cold starting trick

[belchfire]

Now that winter's comming on, the annual battle to get it fired up has begun. I have a block heater that's on a timer that runs for about 3 hours in the morning. That works great and warms the rig up quickly. If I forget to plug it in, or sometimes when I've switched from SVO back to diesel too late before shutting down and there is still a bit of coagulated oil in the injector lines, then no amount of cranking willl get it to fire. What I've found works the best it this situation is a propane torch. I run it on the injectors for about 20 seconds each and maybe the lines too being careful not to burn up the rubber return hoses or any wiring. It's a desperate measure for sure, but it does do the trick and will get you going. I've used it on my kubota tractor as well.

[ORCoaster]

Thanks for the tip, not that I probably will ever need it here in Oregon but it is good to know and share.

So this has me thinking.  Oh no not that again. Remember last time? 

I know some fuel filters had heaters that used the hot water return to warm the fuel prior to delivery to the IP.  And some use those exchange heaters for WVO and such.  But would we do better with starting and fuel consumption if we heated the fuel in the pump and insulated the lines to the injectors?  Thermal wrap or maybe even some of that low temp waterline wrap used to keep your house pipes from freezing.  If you put those on a timer you would inject warm fuel right away or nearly so. 

Put the thinking caps on gents and ponder the possibilities. 

[R.O.R-2.0]

i usually have a torch in my car with me if i go very far. my torch is an often used tool, definitely.

they work great for lighting cigs @ 100mph with all the windows down..

[belchfire]

Hey orcoaster! I also live here and while it's nowhere as bad as some other places, it gets pretty cold here too. (Or maybe it's just my less than stellar compression) I am running the coolant lines to 20' of PEX line in the tank as well as an electric heat wire on the Racor filter, a twin glow plug heater on the oil fuel line, a glow plug heater in a T prior to the VW fuel filter and more heat wire on the injector lines. 2 years of changing filters in the rain alongside the freeway and sometimes towing it home has taught me that you can't have the oil too hot. It's about 200* when it hits the injector. The torch trick is one of those "if everything else fails" fixes that usually gets it going.

[maxfax]

they work great for lighting cigs @ 100mph with all the windows down..

Here Here!!  I keep one in the convertible..  The only true windproof lighter!

[ORCoaster]

Belchfire, you running all that on veg oil or diesel?  My son and I did a similar system when he had his Rabbit burning WVO.  Now he has better equipment on his Dodge Ram.  80 Gallon tank in the bed of the truck, with multiple heaters, one just prior to the injection pump.  One of those plates with hot water on one side, WVO the other. 

MaxFax and R.O.R keep the torch and drop the bad habit.  Can't say I have a need to pack a torch in my tool box.  They say much colder for the PNW this winter so maybe I best throw it in there. 

[theman53]

http://www.fattywagons.com/fwproducts.htm

This site has some injection line heaters I was thinking of trying. I never did anything with it since I wasn't going to try starting off with my giles pump as my first attempt at bio fuels. It makes sense to me since the return of the fuel is designed to cool the pump, so if the injection lines were heated then you wouldn't see as much loss. Plus I read somewhere that if your glowplugs weren't up to snuff then these helped when cold.

[ORCoaster]

Your picture has changed for the better?  53man. 

I checked out the site and now I am thinking, smell that?, I put a heating grid under the tile in the bathroom and I think I have some of that wire in the leftovers.  If I put 12 vdc on it I bet it will do the job.  The hot fuel in winter should be way better than cold.  Going to work on this idea some over the holiday.  Maybe come up with something. 

I think electric is the way to go to keep the leaking/coolant problems at bay. 

[belchfire]

Since I'm running SVO, all of my starting is on diesel. I tried coolant heaters in the beginning but couldn't get enough BTU's to do the job. Prior to the electric heaters, I had thought of using a flat plate exchanger but running the turbo oil through it instead of coolant. Price kept me from doing that idea. I got my hot wire from fatty wagons and it works ok. It broke once but I was able to use a splice and fixed it. Needless to say, I installed a 90 amp alternator to run everything. I made a spacer and installed a 185* thermostat in the upper outlet so that coolant is forced to go through the tank lines instead of the bypass. At 185 the bypass opens up and at 195 the main one opens.