SR1 Hard to start

[contaucreek]

My SR gave me trouble today starting. It is -10 c . I started it yesterday for a check prior to todays need for it and it started ok, albeit a bit slow for the first 5 seconds or so.

Today different story being colder. I cranked up to speed on normal running fuel setting but just puffs of smoke. Fearing I was getting too much fuel I rigged the fuel toggle off and then wound it up some more and over the top a couple times-no smoke. Set the fuel on again and it started but with a lot of grey smoke for the first couple hits then slowly came up and the exhaust cleared.

So, should I use excess fuel setting to start in cold ? Any cold weather starting tips ? I run it every couple months as a trial but I am wondering if the rings were a little dry letting a wee bit of compression through    The injector was creaking every time too.

[dieselgman]

Always use the "excess fuel" position for starting in the cold. It is always a good idea to use the cold start cups primed with a tablespoon of lube oil... of course this is after spinning over for awhile with the compression released to pick up oil pressure in the lubrication system. A little heat on the inlet manifold can also help but only recommended after the lube oil and cold start lube has been added. If your machine lacks the cold-start cups, these can be added easily and inexpensively.

dieselgman

[contaucreek]

Always an experienced answer, thanks Gary.

[buickanddeere]

  Coolant heater? Glow plug tapped into the intake port and squirt some fuel on it? Electric start for higher cranking rpm?  Synthetic oil? 

[contaucreek]

I can hand crank this air cooled engine pretty fast, remember I'm on the camshaft not the crank. It has electric start too but that's for OLD FOGIES...no dust on me 

[Fairmountvewe]

An electric hair dryer or heat gun (or a propane torch with some kind of flame diffuser or rosebud tip if you are really off-grid) in the intake.  I start an old (ancient,really) Bobcat skid steer with a hair dryer on the coldest of days, and I am only a little south of you.

[contaucreek]

Intake heat was my next step   

[mike90045]

A coke bottle cap of petrol down the intake or on the filter element has always worked for me starting Diesels in the cold on WVO.

Is this better/safer than the nasty spray ether ?

[dieselgman]

An SR model will sometimes bend the connecting-rod if you attempt starting with too much ether. It is also quite common to break rings. Pre-ignition happens all too easily. This is similar to taking a sledge-hammer to the top of your piston. Our standard policy is - NO ether anywhere near a Lister!

You can start with WD40 or other fuel misted into the inlet port.

dieselgman

[dieselgman]

Glort,

I agree that proper maintenance and careful cold weather preparations (including preheating) should eliminate the need for drastic or emergency measures such as hammering your engine with ether. I remember running demobilization during the Alaska pipeline construction wrap-up under extreme cold winter conditions. We had to start hundreds of big machines sitting out in the cold and we used case upon case of starting ether to make them fire up. Ether works! That procedure was considered fine for a bunch of surplus that they just wanted to get rid of quickly. I am also confident that a lot of the big Caterpillar engines could take that without any problem at all. Some of the heavy equipment even had cannisters of the stuff on board as an automatic starting aid! This also used to be a common practice on some big truck engines.

The OP was asking about a Lister SR, which has fairly light parts compared to the heavy duty CS models commonly discussed here. I do know from personal experience with damaged engines that ether can and will bend connecting rods in a Lister SR model as well as shatter the compression rings when it is used to excess in one of these. I have seen piston rings destroyed in other engines as well... (literally falling out in dozens and dozens of pieces) all it takes is a hard enough pre-ignition knock and POW! you might have a non-serviceable engine to repair.

BTW, the reference to addiction should not be taken literally (unless you are a real nut!)... it simply means that ether can cause further damage that actually worsens a hard starting engine's malfunction. You only thought it was hard starting until you lost additional compression via shattered rings... then maybe ether is the only thing that could get that engine fired up short of an overhaul! Let's not put our engines into rehab! They are innocent! 

Words to the Wise!

dieselgman

[mike90045]

A coke bottle cap of petrol down the intake or on the filter element has always worked for me starting Diesels in the cold on WVO.

I'd understood that the anti-knock treatments for petrol/gasoline (gasoline right - in the 89 octane ballpark? ) made it unsuitable for diesels that need the cetane rating to self-ignite.  So I'd only heard till now, about it's anti-gel / thinning properties in the liquid fuel.

[mike90045]

Wow - I guess I will be trying a spritz of a small amount of unleaded for the next cold start.

[contaucreek]

I tried a cold start today in preparation for an ice storm this weekend. Engine block was probably -8c. I bumped it off compression a bunch of times to try and build some warmth then pulled it around for 20 or 30 cycles with fuel held off. Wound her up WITH THE EXCESS FUEL SET and off she went, no problems.