it was -15C outside, and it has no block heater, so I had to think of another way to get it going, and it worked amazingly well

I cut a hole in the intake pipe just before it goes into the intake manifold and welded a little bung on it, then I stuck my heat gun in it and turned it on full, it heated the intake pipe and the air cleaner that way (oil bath air cleaner), and when I saw a bit of smoke coming from the air cleaner inlet, I turned it over and it fired up nearly right away, and idled like on a warm summer day, after running for a couple minutes, I removed the heat gun and plugged the hole... I'm sure this is a lot better for the engine than using a lot of ether. I tried removing the heat gun right after it started and it didn't like that much at all, started smoking and sputtering.

just a thought for all of you with cold temperatures and diesel engines... I got my idea from the way dodge cummins pickups have the intake heater rather than glow plugs

Sounds like it worked really good

 

[Aaron]

Grab yourself a battery warmer. At -15C, a good diesel with solid batteries should start.....mine does. You start to lose a lot of cranking power when the temp dips below -10C, especially if you have poor batteries. Battery warmer pack should be about $20 and is almost as good as a block heater at temps above -20C. :cowboy:

 

[novaman]

I would be leary of doing any modifications to the intake. You could get some metal filings in there and/or create a leak that will take the engine out pretty fast.

 

[skyhightree1]

I would be leary of doing any modifications to the intake. You could get some metal filings in there and/or create a leak that will take the engine out pretty fast.

ditto

 

[backhoeboogie]

Any chance of simply taking out a freeze plug and putting in a block heater? Won't even cost you $50.

 

[Nesikep]

well, I evidently had that intake pipe off the engine to do this modification (BONG installation?), so I was able to be certain that there were no metal filings in it... A block heater would be fine and dandy, but this thing is before they figured out what frost plugs were... there are none.. a magnetic oil pan heater helps a little bit, but really doesn't get the head very warm

what I'll say is this is a lot better than ether for the engine (yeah, ether and glow plugs don't like each other), and it's amazing that even after the engine has run for 20 seconds it'll stall right out if you remove the heat gun (-10C outside).. I may do a similar modification to our JD350B crawler if I have to, but it has a block heater.. it's big problem is cold hydraulic oil, and a 40GPM pump on a 40HP engine... I think if I ever need to start it when it's -20 I'll use a magnetic oil pan heater on the hydraulic oil tank, that's if a can't get the pump disconnect lever to move..

also, if you're in a pinch and have no power to preheat an engine and its really cold, take about 3 or 4 lengths of 6" stovepipe and a tiger torch, use that to blow hot air under the vehicle for 20 minutes before starting.. the stovepipe ensures that you only have hot air and no flames under the vehicle, particularly important on old, leaky equipment

 

[mattyboy]

I'm not really sure how cold -15c (20 F maybe) is but it sounds to cold for me. If it gets 50 F or below its time to break out the arctic gear. :help: :mrgreen:

 

[Nesikep]

a block heater is NICE, but this engine doesn't seem to have any provisions for it, I got the idea from my dodge cummins diesel truck, which has a heater grid in the intake

I'm considering repowering this tractor with a dodge cummins since I have a spare... 80 HP to 160 HP would be nice, and besides the fact that I'm certain the cummins is a much more efficient engine