Cold starting a diesel without glow plugs

SimpleSimon

SimpleSimon

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It's flippin cold out at the moment and the glow plugs on my truck are fecked (booked in to sort out next week) I know that a diesel will run without plugs, but convincing it to start in the first place today has been challenging!
Any tips? I was thinking of somehow heating the block or the air coming to the intake, but I only have a blowtorch, or the wife's hairdryer...

Could I make use of a tin of that easy-start stuff?

I'm keen not to keep cranking it over too much for the sake of the motor and battery
 
A direct injection diesel shouldn't take much cranking to start even without glow plugs, assuming it doesn't have poor compression.
A tin of Easy Start could get you going, but it's a last resort kinda thing.
 
Burn a news paper underneath the engine often works to gently warm up my old dumpers enough to get them started
 
Steer clear of easy start warm air up the inlet manifold used a burning rag at the air filter before today let it suck some warm air id say even a hair dryer would.work easy start will knacker the injector tips
 
if its common rail you'll struggle get new glow plugs ASAP or risk a flat battery dont be tempted to hold the accelerator peddle down. glow plugs are there for a reason.
 
Careful with the burning rag / newspaper way, it's a good starter but burning cloth or paper can be drawn into the air filter element, leaving you with a running engine but a fire to deal with, without the air filter element you risk debris entering the manifold / cylinders etc ... I would go with the blowtorch option, avoiding any wiring / ancillaries.
 
Hi
By the time any warm air from burning rags or hair dryer has travelled through the turbo charger, and more importantly the intercooler, i do not think there will be much benefit.The intercooler is just a large heat exchanger after all. This presumes you have a modern vehicle.

If it really must be started then a squirt of easy start, whilst not ideal, should get you going.
 
I used to use a cold weather engin water heater fit it plug it in overnight on our old recovery truck , there now there around £40 , easy start or any plus gas should be the last resort
 
If it won't start in this weather due to the glow plugs all being dud then you're really not going to make a difference with a hair dryer or sticking burning rags in there. It sounds like there is an underlying issue besides the plugs. It's cold sure, but nothing like proper cold. If we'd had -20 or something I'd not be surprised. But a frost? Glow plugs are an important part of the set up, but if it's struggling that hard to fire up then I'd be looking elsewhere for a problem. I run cetane booster in my common rail diesel and it's improved the cold starting no end. If your tank is full of supermarket city diesel it's going to be harder to start even on a good day. Glow plugs do fail after a while but for them all not to be working all at once? Sounds unusual. Not difficult to test if they're getting power. You may have had all of this testing done, so forgive me. But trying to heat up an engine as suggested is unlikely to make a big difference. My 4x4 hasn't moved in 2 weeks and I'd dare bet that if I went out to it, disconnected the power to the plugs and tried to start it, it would fire up. I wouldn't worry about cranking it. If the battery is decent then giving it bursts of 10 - 15 seconds isn't going to be an issue. I'd certainly make sure I stuck it on charge though. It might be that it's a bit low in any case and simply isn't spinning hard enough. If it's anything less than 11.8v then it's already flat.
 
Hi Chris j
Are there any issues with constantly cranking a non starting diesel? I am thinking unburned diesel going through the system.

Thanks.
 
Not really. It's not like the days of old cars with carburettors. I mean if it won't start after a couple of 15 second cranks than it's probably not going to. If you look at an injector when it's working, the mist is so fine that it's less than an aerosol of furniture polish. You're not going to be washing out your cylinders with gallons of derv.
 
Use easy start at your peril just buy a set of heater plugs or if your that skint just replace the ones that are duff an easy method of testing.in situ is remove the connecting wires amd with a small wire from the battery positive stroke the thread if they spark there good if they don't there done
 
Thanks all for the input, in the end the morning sat in the sun seems to have taken enough chill off and she did start, reluctantly.
I've got the truck booked in at Nissan (ouch) next week for a service (due anyway) and to check the cause of the starting issue. The fault code is generic and so it could well be a connection, relay, etc rather than a plug/plugs specifically. The battery is brand new so at least its not that.
 
finnbear270 said:
Careful with the burning rag / newspaper way, it's a good starter but burning cloth or paper can be drawn into the air filter element, leaving you with a running engine but a fire to deal with, without the air filter element you risk debris entering the manifold / cylinders etc ... I would go with the blowtorch option, avoiding any wiring / ancillaries.
Click to expand...
Hmm, yes, I was once driving a telehandler when the air filter caught fire (for a different reason) soon followed by all the oil-soaked insulation in the engine bay, and then various nearby plastic bits 😯
It must have been quite a spectacle for the lady following me. After I'd emptied two extinguishers on it she very kindly gave me a lift back to the farm...
 
finnbear270 said:
Worst ever diesel to start in any weather , York.
Click to expand...
Yes, I had a ford transit with a York diesel, plenty of easy start and bump start down a very long hill. Ironically the best used diesel that I've ever had for starting on a cold day was in a 1953 Fordson Major, 3 rotations of the back wheels on a hill and it fired up when the temperature was -6c
 
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