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Are you supposed to start your diesel truck when the high outside is barley above zero? Don't know about you, but "Pluging it in" Ain't working for me.
 
Buy a D-Max.
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Should start fine with glow plugs. Our Mack CH613's start just fine but those engines are just a tad different than your Powerstroke.
 
Originally Posted By: Troy_Built
Are you supposed to start your diesel truck when the high outside is barley above zero? Don't know about you, but "Pluging it in" Ain't working for me.


A block heater should work. The kind that goes into a freeze plug was what I used in the 80s. After 1 hr. the water temp. warmed the engine to where starting was no problem. I used synt. oil so the engine cranked easier.

Also check to see if your heater is working at all.

As advised check glow plugs.
 
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What? nobody mentioning ether? True it can turn a Caterpillar into a Scatterpillar, but I'm still surprised no mentions in the first two posts.


A 5W40 works great with my 7.3. 10x better than 15W40 in cold. Good UOA's too. 1/2 the copper withing the same OCI.
 
Inside parking is the only sure way to do guaranty crank up. We untilize block heaters, oil pan heaters, Hydraulic resivoir heaters for the trucks we can't fit inside. Some of those trucks will fail to start and then be dragged inside to warm up. Synthetic is a must in the Fan motor & P/S or the oil cooler will explode below -10.
 
Originally Posted By: Michael_P
What? nobody mentioning ether? True it can turn a Caterpillar into a Scatterpillar, but I'm still surprised no mentions in the first two posts.


Your not supposed to use Either with glow plugs. My old Cummins does not like to start if it's below 40F. When it was new it had a glow plug in the intake manifold and a hand operated fuel pump. You would pump a small amount of fuel into the intake manifold which was lighted on fire by the glow plug.

You could make sure that the fuel was on fire in the manifold by removing a screw in plug.

Once you had a fire going you pulled the compression lever which opens the exhaust valves and hit the starter button. Once the engine was spinning you let go of the compression lever and hoped that it started.

Most of that stuff is gone today. If it's really cold I either let the truck sit or if I absolutly have to move it I'll give it a1/2 second shot of either to get it running.

This can't be good for it.
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h3/spoink142/?action=view&current=1217081503.flv
 
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We only have a couple left that don't have manifold pre-heaters. or I swear buy the ether for getting a few pops to get some heat going in there. It is a bit harsh on pistons/bearings. Our medium garbage trucks are all ISC, ISB, C7, 3406, Isuzu, and a Detroit here & there. 90 trucks have to turn rubber 5 days a week. Every diesel has an outboard jumper quick connect so we can put extra amps to the starter off another truck or starting unit. Sometimes we use a torpedo type kerosene heater and setit under the bumper and blow on the oil pan for a while and that will enable faster cranking once the oil loosens up.
 
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Originally Posted By: Chris142

This can't be good for it.
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h3/spoink142/?action=view&current=1217081503.flv



Talk about "can't be good for it...," makes you wonder how those old English Electric diesels live as long as they do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG91fYHcm-k&feature=related

It actually starts at about 1:20.... mostly. You can hear the turbos spin up a little faster on every surge.

TONS of videos of them on YT and they all are that cold-natured. As opposed to EMDs and Deltics that pretty much light right up
 
Originally Posted By: Troy_Built
Are you supposed to start your diesel truck when the high outside is barley above zero? Don't know about you, but "Pluging it in" Ain't working for me.


I know when I used to load the cryo tanker trucks and drive them around the yard at work (mostly mid-late 1990's Volvos with Cummins inline 6's), they wouldn't start in single digit temps (degF). They'd crank until the batteries died unless the heaters were plugged in. Anything with an air starter you might as well have an air line plugged into. We'd start and let everything idle if it was really cold. Luckily that's rare.

Joel
 
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Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Originally Posted By: Troy_Built
Are you supposed to start your diesel truck when the high outside is barley above zero? Don't know about you, but "Pluging it in" Ain't working for me.


That's a great question for a person to ask themselves before buying a diesel....
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....OR before choosing to live where it gets that cold
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Poking around Youtube, it looks like the common rail 6.7s have a lot less trouble than older ones. Fairly typical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DByvpmnwgE&feature=related
 
I have never had a problem starting my Cummins, even when at work where I can't plug in. I just cycle the grid heater a few times before I crank her up.
 
Older 7.3L Powerstrokes with good glow plugs and any Cummins should start fine below 0. The new 6.0 and 6.4L Fords seem to be really cold blooded from what I can tell on Youtube videos. Duramaxes seem to be great.

There's also a guy who right now, since we're in this ridiculous cold snap, is doing videos comparing starting ability in his Powerstroke with Motorcraft 15w-40 compared to Rotella T6 5w-40 synthetic.
 
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