How this engine starts????

plumcrazy

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 6
This isn't a traditional big block (ha) but love watching old and cold startups, but they lack info.. Sooo, love to ask the smartest engine guys I know how it works.

Why do you have pre-heat it so long? I've seen people fire the old Bulldog tractors with torch in a similar way and can only believe that the fuel is too slow to burn cold?

The lever he keeps pulling, is that some kind of primer?

 
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Don Jacks

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 3
It's a Compression ignition engine.The heating up gets the cylinder temprature up enough to support ignition.Think Diesel.
 

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
Cool. Wouldn't work out well in a getaway car. Huge bore and stroke. Do you suppose it made 10 hp?

We had a UD264 International power unit on a plant back in the 60's. It started on gas and then you switched it over to diesel. It did not have a pony motor like the old Cat's had. I hand cranked my share of those. You had to know what you were doing or you could eat the crank or mess up your wrist cranking them.
 

Phil Reed

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 10
That explains why a Diesel will start and run after you have put a third of a tank of gasoline in it and drive 30 miles and you can shut it down and it will start back up. But let the motor cool down and it won’t hit a lick. Don’t Ask:facepalm
Been there......done that.......don't ask!!!!!!!
 

Barry Taylor

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
It’s a 2003 3500 Duramax with the LB7. This happened in 2008 with about a 120 thousand miles on it. I was on my way to pick up the white 62 Bel Air race car and trailer i had bought from a friend of Al Loy. After 5 hrs. and 500.00 in wrecker bill and labor at a small shop i was on my way again.My son replaced the injectors at 165 thou. three years ago. Its got 172 thou. now and runs strong. I would have thought it would have ruined it. :pray
 

Don Jacks

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 3
Back in 85 while working at a Chevy dealer the dispatcher hand me the repair order on a 16,000 mile Blazer 6.2 diesel,,cranks but won't start.His words were "Sorry but we both know this is warranty":sweat.I go out to the truck in the lot and hit the starter,it cranks but no start.Then I notice a strong smell of gasoline :scratch.After looking at a couple of the cars around the truck and finding n leaks,I cracked the drain on the fuel filter,sure enough,gasoline.The service writer said"I'm NOT gonna call the customer you do it! After a 15 minute conversation with who turned out to be a nice guy and giving him options,I got off the phone with a pump replacement,clean injectors,drain an clean the fuel tank and replace the fuel filter,all COD.:disco1
 
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Don Jacks

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 3
A low compression gas motor will run ok with a little diesel fuel [about a 1/4 ratio].It'll likely smoke from the exhaust though.
 

rstreet

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 17
Cool. Wouldn't work out well in a getaway car. Huge bore and stroke. Do you suppose it made 10 hp?

We had a UD264 International power unit on a plant back in the 60's. It started on gas and then you switched it over to diesel. It did not have a pony motor like the old Cat's had. I hand cranked my share of those. You had to know what you were doing or you could eat the crank or mess up your wrist cranking them.
Dave:
I was at at tractor show several years ago and there was a large international there very nice. Anyway one side of it was all gas with carb and magneto. Walk around it and other side was all diesel with injectors and fuel pump!!! Person there said you fire it up on gasoline then switch to diesel fuel and go plowing.
Robert
 

409gang

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
My dad bought a 1962 TD9 International crawler high lift that we still have on some property. It has the same thing, starts on gas and switches over to diesel. You pull a lever out on the dash panel that opens some small valves (decompression valves) to lower the compression and opens the carburetor. You then start the engine on gas and start pushing the fuel lever forward till its starts blue smoking out the exhaust stack. At that point you push the decompression lever in and at the same time push the throttle forward and she's running on diesel. We had to replace a cylinder head one time and the head had three valves per cylinder, two that looked normal and one that looked like it was out of a Brigs and Stratton lawnmower engine.
 
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Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
My dad bought a 1962 TD9 International crawler high lift that we still have on some property. It has the same thing, starts on gas and switches over to diesel. You pull a lever out on the dash panel that opens some small valves (decompression valves) to lower the compression and opens the carburetor. You then start the engine on gas and start pushing the fuel lever forward till its starts blue smoking out the exhaust stack. At that point you push the decompression lever in and at the same time push the throttle forward and she's running on diesel. We had to replace a cylinder head one time and the head had three valves per cylinder in it, two that looked normal and one that looked like it was out of a Brigs and Stratton lawnmower engine.

Yep and it barely idles on the the gasoline side.
 

409gang

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
Yep and it barely idles on the the gasoline side.
I remember when operating that machine if you were digging and loaded down the engine to the point it stalled it out while at full throttle it took forever to get it back started on gasoline as the cylinders were full of unburned diesel. You always wanted to bring the engine down to an idle on diesel for a minute before shutting it down that way it would restart pretty easy.
 
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