I'm looking for the best way to cold start a detroit diesel besides an ether spray can.

I have a genny with a 3-71. It runs perfect and provides enough power to run a battle ship. All I have to do is get it running when it's colder than 60F. I live in western NY so that's not an average temp.

The engine originally had an auto ether start of some sort that the previous owner pulled off because it was broken, missing pieces, and appeared impossible to parts source. All that's left is a threaded 1/2" hole that has become a easily removed plug for ether.

Here's my question: Can I use a system similar to the thermostart of an older tractor? I have this system on my David Brown and it works... sort of well. That JPG is a diagram of the system on a Moline 450. It's the closest to what I have on my DB.


Other than that, Case has a manually controlled ether start. Would this work?

I'm interested in all the answers, not just the realistic ones!

 

The best way to have a generator prepared to start is with heat and not ether. Install a block heater to keep coolant temp around 120 deg. Use of ether on diesel engines let alone any engine is not good, especially on a Detroit as they are already high strung engines and with a gulp of that going through the blower would and could produce very unsatisfactory results.

 

Flyingtee, I appreciate the opinion but I've used ether enough to have a good idea what I'm doing (this is the spot where you say, "Yeah, until the engine blows up"). :-)

The 3-71 originally had an ether system installed from the factory and I also linked a Case designed ether cold start kit for a Case backhoe so I'm not worried about using ether on this engine. I know, there are a lot of bad thoughts on ether but I'm ok with it and so are a large number of equipment companies.

A generator with no autostart won't be very warm if I'm not home to start it as soon as the power goes out. Also, 1,000 watts a day per season for equipment I normally use 4 times a year sounds unappealing to my electric bill.

Any thoughts on the ThermoStart idea?

 

put a squirt or two in the air cleaner and fire her up

 

If you are not using an auto start option on your generator, then yes the next best thing would be a "thermostart" or glow plugs. Perkins generator engines use them on a wide range of there products as does some of the smaller Caterpiller gen sets. Use of ether would be a very last resort if the engine was extremely hard to start.

 

I need to apologize. I sound like I'm encouraging the use of straight ether but I really use starting fluid which is... slightly less ether. :-)

I think I've found an interesting option: Kold Ban International

It's an aftermarket ether kit with an atomized, controlled injection.

This is more attractive than the thermostart because I won't have to tap fuel lines.

 

that KBI system looks like it will be very close to the original system.

 

I guess I'm confused. You're comfortable using starting fluid, and have done it in the past. Are you just looking to upgrade to a system that doesn't require you to carry a can of starting fluid out to the generator? Or am I missing something?

 

he is looking for an auto injection system like the unit originally had, so the gen set will start on its own without someone standing there to give it a shot.

 

Tom is correct. I have a Trace inverter system (with mostly dead batteries) that can act as an automatic transfer switch AND generator starter. There's no way the inverter is ever going to get that 3-71 running without a kick and the battery system is only strong enough to run the inverter until I can afford new batteries.

There is a "preheat" option with delay timer on the inverter. I figured I could use that to activate the solenoid for the ether injection system.

I've decided to purchase the KBI ether injection system. I don't like the requirement of a proprietary ether can but maybe I'll figure out a way around that... but probably not.

 

Ah I get it.

 

Every detroit diesel I have ever used, old two strokes anyway, had ether start systems on them. Ether is a very bad idea on an engine with glow plugs. And only on engines with glow plugs. Or grid heaters. It's just not good on those. For two strokers, especially ones that came that way from the factory, it's not gonna hurt it.
And as far as running a battleship... I was on the Iowa. We had two 16 cylinder opposed piston emergency diesel generators that just barely did it. Those things were HUGE! YOu could hear the roar and see the fire coming out the exhaust from miles away when they fired up. They ran on JP5 most of the time and guess what they used to start up when it was cold. Ether! On the smaller ships I was on we had ether start systems on all the detroit diesel emergency generators. Westerbeke diesels on the boats had it too. Most of the trucks I worked on in the Army also had ether start.
The one common thing about them all was none of them had glow plugs of any kind.