starting up an old diesel
 

Myself and a buddy were recently given a 1986 F-350 with the 6.9l diesel to get rid of. The truck has been sitting for a little over three years now. Before it was parked, it had the engine rebuilt and it only has 8000 miles on it. Not knowing much about diesels, I was wondering what the best way to start it up would be. Any suggestions would be extremely helpful.

I sent you a private message about the truck.

i would say bring it inside, drain old diesel, make sure your glow plugs are good and crank away. if u cant bring it in then i would plug it in if the block heater still works. if not put a heater next to it.

i would turn it over by hand first def change the oil

First I would at least check all fluid levels. Probably better to change the oil and filter. I would also replace the fuel filter as well. Make sure to fill the fuel filter with fresh diesel fuel. If the fuel tank is full of fuel I would drain the old fuel. If it has only a bit of fuel in the tank I would add 5 to 10 gallons of fresh diesel fuel. Then I would make sure both batteries are fully charged. Then give a small shot of starting fluid and the motor shall fire. You may have to repeat the starting fluid step a few times. Hold the accelerator halfway down while trying to start. If needed have someone intermittently shoot starting fluid into the engine when it first fires. Just enough to keep it running until you bleed all of the air out of the injector system. Do not load it up with lots of starting fluid, for that is really hard on these smaller diesels.

Starting fluid in any engine equipped with glow-plugs can produce catastrophic results.

well said. it can be used if you know exactly the right way to use it. being new to diesels, enlist the hands on help from some one that is knowledgeable with idi engines. make sure he can walk the walk not just talk the talk.

That is why I said can not always. I have used ether in my old 7.3idi plenty of times. LOL

If you are going to use starting fluid I would suggest just unplugging the glow plugs that is very easily done.

exalant point! i would also not recomend spraying ether directly into the intake to (keep it running).

Thnanks guys for all the help you have given me so far. I will probably try to start it up in the next couple of days when I find time. If you have any other suggestions for this, my ears are open. Thanks alot:-wink

on all of our diesel equipment, i know we hold the throttle wide open untill the engine starts to rev up, and then we back off to half throttle and let the motor warm up at half throttle.

wow! bet it warms up quick, by the way how many rpm are you taching at half throttle and no load?

I would agree with what all the other posts said, changing oil, fuel filters, making shure of clean fuel,

I would go real easy with the ether, its caused lots of problems. If the compression is good, and the glow plugs work, she should start, I do not know if you can do this but sometimes when we lay up a boat engine for a long time, we turn the engine over with the battery without starting it. Just long enough to see something happen at the oil gauage. This re-primes the bearings and all that and prevents dry starts. If it is cold where you are, this may not be possible, and I am not shure how to stop your engine from starting when it is turning over. It sounds like an older engine, mabey its got a stop lever and you can hold it or the injector pump in the no fuel position.

Well, just a suggestion. Best of luck.

That is not a bad idea. If you disconnect the two wires on the injection pump it will not start during cranking.


I would say 30 seconds would be more than enough time to oil.

ya they warm up quick, and that is actually the cold starting procedure on all of our equipment (owners manual). the new diesels in combines automatically do this via computer, they rev wide open for about a second or 2 before they go down to high idle.

half throttle is about 1300 rpms.

oh ya and we use zero ether or aleast use as little as possible.

my dad has an old IH dozer with the 466 and it has over 30k hours on it and has never been rebuilt and still going strong. so i would say the quick warm up didn't hurt it at all. most of the time it starts without either unless it gets below zero, then a small dose normally does it.