Starter fuels for a diesel engine

[Batista230]

Hi
I have a 2.5L DI engine that Im running on heavy oil
The engine will run fine all day long on the oil however on cold start up she is not so keen to compress

I have tried lighting a rag in front of the air inlet manifold while the engine is being cranked so as to let hot air in the cylinders but to little effect

I bought a cheap bottle of cleaning fluid of something from the supermarket and filled it with petrol
the petrol started the engine OK however after a day the petrol has started to eat/ melt the rubber seals in the bottle and the bottle has started to shrink
Can I get a squirty bottle from somewhere that is petrol resistant?

I have a can of easy start but have not used this for years now as I know it dose serious damage to the engine
(or as some would say the engine becomes addictive)

Someone told me that carb cleaner is less volatile then easy start but Im not quite so sure
The same person also told me that a cheap can of body deodorant would be as good as carb cleaner
When I pointed out to him that the body deodorant would most probably have no lubricants in it he agreed with me
I know the easy start and carb cleaner will have lubricants in them
But I also know that the easy start is bad for the engine too
I dont think they call it easy start in America but the can say Diethyl ether
it has no other ingredients written on the tin

the can of body spay I bought today says on the can
ingredients: butane. propane. isobutain. cycolmethiccone. aluminium chlorohyydrate. isopropyl myristant. parum. disteardimonium hectorite. limonere. carvine. leaf extract. propylene carbonate. anethole. eucalyptol. limonene. carvone . leaf extract. propylene carbonate.. tetamethyl acetyloctahydroaphthalenes. hexyl salicylate. linalool

I know spraying any fuel into the air inlet manifold of a diesel engine will do it damage as the combustion is not happening top dead centre of the piston it is exploding where the fuel has been injected into it thus at the sides/ walls of the piston creating a knocking effect
But I need a fuel that is volatile to a minimum and will still start the engine


PS I tried WD 40 a long time ago but it did not work so well
More like I had to flood the cylinders with it to get it to start

 

[mattsooty]

Correctly calibrated Ether Assisted Start can & will start a CR DI Diesel engine to temps lower than the lowest recorded ambient on Earth - However, as Pat correctly points out the scope for damage on an incorrectly calibrated start is pretty spectacular.

However, if it were my engine I would try and start it on regular biodiesel and then switch to the Heavy Oil.

Prometheus, Octane Number/Index is not relevant to a CI Engine.

MS

 

[patprimmer]

I have also seen tape type elements stuck to the sump and I have heard of electric heater elements that fit where the welsh (freeze) plugs normally fit. These can preheat the entire engine for easier starting.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[catserveng]

My experience with heavy fuels (HFO) is on engines larger that the OP's however I thought I'd offer some experience gained on engines in marine and electric power generation in bore sizes from 160 to 430 mm.

By far the best long term solution, at least in my expereince, is as Pat's suggestion, start and stop the engine on a lighter, higher quality fuel, like standard automotive or marine diesel fuel, then after start as the runs at stable speed, switch to your HFO supply. Also use the lighter fuel at stopping, in our experience we found it dramatically improved fuel system component life and engine startability, just run long enough on the light fuel to fill the system with the light fuel and purge out the HFO.

As a general rule we did NOT recommend the use of starting aids like ether because we found that it lead to internal engine deposits from the use of heavy fuels breaking off and causing valve guttering and liner scoring problems. We also in almost all cases kept engine jacket water heaters and lube oil heaters on while the engine was off, mainly to try and reduce problems associated with corrosive contaminents generated in the engines from using the HFO.

This experience is on fuels normally between 180 and 350 cSt, but we also ran a number of D300 series engines on really ugly soCal crude quite a few years ago as part of an enhanced recovery project, on that fuel starting and stopping on regualr off road diesel available at that time was the only way we could reasonable service intervals on the engines.

If you're using a relatively light HFO, a good quality JW heater would likely be one of your best investments, Kim Hotstart is one company that makes heaters for smaller engines that go into a freeze plug hole as Pat mentioned above. Here is a link to their site,

http://www.hotstart.com/home/products/in-block-heaters/

Your engine fuel system configuration has a big impact ability to use HFO with reasonable service life, you say you have a DI engines, harder to keep multiple small holes in a fuel injection nozzle clean and maintain proper combustion with poor quality fuel. But what you call "heavy oil" may not be as bad a fuel as you think. Would be interested to know just what you are using for the fuel. Our older engines had PC fuel systems and tolerated the HFO fairly well, our newer engines with DI unit injectors had quite a few more challenges and as of now, at least as far as I know, CAT only supports HFO operation in the Mak family of engines.

Hope that helps, Mike L.