Heater Plugs

[Stemar]

Jazzcat has a pair of Beta 20 engines. Last year, they both wanted a few seconds of heat, then they'd start immediately with throttles at idle. The starboard one wanted a few seconds more heat than the port. After a winter ashore, the port engine started and ran fine, but the starboard one needs lots of throttle and a fair bit of churning to get it going from cold. Once running, it idles and runs perfectly with, as far as I can tell, the same power as the other one.

Is this likely to be a faulty heater plug or plugs? How do I test them?

Thanks in advance.

 

[VicS]

Jazzcat has a pair of Beta 20 engines. Last year, they both wanted a few seconds of heat, then they'd start immediately with throttles at idle. The starboard one wanted a few seconds more heat than the port. After a winter ashore, the port engine started and ran fine, but the starboard one needs lots of throttle and a fair bit of churning to get it going from cold. Once running, it idles and runs perfectly with, as far as I can tell, the same power as the other one.

Is this likely to be a faulty heater plug or plugs? How do I test them?

Thanks in advance.

Check power is being applied when key is in heat position...........

If power is being applied test the heater plugs.... they have a low resistance

I always tested in diesel cars, when I had such with my 12 volt test lamp. Battery +ve to each glow plug in turn . Lamp should light if plug OK. wont light if failed.

Use a multimeter on lowest Ohms range if you prefer to test resistance of each in turn.

 

[Tamar]

When my engine was playing up starting I took the 3 Glow plugs out, switched to heat and two were bright red and one wasn't. Problem solved

 

[KompetentKrew]

I removed mine and hotwired them one by one - each turned cherry red within a few seconds. But, from cold, my engine still takes ages to catch.

Someone gave me this link, which I bookmarked, for testing them with a multimeter: How to Test Glow Plugs

I haven't yet gotten around to trying it.

 

[peteK]

I found that the only sure way of checking was to remove and seevif it glows bright red,one of mine was drawing current getting hot but didnt glow..

 

[oldharry]

a quick check can be done with a multimeter: Set to read a few ohms: check they all have the same reading. If one is low resistance, no resistance, or no reading, its faulty. The 'glow 'test described above will confirm. Also look at the condition of the tip when it comes out. Any that look different to the others is almost certainly faulty.

 

[Stemar]

Thanks everyone. I'll investigate further next time I'm aboard.