Lister Engines > Listeroid Engines
COLD start---
hotater:
This morning at Magic Hot Springs is the coldest I've seen it here, minus 14.8 F as I type.
My Lister is in a small building with two radiators running 105 degree spring water (the idiots that designed the place COULD have run the waste well water through the floor, but didn't.). Up to now the inside has stayed about 55 to 60 degrees and the engine itself, being closer to the open wall, about 45. This morning the water supply hose was frozen and the crankcase was 37 degrees. I was a little doubtful this morning's start would be as carefree as the others.
I've pretty well rendered my daily routine down to a system-- Make the first quart cup of coffee by candlelight (idiot designers put no windows or skylights in the kitchen area), then go check the oil on the Lister, squirt a little in the rocker arm hole and look to be sure nothing is obviously wrong. I squirt the smallest amount of ether I can manage right through the auto-type air cleaner, open the fuel rack and set the compression release and start cranking with a view towards acclereration THROUGH the third squeak of the injector and flip off the compression release. It fired and ran this morning on the first stroke just like it has every morning for six months! Follow through is important! Some friends are handle shy and want to jump away before the stroke is all the way through...that usually doesn't work.
I'm SMILING!! I have a hand-cranked engine supplying power the engine heater on the fancy Onan so it'll start this morning!! You just gotta LOVE it!!
Reno Speedster:
Thats nice to hear, I have been giving some thought to installing a glow plug in the big plug in the head for realy cold starts. My engine will be in a seperate and non heated generator shed in rural Nevada where it can get into the minus numbers. George was tinkering with this idea a while back I seem to recall. Wonder how it worked?
Morgan
hotater:
I heard just yesterday that there's a kit available to turn a 'Cold Start' into a 'Frigid Start' Listeroid. That'll be very handy in a place without heat.
Today I nailed the edges of the tarp down on the opening and stuffed a big rag in a hole under the door. It's now five below and sinking on a howling wind. Tonight I'll let the Lister run all night to keep the heat going in the building and to keep from things freezing up in the pumphouse. I don't want to set any cold start records in the morning.
Copybell:
Jack,
Do you find the need to use either on every start, or just when it is really cold?
You remimd me of a book I read (One Man's Wilderness) about Dick Proenneke who built a cabin using simple hand tools in the Twin Lakes region of Alaska. He did it all by himself and without the aid of electricity. Anyhow, you are all by yourself and isolated and in the cold which is what brought the book to mind. Dick Proenneke recorded temperatures as low as -48 degrees. He lived in his cabin for 35 years and now it is part of the National Park service.
Best regards,
Clifford Myers
quinnf:
Jack, wonder if a shot of propane down the beast's gullet would help wake it up on a chilly morning.
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