buickanddeere
Super Member
Use synthetic winter hydraulic oil.
GC cold weather start ??
- Thread starter SteveM70
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Snobdds
Elite Member
I think I found where the chicken little's are, there worried about their GC starting in cold weather. A diesel needs 3 things to run; air, fuel, and compression. It does not need oil to start, in fact oil has no bearing if a tractor will start or not. New oils are made to leave a film on the metal for protection, cold weather will not break the engine by starting it.
I live in Wyoming, it's cold in the winter. I have a block heater in both my tractors, never used them. I have a block heater in my diesel truck, never used it. I have a block heater in my ecoboost, never used it. They all start and run just fine if stated properly.
I do use 5W-40 in the diesels and 5W-30 in the ecoboost, both synthetics year round.
I live in Wyoming, it's cold in the winter. I have a block heater in both my tractors, never used them. I have a block heater in my diesel truck, never used it. I have a block heater in my ecoboost, never used it. They all start and run just fine if stated properly.
I do use 5W-40 in the diesels and 5W-30 in the ecoboost, both synthetics year round.
AxleHub
Elite Member
Greetings Snowbdds,
I use 5w-40 synthetic engine oil to help. But the desire to protect the engine and components is not a definition of "being a chicken little" imo. The manual offers some very reasonable directions for dealing with heat and cold - and following them does not seem fearful - again in my opinion.
But doesn't it seem strange to you (as I imagine it does to many other readers) - that you have all this numerous equipment with engine block heaters installed in each one - yet you freely admit you don't use any of them ? I guess if I didn't believe in engine block heaters - I'd avoid having them in my equipment because of costs and because it could be a source of problems but not a source of any counterbalancing solutions.
Even if you got each of them for free - most people don't have accessories they don't believe in.
jmho
Snobdds
Elite Member
Do you know why engine block heaters were conceived with diesels and needed? It was because oil use to be the fluid that fired off the injectors. HUEI injection systems use high pressure oil to provide the needed force to push fuel in high compression diesels. Today HUEI is gone and has been replaced with high pressure fuel (diesel) in a common rail with injection pump to accomplish the same thing.
Todays diesels with high pressure fuel don't depend on oil to start. Just some glow plug time and the fuel fires off, assuming there is air and compression present.
Your point of view is more opinion than anything based upon physics. JMHO.
atsah
Elite Member
Don't know why this is such a big deal and people get there feathers ruffled talking about it, I have been starting tractors in -25F temps for 35 years and never used a block heater or synthetic oils, now a days we have more money and better options for cold weather starting. The use of a block heater, a good 5-40 synthetic oil and let the tractor sit at 1600 rpm's for 30 minutes before use is all that's needed when it's cold, just a few added simple things and they run just fine. My GC is the coldest blooded tractor I have ever owned, don't know why but it is.
Egon
Epic Contributor
Compression present, that may be the problem in cold weather. All the contact surfaces covered with high viscosity fluid. Slow piston travell allowing heat from compression to disapate before combustion chamber ignition temperatures can be reached. That is what cold starting is all about.
Snobdds
Elite Member
The engine is very high compression for the amount of displacement and that is why it seems hard to start. The thing that makes up for that though is more fuel and air. That is why increasing the throttle a little helps overcome this.
AxleHub
Elite Member
Am I incorrect that longer glow plug use in colder temperatures helps fire fuel (oil) to burn more fully . . . . and that oil warmed from 10 degrees or minus 0 temps to warmer temperatures allows the engine pistons to initially not resist movement like resistance of pure "cold weather engine oil" speeds so the injected oil doesn't cause chugging (initial over pumping of diesel into the cylinders that can't all get fired).
Isn't that - just like more throttle use - the reason multiple spins of the starter and more initial unburned exhaust are created and why the not-desireable chugging happens (engine resistance to movement and not full fuel consumption during start cycle) ?
After all - your starter on a gas or diesel can spin fast like crazy - but if the engine oil is slow to allow piston/cams/etc. from movement - you're "flooding" the cylinders with not fully burning fuel.
Just questions.
Isn't that - just like more throttle use - the reason multiple spins of the starter and more initial unburned exhaust are created and why the not-desireable chugging happens (engine resistance to movement and not full fuel consumption during start cycle) ?
After all - your starter on a gas or diesel can spin fast like crazy - but if the engine oil is slow to allow piston/cams/etc. from movement - you're "flooding" the cylinders with not fully burning fuel.
Just questions.
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Snobdds
Elite Member
I could not understand any of that in the larger context of the discussion.
Glow plugs don't warm the fuel as you stated, they provide a hot surface for the fuel to hit to help aid combustion. They have a secondary use of warming the combustion chamber, slightly. Were still talking about a single hot surface surrounded by a cold soaked motor.
buickanddeere
Super Member
Why such a hate for block heaters or is it a point to brag about "never having to use them" ?
