Glow Plug Installation

[michaelmrc]

good day all
1 have a yanmar 1gm10 that as you know doesnt come with a glow plug for cold weather starting. i spend a lot of time out this time of year and was wondering if there is an aftermarket glow plug kit available for the 1gm10 would make -negative temp morning starts much easier thanks

[Sailmonkey]

Glow plugs require a hole in the head for them to be fitted. What you need is an intake heater. I can see some "Re-engineering" using automotive intake heaters in your future.

[svtadpole]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Glow plugs require a hole in the head for them to be fitted. What you need is an intake heater. I can see some "Re-engineering" using automotive intake heaters in your future.

I have the same problem ( no glowplug ) on my Yanmar SVE8 ... I have always had to spray ether-type fogger into the air intake whilst cranking ... ( a pain in the rear ) ...

Tell us more about finding & fitting an intake heater ...

[courageous cat]

block heater mite be an optoion

[Charlie]

If you have 110 voltage available then try a blockheater though I am not sure where you could plug it in to the block. Another option would be to get a heat lamp and shine it near your fuel lines.

[michaelmrc]

These options require shore power which I wouldn't have anchored out what about fitting a glow plug into the intake manifold would something like this work

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Charlie

If you have 110 voltage available then try a blockheater though I am not sure where you could plug it in to the block. Another option would be to get a heat lamp and shine it near your fuel lines.

Well, if the boat has power at the dock, you could very eaisly use one of those magnetic oil pan heaters. There are block heaters made that replace one of the freeze plugs. Otherwise,
get ahold of some ford powerstroke parts and put together some pushbutton/relay thinghy to use this thing like a glowplug

[SkiprJohn]

Don't use ether if you want your diesel to last.

kind regards,

[Sailmonkey]

Also as an aside, if you fit an intake heater..........YOU MUST NEVER SPRAY ETHER ON IT.....it's even worse for the engine to belch fire than it is to make an ether baby with cracked rings.

[klem]

The reason that diesel engines don't like to start in the cold is that they can't build enough heat in the cylinders to fire. Heat comes from compressing air, a little bit of friction and any supplemental heating sources. Heat is lost through the exhaust and block. If your compression is low, you won't generate as much heat. If your cranking speed is slow, you won't generate much heat because leakage past the rings and valves is much more important the slower you go. If your engine is cranking slowly, make sure that your starting system is in good shape, your connections are clean, your batteries are good and you are using the right oil. Friction is basically negligeable and something that you won't have a lot of control over unless something is wrong.

Heat loss is also hard to change. The most important thing here is the cylinder volume to surface area ratio which is much better for larger engines (and incidentally part of the reason why big engines tend not to have supplemental air heaters for starting). The only practical way to change heat loss in a diesel engine without a redesign is to put a block heater on it and make the temperature differential lower. Electric block heaters are very easy to plumb into a fresh water cooled engine but they require shore power. Salt water cooled engines require the use of an oil pan heater instead of a block heater. If you don't have AC power, you can use a diesel fired one like an Espar or Webasto.

The other option is to do supplemental heating of the in-chamber air. This can either be done in the chamber (glow plugs) or in the intake manifold (grid/intake heaters). Adding glow plugs to an engine not designed for them is really difficult since you need to drill through the head an not hit anything. In addition, it affects performance since you are changing the combustion chamber a little bit. With some IDI engines, it is possible to add them but I don't recommend it despite the fact that they are more efficient as a starting aid. This leaves grid heaters which work reasonably well and are not too hard to install. The best type are flat plate type although ones that go in through a tapped hole are available. All of the B series Cummins in Dodge pickups have them and the Duramax from the LBZ on uses them. I have used the Cummins ones as a retrofit on another engine but we were building a new intake anyways. That engine uses 2 but just one of them will be more than enough for an engine like yours.

Good luck.

[Chief Engineer]

Ether does not belong in diesels.

Since you have used it you have probably damaged the rings to the point where it has become an etherholic.

Whenever I see ether on a new customers boat I remove it and give them "The Lecture"

Have you tried starting at 3/4 throttle?

[DRS]

Try contacting your local heavy duty truck dealer's parts department. Both the Cummins ISB and Mercedes Benz 926 engines use a 12V air intake warmer for cold starts. There may be a way to set one of these in your air intake system.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Ether does not belong in diesels.

Since you have used it you have probably damaged the rings to the point where it has become an etherholic.

Whenever I see ether on a new customers boat I remove it and give them "The Lecture"

In other words,... well really the same words a little louder..

Ether does not belong in diesels.

Since you have used it you have probably damaged the rings to the point where it has become an etherholic.

Whenever I see ether on a new customers boat I remove it and give them "The Lecture".

Hope you'll forgive me Chief. Just thought a little emphasis might be helpful.

I wish someone had driven that home to me sooner.

[michaelmrc]

well no worries there havent yet nor will i ever use ether in my diesel.
what i have found that seems to work ok is pulling the decompression lever spin the engine for a few seconds to warm up the cylinder then push the decomp lever back in and it starts to fire, sometimes takes me a couple of tries to get it to start if really cold out but it does start. starting system is great spins fast, is there any downside to the procedure im doing now.

[perchance]

I was told by a diesel mechanic that WD40 is a safer alternative to ether as a starting fluid. Boosting the Cetane level in the fuel might also help with cold starting. I knew an old farmer who used to heat the intake manifold with a propane torch to start his tractor in the winter and it worked most of the time for him.