So the month of February has been brutal in Montana, really cold and lots of snow. The old girl doesn't like starting in single digit temps above and below zero even while being plugged in without many glow plug cycles and lots of cranking. So, since I didn't really want to nuke my starter if I could avoid it, and I don't have the ability to park it inside, I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get it to start easier, excluding ether. Then it hit me, my Cummins pickup has an intake heater and that system seems to work great as it starts in below zero temps without even being plugged in no problem. So I thought why not put an intake heater on the skidsteer? Have used it the last 2 nights after getting home from work, and she fires right off now. . . . . . . .
That's awesome ! I wonder if Deere will carry those....LOL ?
I should probably patent it before they market it as an $500.00 accessory
.. I thought I was gonna scroll down & see a "grid heater" set-up.. which woulda been WAY KOOL.. The ole' hair drier trick does work tho.. GOOD THINKIN'.. Basically, that's all a grid heater does.. just at a MUCH higher temp..
One suggestion, wipe it off real good before sneaking it back in the bathroom or wifey might catch on!
Lol, definitely
Good to know I'm not alone, my CT322 is not a huge fan of anything below teens in the winter.
The hair dryer makes a huge difference!!
If I had time to do enough searching I bet there is somewhere on the inernet thing that would explain in detail why that is so. Basically with a compression ignition engine you have to raise the temperature in the cylinder above the ignition point of the fuel. I bet there is a fine line from making lots of white smoke and getting that fuel to burn. So raising the intake air 20 degrees just puts you over that threshold. Had an old Mack tractor that would not start after being parked over night in below freezing temps and to make it worse the batteries were not exactly fresh. As luck would have it the Mack was loaded with a blacktop spreader and those spreader operators always had one of those large weed burner propane torches to clean off the machines at the end of the day. Had operator fire up the torch and take a couple fast passes along the intake manifold and that puppy fired up like it was the middle of August!
Yeah I knew sucking in that 0 degree air was just putting the fire out so to speak, and that warming up the air it was sucking would help a ton, just wasn't really sure if a hair dryer was going to be enough or not but turns out it works like a charm.
Friend of mine swears by putting an unlit propane torch, into the aur filter housing, with the valve turned on about halfway, while cranking, will start just about any small diesel. I never tried it, but can't see that it would do any harm, as ether can...
Just remember, plastics can melt and distort with too much heat..and ok to melted in no time. Ask me how I know. Cam
I was out in the sticks, so far in the sticks it was like an adventure movie, with a Mitsubishi S3L2 with a bad glow plug relay or something. I remembered all these threads so I thought I would try everything "they" always said. Unlit propane - no go Gasoline on rag/poured into manifold while cranking - nothing Flammable brake cleaner sprayed into intake - nothing (this kind of brake cleaner is very similar to gasoline) Lit propane torch directed into manifold - immediate easy start. Actually it was cold enough that I took the torch away too soon and it started to stall, add the torch back and it took right back off again
Yeah, I only put the blow dryer on "warm" not "hot" so as not to hurt the plastic.
did u put the blow dryer on for a while before s tarting or just at the time u started it