Cold Starting Aids/Enhancers/Adjuvants

[mike90045]

This came up this AM, after flattening my 2nd and last Jump Start battery pack on a friends Corvair.  He used a fair amount of starting fluid before it caught (Northern California is in a cold rainy snap right now) He's likely got bad ignition wire insulation, and the carbs are screwed up.
 And I know for our Listeroids, ether is off the list, Regular Unleaded Gasoline (RUG) is used to thin diesel for cold weather flow and gel resistance.
 What about a couple drops of RUG in the air cleaner, to get some vapor into the chamber, will that help starting?

I don't know if I have enough hands to hold the propane torch, crank the flywheel and trip the decompression lever at the same time in cold weather. (Hot air injection)

We've got some time before it gets chilly here, just asking now.

Mike

[millman56]

If you want a bit of excitement adding to the boring ritual of starting a dopey engine, try a bit of neat oxygen, not reccomended with handle start if you have slow reactions and value your body parts. 

Mark.

[Tom]

I have a 500k btu weed burner and have found a few minutes of heat on the intake elbow and injector and she'll light off every time. This is a small weed burner that runs of a standard disposable LP bottle.

[BruceM]

I got one of the Utterpower glow plugs to replace the COV plug. Works well.

[LowGear]

Mapps gas into the air breather is my Kubota's friend but I've never tried anything except a heat gun into the intake on my Witte.

Casey

[mike90045]

Mapps gas into the air breather is my Kubota's friend but I've never tried anything except a heat gun into the intake on my Witte.

Casey

Was that the MAPP gas from the 80's or the current version ?

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAPP_gas
MAPP gas is widely regarded as a safer and easier-to-use substitute for acetylene. In the spring of 2008, true MAPP gas production ended in North America when production was discontinued at the only remaining plant making it. Current products labeled "MAPP" are in fact MAPP substitutes. These versions are stabilized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with high levels of propylene.

[contaucreek]

Corvair wow. used to take my Dads 66 Monza to high school ! Dads gone and so is the Corvair but thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[ronmar]

I use methanol also, I pour some in around the injector on my 6/1 and light it:)  This pre-heats the head/IDI chamber area as well as the injector and the fuel line. It also burns clean and dosn't leave any residue.  Mine starts pretty easy with just this, but it typically dosn't get horribly cold here...  If it got much colder here, I would look into an alcohol lamp under the engine to loosen up the oil and bearings to make it easier to crank, and heating the intake manifold.  Or fit an electric starter and not worry too much about it:)

[mike90045]

...d heating the intake manifold.  Or fit an electric starter and not worry too much about it:)

I've got the electric starter, just have to rebuild it, must have bearings full of yak grease, it can barely spin itself.

[LowGear]

Aloha mike90045,

I've heard the Mapps gas edumacation before.  I'm missing the point.  That crap that comes out of McLendon's Hardware cans labeled as Mapps is really just jazzed up LPG?  What are the implications other than it's a lot cheaper to make if you don't have no stinking EPA rules?

Casey

[dieselgman]

Revolution is inevitable, just a question of when...

[Oiler]

Brake cleaner is my fluid of choice..........

[honda lee]

All this talk of needing something to help start a lister type engine in winter, I purchased a des 8/1 from Gary a few years ago and have ran it year round at my off grid site with temps in single digits in winter and hand starting using a 90/10 veggie mix and starting has been the same summer and winter. I'm not bragging cause I don't want to jinks myself but so far so good!
Am I just lucky or will this not last?

[Tom]

Revolution is inevitable, just a question of when...

I'd prefer to put it this way. The restoration of the constitution is inevitable, just a question of when...

I'm currently teaching a class on the constitution and some folks are getting really enthused!

[dieselgman]

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny”

Thomas Jefferson