Using Cold Start

[nb maggie]

Sometimes when really cold the previous owner of 'Maggie' told me to use a spary of damp/cold start.

 

I have heard that diesel engines can become 'addicted' to this. Is this true and how can it be?

[rustyduck]

I'm told that this happens when the preheat goes south. The worse the preheater is, the more the engine needs a dose of warm start.

 

Usually a damned good servicing will cure the addiction.

[Alastair]

I'm trying to imagine what a "damn good servicing" entails . . .

[rustyduck]

Replacing all the consumables would normally do it. And yes the glow plugs would count as consumables.

 

Oh, and a large whip and lots of black leather.

[John Orentas]

Yes it can certailny be true, a piston engine particularly a diesel needs a good leak-proof seal around the pistons. When the engine is new the piston rings and the bores into which they fit will give that air-tight seal with only a little help from the engine oil, as it ages and things start to wear a good seal depends more and more on a certain amount of oil sludge and carbon to take up wear and fill the little gaps.

 

"Engine Start" or "Cold Start" will help a worn engine to start by enabling the fuel to ignite at a lower temperature which is the result of a lower pressure in the cyinders. The problem is, it is based on Ether or something simillar which is also an effective solvent and it cleans all that nice sludgy stuff from around the pistons and rings. The engine gradually looses compression and therefore starting becomes progressively more difficult.

 

Generally speaking, heater plugs either work or they don't, but you should test them once a year anyway, only a five minute job.

 

 

John Squeers

Edited November 17, 2004 by John Orentas

[Guest]

I once read that ether can destroy the piston rings in a diesel due to the massive increase in temperature, and that if you must use it then spray onto a cloth and hold near the intake rather than spraying directly in. I do not know if this is scaremongering, but it is a thought that has stayed with me.

[John Orentas]

Stan.

 

I don't think there is much in that but I can understand how the idea may have developed. My older brother when he was a teenager used to pinch ether from the school science lab. and mix it 50 / 50 in the petrol of his very under powered 125cc motor bike, it went like hell.......For a while !

 

I my own racing career there where people who were known to illegally do their engine tuning with test tubes and you could detect some very peculiar smells when following them.

 

There are certain classes of motor racing, speedway bikes and grass-track in Britain and most recing cars in the USA that run on methanol, or (dope). I'm not a chemist but I believe it is a simillar compound to ether. Those engines run very much cooler and at the same time produce more power than their petrol counterparts.

 

The only snag is that carburetors of such engines need to be manufactured from brass as the methanol will eat away at aluminium components. I think the procedure is to fush the engine through with petrol to get rid of any traces of dope at the end of the race meeting. I doubt if it would effect your diesel pistons as all traces would be burned off or cleaned away by the diesel fuel as soom as the engine started.

 

John Squeers

[Yamanx]

The word addicted is misleading, as has been said before your compression will gradually become less with each use and this leads to harder starting so you will use more of it.

 

However the main reason for not using Easystart is the explosion that takes place on compression. This is far more severe and happens before the pistons are at TDC this puts undue pressure on the main bearings.

 

If you keep using it, it will eventually knock the ends out of your motor.

 

Because my injectors desperately need servicing or more likely replacing, I have been using this stuff on occassion, in order to get the boat nearer to home before dismantling the engine. But I wouldnt recommend it.

 

Y

[nb maggie]

It seems to be suggested that Easy Start might 'clean' the engine which is what makes it addictive - I was once told by an engine re-builder that if you need to rely on carbon to keep the compression its time for a re-build.

[John Orentas]

A friend of mine who runs a few lorries tells me that some of his drivers have used far too much of it in one go, causing a 'hydraulic lock', this may well be where some of the stories of mechanical damage may have come from.

 

An engine starts to wear the day you buy it, relating to my first reply whan engines had to be 'de-carbonised' on a routine basis it was recomended by some that an old piston ring should be inserted on top of the piston, the all the carbon except that under the ring be scraped away, the thinking being that that ring of carbon aided the sealing and oil retention.

 

John Squeers

[dor]

You would have to pour it in from a jug to get a hydraulic lock!

[John Orentas]

Dor.

 

Well that's what he told me and he knows what he is talking about when it comes to diesels.

 

John Squeers

[dor]

Methinks he was having you on!

[John Orentas]

Dor.

 

 

I said that, he said "you don't know my drivers".

 

 

John Squeers

[dor]

[DHutch]

yeah, no driver is going to sit there for an hour sparying a whole canfull of easystart into and engine - for a start it would freaze there fingers off - and second, if there anyhtink like my uncals drivers they just complain and get it started for them my a mechanic!!