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Hair Dryer as preheater to Help Start Aging Diesel

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broggerp

New member
"My two-cylinder Yanmar has ap

"My two-cylinder Yanmar has apparently got poor compression, and takes its own sweet time to start -- worse in cold weather. I understand the starting fluid (ether) approach is not a great idea, and I don't have any glow plugs. But I figured pre-heating the air at the air cleaner ("silencer") ought to help, and it sure does! I used my heat gun (set to low) and the thing starts with a few turns, rather than only after 30+ seconds of grinding.

So, the question is, am I doing something horrible? I know I'm only treating a symptom, and that the compression needs to be fixed someday. But am I making anything dramatically worse by starting the engine with heated air? (I'm certainly avoiding battery drain, starter over-work, and possibly backing up cooling water into the exhaust manifold.)"
 
"No, it's not horrible. A

"No, it's not horrible. A hair drier is a tried and true method for helping an old diesel start better. The effect of the high compression in a diesel engine is to multiple the heat energy of the availiable air. If the availiable air is higher to begin with (via the hair drier) that increase in availiable air temperature will be muliplied by compression.

Another trick is to crank a few times to get some fuel into the cylinders. You then wait a couple of minutes then crank again. The idea is to get the fuel from the initial cranking to run down the cyliner walls to the rings to help the rings create a better seal and get more compression.

Another trick is to put a rag soaked with WD-40 over the air intake. The WD-40 is more volitile than regular fuel and kicks off easier."
 
Another easy fix is put a 60 w

Another easy fix is put a 60 watt light bulb under the hood at night so the engine will be warm in the morning. A plastic work light is perfect for this.
 
A standard method is to plumb hot water into the engine. Here in the pacific Northwest many boats have Deisel stoves with heating coils for hot water. and then of course the cooling water runs through a heat exchanger to heat the boat when under power. The light bulb trick is cheap and easy.
 
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