Starting an old diesel.

That's the only problem with marine engines. You can't bump start them like my old Panther motorcycle combination. Hanging on tight whilst pushing&running recommended .

I've never been able to start diesel engines by suddenly throwing the decompression lever. Old Volvo diesels responded well with additional heat applied as recommended above.
 
The 3 cyl Baudouin, 70hp, air start, in a boat with me, 1977, had to have used echo meter paper burned under the air intakes, but due to lack of maintenance rather than recalcitrance. A gas blowtorch would have been easier and safer. I last saw one in the fishing boat in the Museum at Douarnenez, aux engine on deck. The Kelvin poppet 12/14 once started as I turned the flywheel, by hand on the rim, while painting it. Bit of a surprise. Impulse magneto was the reason.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
That's the only problem with marine engines. You can't bump start them
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Oh yes you can! A fifty foot trawler in 1972, 5or6 cyl Baudouin, was started by being towed in gear, big prop, 5;1 gearbox. It was air start and the bottle or pipework was gone. I used to start a wing engine in gear, with help from the propulsion of the main, it was easier. 1936 Kelvin Ricardo.
 
My son's trawler has a Cummins KTA19 (litre) engine that came with a (Baudouin) seized engaged clutch. The prop is variable pitch so the boat is manoeuvrable (sort of!).

I volunteered to fix the clutch which necessitated its removal. It was necessary to inch the drive shaft round eight times to remove the drive bolts. It was going well until half way through the job on an eighth turn increment (manually), the engine started. This was bad enough but the turbo exhaust was disconnected, the stop valve had been removed and the so had the oil gauge.

The consequence was that the engine room rapidly filled with smoke, there was a jet of fairly high pressure oil shooting across the engine room and I couldn't stop it because there was no stop valve. Hurtling up to the wheelhouse to call son for advice by 'phone, the battery died before the number rang out.

Fortunately there was a fuel source changeover valve whose centre position was "off".

Scary experience!
 
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jamie N said:
My single cylinder, 10hp diesel engine starts OK, which is good. It doesn't have glow plugs, but does have a decompression lever.
My starting procedure is to use the 'fuel bulb' to pump fuel into all areas of the system, then pull the decompressor, set throttle to max and press the engine start button. Let the engine turn 10-15 revolutions, then release the decompression lever. The engine has started 'pretty much' immediately each time, before I then close the revs down to a stable tickover,
Given that the temperature has been hovering close(ish) to zero for much of the time, I'm quite happy with this.
I give the engine the initial decompressed revolutions to get the fuel flowing, and to get the oil circulated, as well as allowing the starter motor to get up to speed.
The engine's 30-40 years old, and in most ways as traditional an item as can be had, with nothing that'd surprise any of us.
Is my starting procedure fairly standard stuff for other similar engines, and are glow plugs an advantage, or a complication?
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I would think you have a few things going wrong if you need to re-prime the fuel system every time?
There must be at least 3 non-return valves failing to stop the fuel draining back?

I'm all in favour of turning engines over a few times, to get the oil around the engine, before attempting to start.

The big question is always: I s the starter cranking the motor as a fast as it should?
A few more revs will make up for lack of heater plugs or cold air.

When it's really cold, and your battery is not what it was, there is sometimes an optimum 'wait' between attempts to start. Enough for the battery to recover a little, not long enough for it to lose the heat it generates from resistance.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
I've never been able to start diesel engines by suddenly throwing the decompression lever.
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Only way to start the 2 cylinder air cooled Listers in our old club launches. wind away, drop the lever on cylinder 1 and when it is away drop cylinder 2. Would then run all day wafting warm air around the boat. Perfect when doing safety boat duty in the winter series.
 
I always find out how to
Graham_Wright said:
My son's trawler has a Cummins KTA19 (litre) engine that came with a (Baudouin) seized engaged clutch. The prop is variable pitch so the boat is manoeuvrable (sort of!).

I volunteered to fix the clutch which necessitated its removal. It was necessary to inch the drive shaft round eight times to remove the drive bolts. It was going well until half way through the job on an eighth turn increment (manually), the engine started. This was bad enough but the turbo exhaust was disconnected, the stop valve had been removed and the so had the oil gauge.

The consequence was that the engine room rapidly filled with smoke, there was a jet of fairly high pressure oil shooting across the engine room and I couldn't stop it because there was no stop valve. Hurtling up to the wheelhouse to call son for advice by 'phone, the battery died before the number rang out.

Fortunately there was a fuel source changeover valve whose centre position was "off".

Scary experience!
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I always find how to stop an engine new to me before starting it. Its so embarrassing when you have to crack open fuel pipes to stop a beast.
 
Tranona said:
Only way to start the 2 cylinder air cooled Listers in our old club launches. wind away, drop the lever on cylinder 1 and when it is away drop cylinder 2. Would then run all day wafting warm air around the boat. Perfect when doing safety boat duty in the winter series.
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You could cook a mackerel in the air duct. I was in a 24ft boat with an SR4 aircooled 36hp, which was in the dodger with us......
....pardon?
 
Out on the farm in Portugal, the borehole pump had a twin Lister belt driving the shaft drive pump at around 45 meters down . Cranking that was 'slightly' strenuous. One got the whole lot turning at what one hoped was fast enough, then flicked the first decompressor, If it fired, one then did the second and got busy on other things. If it didn't, you sat down for a few minutes and regained strength for a second go. It whacked out 75 cubic mtrs an hour. There was talk about a clutch, but never happened.
But, much better than the old bucket chain with an old exposed valve Lister that thumped at heartbeat levels. Oddly enough, the old engine was valued at more than the new one, so a partial win there.
 
Tranona said:
Only way to start the 2 cylinder air cooled Listers in our old club launches. wind away, drop the lever on cylinder 1 and when it is away drop cylinder 2. Would then run all day wafting warm air around the boat. Perfect when doing safety boat duty in the winter series.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the club launch of an old club I was at. I seem to remember you had to whirl a sort of bike chain and sprocket arrangement at some speed rather than an conventional handle. Worked ok.
 
Love hearing this. A long time ago as a sea faring marine engineer, I used to mess about and maintain the ships life boats. Involved starting them once a week on test. Some of the early ships had very old listers and slightly newer sabbs. Standard procedure was to make sure they started in all conditions and in their most basic way possible. So despite some having the ability to start by means of a few options, like air or even via a starter motor, I always made sure they would start their most basic of ways. This meant using either a hand crank or air. I would always decompress using the lever(s) and crank over with no compression. As you’ll know, this allows oil pressure to build up, most importantly. Meaning they not only have oil around the moving parts befkre they run…but crucially, they have more compression building up to enable them to start. On the hand crank older engines…doing this would be the difference between them starting in cold weather and just plain not going at all. Or not without super human efforts anyway. I’d say your doing a great job of it and no doubt pro longing the life of the engine. Even now, with modern engines I have these days…each start of the season, I let them turn over without fuel or ignition (where possible) to build oil pressure, befkre starting.
 
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