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Originally Posted by TimFreeh
Remember the primary job of a glow plug is NOT to heat the combustion chamber, its to provide a red-hot surface that will cause small droplets of fuel to ignite when heat-of-compression alone is not sufficient to get things burning.
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OK, then, not enough.
If the glow plug is going to provide a red hot surface to ignite small fuel droplets, and the temperature of that red hot surface is independent of the ambient temperature, then the engine should start at -50F. if the fuel does not gel.
Since we all know that this is not true, and engines with better compression have an easier time starting, the issue cannot be this simple, otherwise Larry would be exactly right. If you had properly working glow plugs, you could start any engine at any temperature, provided you had a decent battery, of course.