Re: Not a D9 How bout TD9
Scott (and others that might not know some of this),
Yes they are. Both. They start on gasoline. There is a lever on the dash that opens up an extra set of valves in the head that gives access to another chamber. This chamber has a spark plug in it, and with the added volume, provides the correct compression ratio for gasoline. It starts like any normal gasoline engine. Once running and after a while (several seconds in summer to a few minutes in winter) you slowly add diesel via the throttle lever. Once a good bit of black smoke is coming out the exhaust, in one quick motion, you close the extra valves, and add a bit more diesel. Then she bellers away on diesel. And runs like any normal diesel engine. It's just bizarre that on one side of the engine is a distributor and on the other an injection pump. It also sucks working on them, because you have 2 complete fuel systems to work on. Twice the work, but still fun. The second machine sat for 10 years and without a tarp or hood for several of them. After getting linkages loose, and determining that someone had her about 180 deg out of time, she started right up and idled smooth as could be. Amazing. Of course, you could only turn right, since the left steering clutch was seized. But that is just one of the joys.
Note that the above description is NOT what is called a pony motor. That was a seperate engine all together, though both techniques accomplished the same thing. I like this solution. It satisfies my engineering bent for elegance. TD 9 and elegance. Who'da thunk it?
If you want the mpeg movie of the first machine in operation (is 40 some odd seconds, recorded on a dig. camera), I can email it to you.
Nick
