When it's very cold I have a hard time cranking my diesel. I was
wondering if I put Tilley wicks saturated in meths around the injectors
and lit them if it would warm up the injectors enough to vaporize the
fuel better. Anybody ever try it?

I'm Ted Bell!

Ted Bell wrote:
When it's very cold I have a hard time cranking my diesel. I was
wondering if I put Tilley wicks saturated in meths around the
injectors and lit them if it would warm up the injectors enough to
vaporize the fuel better. Anybody ever try it?

I'm Ted Bell!

Perhaps a hot air gun would be safer! If you are on a mooring of course you
have fewer options,

Dennis.

"Ted Bell" wrote in message
...
When it's very cold I have a hard time cranking my diesel. I was wondering
if I put Tilley wicks saturated in meths around the injectors and lit them
if it would warm up the injectors enough to vaporize the fuel better.
Anybody ever try it?

No but I have warmed a reluctant deisel with a blow lamp before now, heat
inlet manifold and then crank. Another tip is to cover, if you can, the
inlet port which can make the engine spin a lot faster, remove the blockage
and inertia helps to start it.


--
Chris, West Cork, Ireland.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote:

Ted Bell wrote:
When it's very cold I have a hard time cranking my diesel. I was
wondering if I put Tilley wicks saturated in meths around the
injectors and lit them if it would warm up the injectors enough to
vaporize the fuel better. Anybody ever try it?

I'm Ted Bell!

Perhaps a hot air gun would be safer! If you are on a mooring of course you
have fewer options,

We use block heaters for our diesel cars. I've also heard of just
using a light bulb under the hood. It depends on what "very cold"
means to you. Maybe a solar panel connected to the engine block
would do it.

The truckers do something similar with their engines - I think they
use ether or something.

In article , Cerumen
wrote:

"Ted Bell" wrote in message
...
When it's very cold I have a hard time cranking my diesel. I was wondering
if I put Tilley wicks saturated in meths around the injectors and lit them
if it would warm up the injectors enough to vaporize the fuel better.
Anybody ever try it?

No but I have warmed a reluctant deisel with a blow lamp before now, heat
inlet manifold and then crank. Another tip is to cover, if you can, the
inlet port which can make the engine spin a lot faster, remove the blockage
and inertia helps to start it.

Usually easier and less likely to cause problems - pull the 'Engine Stop'
decompressor for a second while the engine builds speed/inertia then
release. This sometimes gets you going if the batteries are a bit low. A
cautious squirt of ether can help too but mustn't be overdone.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/

"Cerumen" wrote in message
...

"Ted Bell" wrote in message
...
When it's very cold I have a hard time cranking my diesel. I was
wondering if I put Tilley wicks saturated in meths around the
injectors and lit them if it would warm up the injectors enough to
vaporize the fuel better. Anybody ever try it?

No but I have warmed a reluctant deisel with a blow lamp before now,
heat inlet manifold and then crank. Another tip is to cover, if you
can, the inlet port which can make the engine spin a lot faster,
remove the blockage and inertia helps to start it.


--
Chris, West Cork, Ireland.


If I've read it right a diesel compresses the air to a very great
extent. The compression heats the air so much that fuel self-ignites
when injected into the hot air. Even if it's very cold it's my
understanding the compressed air is still hot enough to ignite the fuel.
So it seems to me if the fuel doesn't ignite maybe it's because it's so
cold and thick that the injectors don't spray it in properly. Maybe just
dribbles of larger droplets that are reluctant to burn. So heating the
injectors seems like it would take care of that problem. Sort of the
same principle that a pressure diesel stove uses to pre-heat the fuel.
Meths don't burn all that hot so although it might blacken the paint I
can't see where it would damage the injector. I think I'll give it a go.
.. .

Thanks to all who responded.

I'm Ted Bell!

Ted Bell wrote:

If I've read it right a diesel compresses the air to a very great
extent. The compression heats the air so much that fuel self-ignites
when injected into the hot air. Even if it's very cold it's my
understanding the compressed air is still hot enough to ignite the fuel.
So it seems to me if the fuel doesn't ignite maybe it's because it's so
cold and thick that the injectors don't spray it in properly.

It is more common, particularly on engines well past their youth, that
compression is not as good as it should be. The result is that the
compressed air doesn't get hot enough quickly enough at low revs in
a cold engine block. This seems a likelier scenario than the fuel
being too viscous at low temperature to disperse properly.

Maybe just
dribbles of larger droplets that are reluctant to burn. So heating the
injectors seems like it would take care of that problem. Sort of the
same principle that a pressure diesel stove uses to pre-heat the fuel.
Meths don't burn all that hot so although it might blacken the paint I
can't see where it would damage the injector. I think I'll give it a go.

Many engines are fitted with electric glow-plug preheaters. I don't think
they heat the injectors, but part of the combustion chamber. On some
engines, electric heater coils are located within the air intake. This
is an easy option to retro-fit (unlike glowplugs which really need to
be designed in from the start), and Bukh, for instance, offer this option
and I can vouch for how well it works. They basically preheat the air, so
that it's already warmer before it gets heated by being compressed. The
result is that the compression heats the air up to an even higher
temperature, making it more likely that the engine will fire sooner.

I would recommend that if you want to have a go, it would be a better idea
to heat up the air intake than the injectors.

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)

"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.

"Ted Bell" wrote in news:eshhk2$mji$1
@aioe.org:

Even if it's very cold it's my
understanding the compressed air is still hot enough to ignite the
fuel.

As long as there is proper compression, you're absolutely right. Test
the compression on a COLD engine, not hot, to see if it has enough
pressure on ALL cylinders.

So it seems to me if the fuel doesn't ignite maybe it's because it's so
cold and thick that the injectors don't spray it in properly. Maybe
just
dribbles of larger droplets that are reluctant to burn.

Well, this sounds good but is very hard to achieve. If diesel fuel is
NOT properly "winterized" by mixing it with light elements, WAX CRYSTALS
form in the diesel fuel making it impossible to pump. It doesn't
"thicken", it turns to a SOLID! You can heat the whole fuel system and
keep it from waxing up. In boats, the problem is the cheapskate sailors
use so little fuel, they only buy it in SUMMER when it's not winterized,
which costs the fuel companies extra money. Winter comes, the tanks are
full of unwinterized diesel he "saved" by not burning it. It turns to
wax in the cold and the engine won't crank as it has no fuel...the fuel
system blocked by the wax until Spring. He's ****ed and needs someone to
blame.

What he SHOULD have done was to burn the tank dry before it got too cold
and refilled it in the Fall with WINTERIZED diesel fuel, which doesn't
turn to jelly in the cold. Cheapskate didn't. Hell, he never fills his
tanks and has water ingestion problems, too, storing it 1/4 full. Oh,
the WATER in the tanks he never fills ALSO causes fuel starvation as IT
freezes in the tanks, filters, low points of the lines, etc....another
problem easily fixed.

So heating the
injectors seems like it would take care of that problem. Sort of the
same principle that a pressure diesel stove uses to pre-heat the fuel.
Meths don't burn all that hot so although it might blacken the paint I
can't see where it would damage the injector. I think I'll give it a
go.

No, because he can't pump solid fuel into where the heated pump is as
it's waxed up in the lines. The cure is WINTERIZED DIESEL FUEL,
available after a certain date in that area. His tanks have summer
diesel fuel in them full of wax crystals....cloudy on cool days, solid on
cold.

Please don't light any open fires in the engine compartment with the
battery fumes, ok? We don't need any MORE excitement on boat newsgroups
than the usual groundings....


Larry
--
Have a little fun in the checkout line....
Ask the nearest American, "Did you see the ICE
agents chasing those Mexicans out the back door?"
....Shortens that checkout line right up...(c;