Cold weather starting tips

[Shadow99]

Gary, that's exactly why I didn't go that route! Better-half was P.O.'d last time I borrowed her hair-dryer to remove some stickers & forgot it out in the barn, during a cold rainy day, oops won't make that mistake again!

Shadow

[camshawn]

Gary, that's exactly why I didn't go that route! Better-half was P.O.'d last time I borrowed her hair-dryer to remove some stickers & forgot it out in the barn, during a cold rainy day, oops won't make that mistake again!

Shadow

Every Shop should have it's own hair drier for a starting aid or to remove stick or warm hands. Saves getting hit and having to go out in the cold to retrieve the wife's hair drier. Best 20$ I spent last year.
Cam

[Sutol]

I used to run a 220 Cummins motor in my old truck years ago and those old Cummins were notorious for bad cold starting and had no glow plugs

I used ether for every cold start, just a whiff of it through a tube direct into the inlet manifold. A short squirt of ether which was then blown into the inlet as the starter was engaged. The old Cummins would burst into life straight away without knocking as I only used a little of the stuff.
That old engine served me well and was as heathy as ever when I sold it half a million miles later so the ether did no harm at all in fact it saved the starter and battery and gave me peace of mind that she would start however cold it was.
Heating the intake air is a good tip as is pouring boiling water onto the pump and injectors prior to starting

[Trkrd]

My old Yannie doesn't like anything under 40 degrees so I got an inexpensive magnetic block heater, 450 watts I think, and stuck it on about 3 yearsago and just left it there. When I need it I will plug it in and depending on temps, it's ready to fire up within 30-60 minutes.

[Egon]

Gary, that's exactly why I didn't go that route! Better-half was P.O.'d last time I borrowed her hair-dryer to remove some stickers & forgot it out in the barn, during a cold rainy day, oops won't make that mistake again!

Shadow

Get a Heat Gun.

[JD 4520]

Every Shop should have it's own hair drier for a starting aid or to remove stick or warm hands. Saves getting hit and having to go out in the cold to retrieve the wife's hair drier. Best 20$ I spent last year.
Cam

You're a smart man and quick learner.

[art]

My skid steer has had trubles getting going in cold weather. It fires right up on the first crank but it bogs way down to around 600-900 RPM's before getting back to idle @ 1330 RPMs. Lately I give it a little throttle (around 1500 RPM) to start so it doesn't die on me. After about 30-45 seconds it levels out and runs great after that. To address the problem I ordered a block heater last week (wont have until Jan. 7th) and plan on changing the oil again soon (about 170 hours on it's current oil). Hopefully that will help with start up, if not I may look into fuel additives.

Start with the fuel additive!

[LJH]

Good thread! I'm making lots of notes for future referrence, thanks everybody.

Very pleased with my Baby John this morning. She lives under our polebarn, on the end with a roof but with no walls or protection from blowing snow and certainly no heat. Daytime temps have been at or below freezing for over a week and much colder at night, single digits mostly. I've been crazy busy with the day job and haven't fired her up in almost two weeks until late this morning - clear sunny day and needed to move snowbanks out of the way before we get another storm. It was about 20 degrees and I used Shadow's tip and warmed up the air intake with a heat gun for a few minutes, pushed the key in for 10 seconds and she lit up with zero hesitation.

I'm sure that, as with all things green, those JD batteries cost twice as much as one from NAPA, but dang - I'm impressed.

[Little Red Tractor]

I've never thought to use a head gun on the intake. However, my dad (now 93) used to tell of his cold weather starting technique for an old Cletrac crawler: first heating a large steel pail of water on the wood stove, carrying it to the shed and pouring it on the manifold. It was not a short process, but it worked. That's the only way they could ever get the old beast started.

[dsgsr]

Fuel Treatment is important. But changing your oil to synthetic is the biggest help for cold weather starting. I use Delvac 1 by Mobil. Changing to synthetic after break in will both give your engine longevity and help with cold starting. My '00 JD tractor with over 6000 hrs. starts better than my '11 Kubota with a little over 200 hrs. in cold weather and both have Delvac 1 in them.

David