Manifold heater

[Tony S]

The tractor I'm thinking about purchacing has a winter start up kit. The saleman says that it warms the manifold. Is this a good working setup for cold weather? I have used glow plugs with good results. Just wondering your thoughts on this. Good better or worse. Thanks

[whistlepig]

From what I have read glow plugs work a little better than a manifold heater. I owned a Dodge pickup with a Cummins diesel that had a manifold heater. It seemed to work fine on the Cummins.

[cyrush]

If its a "thermostart" unit the truth is it heats the air being drawn into the cylinders through the inlet manifold!!

What make of producy are you purchasing??

[MIKE R]

Any tractor I have seen with that set up has been really hard to start or has to be plugged in to get to start.

Although on the Cat Excavator it has a similar set up and it starts perfectly every time any weather.

[Tony S]

Its a John deere 5303 I hope whatever it is works. I don't have power where the tractor is to be kept and will need it to run in the winter. It would be a pain to have to bring a generator along to plug it into.

[MHarryE]

Not sure what type manifold heater the tractor you are looking at but Perkins and their Caterpillar twins, 4 liter 4 cyl and 6 liter 6 cyl, had a manifold heater option. It consisted of a heating coil and heat operated valve on the end of a fuel line from the lift pump to the intake manifold. Activating the heater warmed the heating coil which opened the spray valve. Cranking the engine then lit off the fuel spray in the naïf old as it hit the hot coil. The spray was limited so it didn't burn up all the oxygen in the manifold which would defeat the purpose. The heat stayed on as long as you cranked the engine. It was very effective down to about 15 below F. They dropped the manifold heater in favor of glow plugs when they went to a common rail injection system. The manifold heater didn't draw as much power as glow plugs and some were switched so an operator could continue using manifold heat after the engine started but was still running rough. Ether is not good with the manifold heater because of the explosion that occurs when the ether hits the hot coil in the manifold. Not sure if this is the heater type you are looking at but it was a very common design in the ast although I don't know of anyone using the design now.

[Jerry/MT]

The tractor I'm thinking about purchacing has a winter start up kit. The saleman says that it warms the manifold. Is this a good working setup for cold weather? I have used glow plugs with good results. Just wondering your thoughts on this. Good better or worse. Thanks

I'm not impressed by the Thermostart system for manifold heat. they are supposed to be good to about 5-10 F on my Ford. I prefer the block heater. We have ours on a timer that comes on 2 hrs before feeding time. Starts up easier and warms up much faster. And it's simple. Of course if you don't have electrical service near where you park you tractor it won't work.

[JoeL4330]

There are propane "block" heaters for off-grid winter starting if you have a real problem ...examples:
Red Dragon Propane Engine Preheaters
Block Heater

There are also diesel "hydronic" coolant heaters, for example: Espar | Worldwide Leader in Truck Heaters, Air Heaters and Boat Heaters
see http://www.espar.com/html/applications/offhighway.html

Years ago, I used a propane percolator heater that tied into the heater hoses on my old Mercedes 190D...got it at JC Whitney, as I recall.