cold starting -9 F

[gmbracing]

So I went out to move the snow with my bx25 and the tractor wouldn't start even after letting the glow plugs warm up, so I plugged the block heater in and after about 10 mins it fired of but kinda idled real high and blew out whiteish smoke. the it ran for a while then started to sputter and stalled . I managed to get it in the heated garage and let it sit for about an hour then it ran fine.
I have anti gel in the fuel and it is in an unheated shed
My questions are:
1 should I keep the block heater plugged in all the time ?

what caused the white smoke ?

 

[LittleBill21]

run the heater 2 hours before you need to use it on a timer.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I don't know if this is a good idea...one of those works for me things. I don't have a block heater.
I put either a trouble light with 100watt bulb or real cold a heat lamp on ground under motor then throw an old car cover over tractor.
I have not tried it at -9 though.

 

[jbrumberg]

I do not think keeping your engine block heater on all the time is a good idea. 2 hours of pre-heating should be sufficient.

There are also 110V thermostatically controlled battery, fuel, and hydraulic filter pre-heaters available on the market.

That white smoke was probably water. There are diesel fuel additives for water and algae/sludge removal, cetane and lubricity boosting, gel point lowering, etc.

The archives here contain a wealth of information on this topic.

 

[Thomas]

As LB21 said...good couple hours also 15-20 mins. warm up time before working,also operate front loader 3 point hitch couple times slowly.

 

[jbrumberg]

^^^^^^ +1

And if parked on frozen ground start tractor motion in reverse to prevent a potential torque flip "rollover."

 

[keegs]

I don't know if this is a good idea...one of those works for me things. I don't have a block heater.
I put either a trouble light with 100watt bulb or real cold a heat lamp on ground under motor then throw an old car cover over tractor.
I have not tried it at -9 though.

Last week I used a drop light with a 60W bulb to thaw some residual water left in the main water supply coming in from the well. It took about 30 minutes to thaw. Over the weekend I left the tractor out overnight in sub zero temps and had the fuel gel up on me. Wished I had thought about the droplight trick.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

And if parked on frozen ground start tractor motion in reverse to prevent a potential torque flip "rollover."

You are kidding, right???

SR

 

[jbrumberg]

SR- No. If those rear tires are frozen solid into the ground tractor movement in a forward motion will cause the tractor to rotate around its axle and not the tires. It's been posted about here in past threads(by myself and others). It happens real fast.

It's really called rear axle torque; my bad.

I also bang my 800# box scraper a couple of times on the ground during the hydraulic warm up to breakup the ice.

From my alma matter, PSU, for those so interested: Tractor Stability and Instability

 

[Thomas]

jbrumberg
I also bang my 800# box scraper a couple of times on the ground during the hydraulic warm up to breakup the ice.
...........................
Or park tractor wide planks,lower attachment on block of wood...what I do.

 

[jbrumberg]

^^^^ another decent suggestion. I have enough hoarded planks laying around here under the snow. Thank you Thomas

 

[iflywhatevr]

3 hours is what I do. It’s in an Unheated garage and I use a Wemo WiFi plug that I can set to turn on or off at a certain time. We have a 10kwh solar array on the house that comes with monitors showing how much power is being used at any given time. Plug in that block heater and power consumption Spikes quite a bit! So any timer you can use or just walking out and plugging it in before use rather than plugging in overnight will pay for itself in a short time.

 

[jbrumberg]

Ifly- Timers work.; Thanks for clarifying the (assumed) current drain of an engine block meter. A cold start to the morning out our way today (-10ºF ambient temperature). I hope you got your snow managed yesterday before the cold moved in.

 

[Oaktree]

I don't know if this is a good idea...one of those works for me things. I don't have a block heater.
I put either a trouble light with 100watt bulb or real cold a heat lamp on ground under motor then throw an old car cover over tractor.
I have not tried it at -9 though.

That's what I do when it's gonna get below 20° or so. Was -5 this morning, and it started right up with only 1 glow plug cycle. Tractor lives in an unheated garage in winter, and the LK3054 is a cold blooded beast. It's an old trick we used to use all the time 50-odd years ago before electronic ignition in cars came along. Amazing how much heat a light bulb puts out. Just don't try to save energy and use a CFL or LED. :laughing:

 

[oosik]

I've started my M6040 @ -20F. Fired right up. So I was sitting there on the rock hard, ice cold vinyl seat for the recommended 30 minuet warm up period. After about 15 minuets - "what in the H*LL am I doing out here". Went back inside - let it warm up at high idle for another 45 minuets. Shut it down and stayed inside.

I got nothing worth -20F - at any time.

 

[ruffdog]

My body doesn't like to move at those cold temps so I won't put my machinery through it either. I moved some firewood today with the wheelbarrow and the thing did not even need to be warmed up before I used it.

 

[Big Chief]

Did you have enough anti gel in the tank? If not at minus temps you can still get gelled fuel. White smoke is unburned or partial burned fuel. Typically from cold starting.

 

[s78wingrider]

i use a heat tape around hydraulic lines on one side, under the oil pan, then around hydraulic filter

 

[dnw64]

My B3030 started with a 15 second glow plug cycle after 2 hours block heater treatment* at -7° this morning, in about 4-5 seconds of cranking. Let it run at about 1200 RPM for 15 minutes and had "heat" (didn't give me frostbite!) coming out the vents.

*TP-Link outlet run by Kasa app - started it from the bedroom in my underwear. If I'd been itching to get out I could have either set a timer or a schedule to start it while I was still sleeping.

 

[crazyal]

Add more anti-gel. Also get some diesel water remover additive. A block heater is fine but it's not going to fix fuel issues. -9 is real cold any water in the fuel line could freeze and create an obstruction. I always go well beyond what the bottle says with the anti-gel and what I think the lowest temps I may see. Adding too much in isn't going to hurt (other than the small extra cost) but not having enough can be a huge pain.