"Larry" wrote in message
...
Derek Moody wrote in news:ant051635965BxcK@half-
baked-idea.co.uk:

A
cautious squirt of ether can help too but mustn't be overdone.


Not enough can be said for NOT squirting explosives into the intake of a
small, LIGHTLY MADE diesel engine. DON'T DO THIS! Notice it says not to
do this right in the manual!

Big, giant diesels that weigh tons can withstand the occasional blast of
ether exploding BEFORE the piston reaches TDC, which tries to push the
piston down in the direction it was coming from. Little light diesels,
like the one in your sailboat CANNOT. Premature explosions from ether or
"starting fluid" from auto stores in a spray can WILL, not may, detonate
on the compression stroke. You'll hear a loud knock, if you get away
with it. You'll hear a loud bang if it blows the head gasket or blows
the head off or breaks the little aluminum piston.

Diesels run on the heat of compression. There are two ways of
artificially creating this SAFELY when they are cold.....preheat the
cylinders, preferably with glow plugs...or preheat the air, preferably
with an air pre-heater in the intake. HEATING THE FUEL DOES NOT MAKE
THEM START! Diesel fuel explodes because it is finely sprayed into
superheated compressed AIR caused by the heat of compression....22:1 or
more compression. (Remember how hot the bicycle pump cylinder got
pumping up the tire?)

The heat gun is a great idea if you have a power source to run it from.
Let's avoid lighting fires in the engine compartment fumes of fuel and
battery hydrogen to crank them, ok? Thanks!

The usual reason why they won't start is THE COMPRESSION IS TOO LOW or
THE ENGINE DOESN'T SPIN FAST ENOUGH....both of which, of course, require
corrections that cost $$$$. Gas engines will run with worn rings, poorly
closing valves, leaky head gaskets.....diesels will NOT....

Larry
--

We tried to tell you to change the oil every 100 hours or THREE
MONTHS....(sigh)

Another possibility is that the oil is too heavy for cold weather. Don't
know how well multi-viscosity oils work in diesels, but maybe changing to a
lighter weight would help. And removing 20 years of built-up sludge... ;-)

While possibly not recommended, a friend with a diesel Mercedes of ancient
vintage once had me spray WD-40 into his engine intake while he cranked the
motor. Being essentially kerosene, this would be much safer than ether, I
think.