Well i got crafty and decided to play in the garage during a rainy day. Hooked up my old beru GP to the battery charger. 12+ volts later it ran consecutive for 12 minutes before we got bored. Wasn't before we had some fun but you can see just how bored my boys got haha. Attached is the link to youtube where i dropped the video. Hope everyone is well, and next will be the autolite plug, just gotta get the the parts store to pick it up. This isnt a bash against the makers of autolite but every plug autolite and bosch i buy here in BC canada dies instantly. Show me video of a dependable autolite NOT TEMP LIMITING that can last that long, ANYONE!!??

My Video

p.s. ill get better i promise hahahaha

 

We could really test 'em, and hook them up to the 24V batteries in my excavator......

 

buddy of mine has one, i am game!! i have the same GP still kicking and i have three others. This unit was a used one from that junk truck i worked forever on and had to end up rigging up for a friend. This is "test of time" example. below is the pic of it after testing that day

 

That was great!! Cant wait to see the Autocraps blow up!!!!!!!

 

Comforting news. I would burn through a few Autolites after a few months of only driving the truck 1-2 days a week. Got the Beru and they have been in there about two years now and still truckin. Also had them on a manual switch. The Beru did heat up much slower. About 9 seconds vs 5 seconds.

 

The GP i put to the test i would guess to be around 4-6 years old. oh and i wanted to make sure everyone knew and could see so here is a video just to make sure i dont get the haters around......

voltage proof

 

added these posts to the sticky,nice work wreckinball!!!!

 

oh man wait till i tell my son the vid was put in a sticky, hahaha, he was the one on the cute little pink bike. haha.

 

he will forever be on the internet riding a pink bike now

 

Couple things though, really the voltage should be measured while it's hooked to the glow plug, and, I don't know that battery charger can produce enough current to properly power a glow plug. IIRC, from a previous thread, I think Dave or someone had crunched the numbers, and figured that to be fully powered, you would be up around 20-40 amps per glow plug? Wish I could remember what thread that was in.....

 

Since you do have a slight voltage drop when all of the glow plugs are working.

.5 ohms resistance
10 volts
20 amps
200 watts

When I heat my glow plugs the voltage my volt meter indicates is around 10 volts.
New right out of the package Beru's are usually .5 ohms resistance.

The amps and watts were calculated using standard electrical formula's that an electrician would use if they were given the ohm's and volts.

 

**** you are right, i am only getting 9.49 with the system kicking the crap out of a glow plug, still though not far off normal. gonna get me a 24v and see how long it all lasts then! hahaha

 

I agree, testing off a battery charger is not a valid test ...

Volts & Amps should be monitored while under load from the GP, IIRC and I did my math correctly the glow plugs lose ~1.2v off battery volts and drawing ~180 amps, So 180/8=22.5 Amps per GP.

If the battery voltage is 12.0v the glow plugs see ~10.8v and draw 180 amps.

However, IMO the real test would be to take 100 or so of them and purposely burn them up to see how many pop the tips...

I see it as, it's not what/when/where they fail, but what the results of their failures are, do the tips explode causing serious problems or just quit working.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

I don't know how many dead Beru glow plugs I have seen while I have been around IDI motors, but it is many.

The picture in post 3 is what all of the tips looked like.
Some had a bit more dark carbon on them, but the tip still looked just like a new one as far as the shape went.

From my experience, if you have a good multimeter and you watch the glow plug resistance, and also change them when resistance is equal or higher than 1 ohm, you will be pulling glow plugs that still work.

The higher resistance just means they are not getting as hot as they should be and they are also taking longer to get as hot as they will get.

A resistance increase from .5 ohm's to 1 ohm cuts the heat produced by 50%.
It also cuts the amperage drawn by 50%.

 

This is what happened to the autolite I put on the battery charger. It didn't take very long either.