Black soot and smoke but no “spark”

[skipatroldude]

Turned off my tractor and now it won’t start . Turns over fine but just black smoke and soot. It is below 32 degrees also. Engage glow plug and looks like it works but the light doesn’t turn off after 10 seconds. Ideas? Thank you.

 

[bmaverick]

Turned off my tractor and now it won’t start . Turns over fine but just black smoke and soot. It is below 32 degrees also. Engage glow plug and looks like it works but the light doesn’t turn off after 10 seconds. Ideas? Thank you.

Is it gas or diesel? If gas, your engine will blow up very soon.

 

[JohnDeereJoey]

Glow plugs and gas? Yep, that's an explosive combination!

Kidding aside, the first thing I'd do is check the fuel. Is it fresh, winter fuel? Any water or ice. Make sure fuel is flowing freely through the filter(s). If possible, use a heater to warm up the tractor.

If the fuel is good, the airbox heater and/or glow plugs may be defective...depending on how far below 32 degrees. Many diesels fire up just fine reasonably below 32 degrees without glow plugs or airbox heaters.

Battery in good shape?

 

[bmaverick]

Turned off my tractor and now it won’t start . Turns over fine but just black smoke and soot. It is below 32 degrees also. Engage glow plug and looks like it works but the light doesn’t turn off after 10 seconds. Ideas? Thank you.

How to keep the soot away and ways to prevent having the head warp and crack on these Yanmar engines.

- Do not let the engine idle below 1200rpms for longer than 10mins max at a time. And the time is with 20mins between.

- Do use 10W30 summer and 5W30 winter for engine oil. Do not use the heavy thicker 15W40 as it will holds the heat longer in the engine. Yanmar makes engines to JIS standards, not SAE. So the cooling oil passages are narrower in metric.

- Do keep the air intake filter clean. Clogged filter makes the engine work harder and heat builds up with the engine.

- Do keep the radiator and the screen clean.

- Do check the coolant. Do not use extended life coolants in these vintage machines.

- Do start the tractor slightly above idle.

- Do not race the engine from slow to fast and fast to slow.

- Do slow the engine speed down gradually, idle for 15 seconds then turn the engine off.

Some of these tips are from Deere, some are in the Yanmar USA bulletins and some came from the Yanmar JP website before 2018.

 

[bmaverick]

Glow plugs and gas? Yep, that's an explosive combination!

Kidding aside, the first thing I'd do is check the fuel. Is it fresh, winter fuel? Any water or ice. Make sure fuel is flowing freely through the filter(s). If possible, use a heater to warm up the tractor.

If the fuel is good, the airbox heater and/or glow plugs may be defective...depending on how far below 32 degrees. Many diesels fire up just fine reasonably below 32 degrees without glow plugs or airbox heaters.

Battery in good shape?

The title of the thread said NO SPARK.

 

[airbiscuit]

Put a full charge on the battery
Put a heater or a hair dryer on the engine for a while (15-30 minutes)
Try to start it

 

[skipatroldude]

The title of the thread said NO SPARK.

Thanks I’ll try and put new fuel in it. New battery and I have it hooked up to my truck with jumpers.

 

[CliffordK]

Put a full charge on the battery
Put a heater or a hair dryer on the engine for a while (15-30 minutes)
Try to start it

I've put a hair dryer or heat gun directly into the intake to give the engine some warm air and it seemed to help. That was when I think I may have been having some glow plug problems.

Start evaluating the glow plugs? Power to the plugs? Resistance in the plugs?