Starting your tractor in the winter.

[sixdogs]

Those owner's manuals are talking about warm-up in summer weather. In really cold winter weather I'd say it would take an hour anyway to get everything warmed up. Rule is you need to get to operating temperature and then run for 20 minutes or more. At cold temps I'd say it would take at least a half hour to get even partway up the gauge. Anyway, that's been my experience.

Edit--I'll add that a block heater or magnetic stick-on heater would help a lot if plugged in for a few hours before use. There's a lot of mass to heat.

 

[DarkBlack]

All other factors being identical. The slower the rpms, the lower the combustion chamber temp. Lower the combustion chamber temp the more condensation, more unburned fuel, more lube oil dillution, more cylinder wall washdown.

I disagree. if you idle with no load at 2x the rpm, so are creating 2x the damages you just mentioned. 2x the rpm's means 2 x the cold air drawn in the engine, 2x the cold air blown from your fan etc.. It's still no load = no heat.

 

[DarkBlack]

Mechanical Engineer for a "major diesel engine manufacturer" advice:


It is never good to run a diesel engine at low speed idle more than a minute or two. The only exception to that is very large, very expensive engines that don't have access to pre-lubing (think: many cylinders). Low speed idle leads to wet stacking of piston rings, clogged injectors, etc.

Wet stacking and resultant clogged injectors is from low work load, not from low rpm's. It's a common problem on generators that run at 1,800 and 3,600 rpm's.

 

[DarkBlack]

( "What condensation do you speak of? In cold weather the dew point is usually below freezing." )

Warm tractor hits cold air, moisture in fuel tank, gear box etc. condenses.

I'm missing your point? Are you saying driving a tractor out of a warm garage a couple of times of year in winter is something else to worry about?
What's you condensation theory on the alternative of leaving it outside to change temperature with each passing day and night?

 

[DarkBlack]

There's tons of information out there from diesel engine manufacture's that you can read on the web. I just spent some hours reading through some of it ( Cummins Caterpillar, etc..), and it pretty much agrees with what some of us has said. That being: You should not "warm" up a diesel with a prolonged idle period.
More than 3-5 minutes contributes to engine damage and wastes fuel. Warm it up by work loading it lightly.

 

[buickanddeere]

I disagree. if you idle with no load at 2x the rpm, so are creating 2x the damages you just mentioned. 2x the rpm's means 2 x the cold air drawn in the engine, 2x the cold air blown from your fan etc.. It's still no load = no heat.

You must have missed the class in engineering school about linear statistics.
Rpm IS NOT directly tied to rpms and the number of turns.
Check diesel combustion chamber temp just prior to and during combustion with an engine operating at 800 vs 1200rpm.

 

[buickanddeere]

Those owner's manuals are talking about warm-up in summer weather. In really cold winter weather I'd say it would take an hour anyway to get everything warmed up. Rule is you need to get to operating temperature and then run for 20 minutes or more. At cold temps I'd say it would take at least a half hour to get even partway up the gauge. Anyway, that's been my experience.

Edit--I'll add that a block heater or magnetic stick-on heater would help a lot if plugged in for a few hours before use. There's a lot of mass to heat.

Are you saying to pre-warm via idling for one hour ?

 

[murphy1244]

My Kioti manual states to warm up 3-4 minutes warm start and 10 minutes cold start

 

[sd455dan]

Temp vs. RPM on an (non loaded) diesel engine can easily be checked by using a laser thermometer.
the exhaust port temperature for each cylinder will rise if the engine rpm is increased.

# of combustion events per minute is increased therefore rate of warm up, and loading a diesel will result in more fuel being injected also shortening warm up time my 2 cents

 

[sixdogs]

Are you saying to pre-warm via idling for one hour ?

No I idle for a couple minutes and ramp up to manufacturer specs or just do light duty work. Long idle for a diesel at low RPM is not good. Sorry for any confusion. That tractor in cold weather takes a long time and an incomplete warm up just forms condensation and creates more problems.