Cold starting trick

[jdfire]

Propane heaters are pretty common in aviation for preheating small planes. They can be fitted with flexible ductwork to direct the heat anywhere you want. Here's an example:

 

[willfick]

This is fascinating. You cold weather guys impress me no end. And make me appreciate the South.
Wm

 

[tugboat-2]

PILOON: That dash mounted ether injector probably was a factory installation. I recall a few of the big old trucks like Oshkosh, Walters and especially one I was more familiar with, the big FWD with Buda Diesel, and it had a factory installed ether pump on the dash.

Ether came in red, soft plastic capsules, perhaps an inch long shaped just like a Cdn football. You unscrewed the brass top, inserted 3 or 4 "Cherry-Bombs" and with right toe on the starter, heal on the accelerator, you pushed the starter and began pumping the ether-injector plunger.

I recall the Buda like yesterday,.... the exhaust pipe was about 4" dia and two feet high right off the manifold up through the centre of the hood. it wasn't a radial engine, but sure reminded you of a DC-3 engine as it coughed and farted and finally caught,...black coal shoving the big rain-cap open with a roar that never ceased to put an ear to ear grin on my face!! The coal would clear shortly after.

Also, I had a friend drove a "Cat-train" on the DEW Line. He said they never shut them down for weeks at a time as you'd never start 'em again without a whole lotta trouble!

Sorry to ramble, picked up on your post and had to add my 2 cents.

CHEERS!
. . tug

 

[RalphVa]

Have had 4 diesels so far. They've all started with about a 1/2 turn of the crankshaft no matter how cold, after being glowed the proper amount and using some throttle opening. That proper amount went down from 30 seconds to a minute on the old 1973 Benz to about 4 seconds on the 1983 Benz and 2004 JD. Seems to be about a second on the TDI. The older diesels, pre TDI, required 1/3 to 1/2 throttle opening; otherwise, they'd start and die. Haven't had the TDI in really cold weather yet.

Started the 1973 with its usuall 1/2 rotation once in -22 F with glow period of about a minute. This is after running the radiator hose heater about 30 minutes. Fuel filter plugged up 2 times before finally warming enough to stay running.

 

[jas67]

I disconnected the air intake tube from the intake manifold (simple hose clamp), and set a heat gun (paint stripper type - Stanley - $22.00 at Walmart) into the opening, turned it on for about half a minute, and cranked the engine. In about 20 seconds she popped right over. I imagine you could use a hair dryer to the same effect.... just get some warm air flowing into the cylinders. It took about another 15 seconds to put the air tube back on and clamp it down.

I've used this trick for my 29 year old Onan diesel generator. It doesn't have glow plugs, but has an intake heater. I just give the intake heater a little help with the wife's hair dryer.

 

[jas67]

, years ago I saw a purpose built truck starting setup for fleets with a Herman Nelson, big flexible ductwork and brackets to connect the ducts to truck grilles. There was even a wye connector so two trucks could be heated at once.

They use heaters like that (with the flex duct) to preheat piston-engined aircraft engines when it is below 25 or so degrees.

 

[Baranx4]

I used that method on a hard to start older JD last winter when my block heater went out and it works really good. Word of caution : Don't use this method on a gasoline tractor

I've never had an old gasser that wouldn't start up when cold. Had it where it would stall or I had to hold the clutch in since the fluids were so thick from the cold that it would stall every time I took my foot off the clutch till it warmed up a little.

 

[Baranx4]

Yes, good caution, I would not do that with explosive fuel.

I've also heard from old timers, back in the day, they would light open fires on the ground right under the engines of heavy equipment in cold weather. That had to get interesting.

Alot of that had to do with tracks freezing up overnight. Don't ask me how I know, but I recall learning the hard way about the importance of cleaning your tracks at night.

 

[FlaDon]

PILOON: That dash mounted ether injector probably was a factory installation. I recall a few of the big old trucks like Oshkosh, Walters and especially one I was more familiar with, the big FWD with Buda Diesel, and it had a factory installed ether pump on the dash.

Ether came in red, soft plastic capsules, perhaps an inch long shaped just like a Cdn football. You unscrewed the brass top, inserted 3 or 4 "Cherry-Bombs" and with right toe on the starter, heal on the accelerator, you pushed the starter and began pumping the ether-injector plunger.

I recall the Buda like yesterday,.... the exhaust pipe was about 4" dia and two feet high right off the manifold up through the centre of the hood. it wasn't a radial engine, but sure reminded you of a DC-3 engine as it coughed and farted and finally caught,...black coal shoving the big rain-cap open with a roar that never ceased to put an ear to ear grin on my face!! The coal would clear shortly after.

Also, I had a friend drove a "Cat-train" on the DEW Line. He said they never shut them down for weeks at a time as you'd never start 'em again without a whole lotta trouble!

Sorry to ramble, picked up on your post and had to add my 2 cents.

CHEERS!
. . tug

The Army set up the Air Force's Mobile Bomb Scoring Train with Detroit Diesel 16V71 gensets. For starting in cold weather, they had electric block heaters, ether injection, triple the hydro start reserviors as normal, radiator heating into the car, heat tape on the water/fuel/oil lines, heaters in the fuel/oil/water tanks plus strip baseboard heaters that ran on coolant from the under car boiler, and a loadbox that could dump the heat into the car. With 2 gensets in the car. All the Personnel Cars had strip heaters (20 KW worth) in tha A/C ducts and all tanks heated under the car, heat tape on lines, and an under car boiler for baseboard and A/C duct radiator. Even the black water tanks were heated.

But the best heating system for engines had to be the IH UD-7 powered gensets in the Presidential Comm Car. Steam heat for the car from a loco. Heat in the Generator Room was either steam or radiator heat from the engines. To start the generator you filled the gasoline tank, threw the change over valve, set the choke, and cranked the engine over using train air. Once running, open the choke and Diesel injector pump up to the point the engine smoked, and wait till warmed. Throw the change over valve and run on Diesel while making electricity once warm.

 

[Cami]

@BaranX4: It's always a surprise, when starting out, to learn how little power is available to the tracks on some machines, especially the older ones, and how well a little ice holds things.

If you don't have anywhere dry to put the machine, you can drop a couple trees to park on top of.