Cold weather starting tips

[Johnp33]

I use to start trucks in Edmonton, about thirty of them some with air start, Those you have to plug in you only get one chance, or pull it into the shop. If the engine is electronic, you have to have, a certain cranking speed for it to try to start. First thing you want to do is have clean battery connections and grounds, good batteries. Most engines, you want to crank it for 15 seconds, no longer then wait for 1 minute, it is hard to wait, but important, then try again, no throttle, the injection pump puts the throttle at the right level to start to much throttle just adds so much fuel it cools the cylinder tempature, defeating the process.
If you need a starting aid I use a rag with a little gas on it over the air filter. I also will hook up the battery charger, not on boost just the charge rate. There is no additive that will help starting, if you have summer fuel in the winter it will be a lot harder to start. Synthetic oil is a good idea, I do that in my loader, a heater with a fan and a stove pipe with a 3ft section and an elbow, that works, if you do not have a block heater.
Either can and does destroy an engine, it will dry out the cylinder walls and damage them, also it will bend the rings. Rings are bent up so when it fires they bend flat sealing the cylinder.
The very best starting aid is the correct fuel for the season, and a block heater. The cylinder is in the block that is what you need to heat.
People have said that WD40 works, I never tried that. Hot water pored on the engine, that is a good thought, I never tried that either.

 

[Trials]

i have a magnetic heater on my oil pan and another on the steering column because it keeps freezing up.

... on a few desperate occasions; I've even resorted to building a small controlled wood fire under a frozen engine, that works too

 

[Egon]

In another time placing a pan of hot ashes under the oil pan was quite common in places with no electricity.

 

[Johndeere3720]

Last night I remembered to get a video of my 317 on cold start up. Have to admit it is embarrassing but hopefully when I get my new block heater in it will start a little better.
Deere 317 skid steer cold start - YouTube

 

[john_bud]

28 above ain't cold. Try it at -35F no wind chill.

 

[tcreeley]

I've used a magnetic block heater on my old 48 Farmall Cub- it worked. It like sun the best and 30 degrees. But with the bolck heater I could start it at 5 degrees- always plugged in.
I have a weak battery in my TC 30 but it is plugged in and starts like a charm at 10-15. I haven't tried it this year below that. Did all the time last year, 10-5 below as well.
Plug ins provide more heat than magnetic block heaters.

 

[hydro2]

My John Deere 240 started exactly the same way in the cold.

 

[bironacad]

In another time placing a pan of hot ashes under the oil pan was quite common in places with no electricity.

Egon you earlier said a hair dryer or hot air gun. When trading in my McCormick Farmall C (see avatar) I was told if it was running I would get $500, it was February and cold and I used a paint stripper air gun on the carb and air filter, lol, it started.

 

[Jay4200]

I just got my glow plugs working this winter season with a manual override. My L4200 would start in the cold (15-20F) after cranking for 10 seconds or so. Now, my procedure is simple - I turn the ignition over for a second or two (don't need to touch the 'throttle' - it's already wide open at the engine), then engage the glow plugs for 3-4 seconds. Turn the key and my L4200 starts instantly, like it's 80 degrees out.

JayC

 

[woodlandfarms]

I am working on a show that we feature mega luxury yachts. 200 footers and above. Talking with the engineers who manage twin turbo, twin supercharged 16 cyl engines ( I am saying this not for the wow, it is wow, but for the final note I am trying to make). They tell me that a cold start procedure takes 2 hours ususally to get 2 engines up and running properly. If they have to do an emergency start, straight crankover, they are required to write an 8 hour use hit in the log (meaning the clock looses 8 hours for every cold start).

 

[D7E]

28 above ain't cold. Try it at -35F no wind chill.

And miles out in the bush

 

[wmonroe]

Nice, we need a cold start video of that dozer firing up.

 

[Trials]

I am working on a show that we feature mega luxury yachts. 200 footers and above. Talking with the engineers who manage twin turbo, twin supercharged 16 cyl engines ( I am saying this not for the wow, it is wow, but for the final note I am trying to make). They tell me that a cold start procedure takes 2 hours ususally to get 2 engines up and running properly. If they have to do an emergency start, straight crankover, they are required to write an 8 hour use hit in the log (meaning the clock looses 8 hours for every cold start).

Short-cutting the normal startup procedure, impacts the engines life expectancy to the equivalent 8 hours normal operating wear; makes total sense to me.

but "twin turbo, twin supercharged 16 cyl engines" ....they don't combine turbo and superchargers on the same engine do they? and what would be the percentage of 2 superchargers. I must be reading this part wrong

 

[woodlandfarms]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/261554-big-ol-engines.html?amp;goto=newpost

As for being twin supercharged, I think what it is that to cover 16 cylinder the supers on the Catepillar engine can only cover 8. But yes, Turbos and suppers on 2000+HP Engines. 250 to 500K an engine. I saw two that was hand filed down (the castings were smoothed out) so the engine was glass smooth.

 

[vtsnowedin]

In another time placing a pan of hot ashes under the oil pan was quite common in places with no electricity.

Ashes? Hardly. the old man would take a 2'x2' pan of blazing hardwood coals from the stove and slide them under the oil pan of a 57 Ford being careful not to pump the accelerator pedal beforehand and risk having gas drip into the pan. When the oil in the oil pan began to snap and pop as the moisture in it began to boil you would take a hoe and pull the pan out, set the choke, pump the gas three times and start her up. Other days when it was above zero he would take a quart of oil in the metal can it came in and set it on the wood stove until it was boiling then pour it into the oil fill port and start her up. Straight 30 weight oil at zero or below poured out of the can like molasses if it poured out at all. We have it soo---oo much better today.

 

[oldballs]

Those metal quart oil cans were great for playing shinny down in the frozen creek. One sure could create some heat doing that. What could be better than that. Oh....for starting engines......I digress.

 

[Mechanos]

I've used salamander style heaters blowing on the oil pan/engine from a safe distance, shallow pan of carcoal briquettes under the oil pan, shallow pan of burning diesel under the oil pan (not at all recommended... kind of emergency only), high wattage halogen work lights near the engine/oil pan, propane torch on the intake air horn (tip of flame just kissing the air horn and constantly moving). By far the best and most reliable method is a block heater and the above mentioned method were only used when a block heater or power to the block heater was not available.

 

[MHarryE]

If ether is so bad, why does my latest monthly John Deere parts sale mailer have a special price on starting fluid? Did somebody neglect to tell John Deere it will destroy their engines?

Actually here where -20 to -30 F temps are not uncommon we have not used starting fluid on our newer tractors. They are either put to bed for the winter, sit in a heated garage, or have their block heaters plugged in (you get to know how long to heat each one by the outside temp). Many of the loggers around here don't have the luxury of heating out in the woods so they put quick couplers on their pickup coolant lines and on their feller/butchers & skidders and run the hot truck coolant through the machine's engine to warm them for starting. Thinking of that cold blast of coolant coming back into the truck engine at first makes me think of immediate cracked block but they say it is not a problem. Maybe it is that the flow rate is restricted. And like I mentioned before, several of our tractors and combines have an ether starting aid, thermostatically controlled, standard. All you need to do is remember to keep filled cans, the ones that John Deere has on sale in its parts flyer, installed.

 

[avc8130]

If ether is so bad, why does my latest monthly John Deere parts sale mailer have a special price on starting fluid? Did somebody neglect to tell John Deere it will destroy their engines?

Actually here where -20 to -30 F temps are not uncommon we have not used starting fluid on our newer tractors. They are either put to bed for the winter, sit in a heated garage, or have their block heaters plugged in (you get to know how long to heat each one by the outside temp). Many of the loggers around here don't have the luxury of heating out in the woods so they put quick couplers on their pickup coolant lines and on their feller/butchers & skidders and run the hot truck coolant through the machine's engine to warm them for starting. Thinking of that cold blast of coolant coming back into the truck engine at first makes me think of immediate cracked block but they say it is not a problem. Maybe it is that the flow rate is restricted. And like I mentioned before, several of our tractors and combines have an ether starting aid, thermostatically controlled, standard. All you need to do is remember to keep filled cans, the ones that John Deere has on sale in its parts flyer, installed.

Ether is "fine" IF the machine does NOT have glow plugs.

ac

 

[Kenn1320]

If your running synthetic oil, I cant see how any oil pan/block heater is doing anything for you? The factory plug in heater on my F250 pick up did nothing, or at least nothing I could detect. That truck had a inlet heating element and a common modification was to remove it since it was an air restriction(hp increase). That truck still started fine even with that removed. After break in on my new diesel tractor, Im switching it to synthetic oil and expect no issues with cold starting, but it has glow plugs. As far as fuel additives, are they really needed if your already running the number 2 diesel fuel that is in the pump during cold weather? That is already deluted with kerosene from what Im told, so cant see how adding more is of any bennefit?

As for the supercharged and turbo charged engines on the boat, this is known as compound boosting and becoming extremely popular even on smaller displacement engines in cars.
VW's supercharged turbo engine