This makes perfect sense. The governor should clearly know that the engine is not running and will not provide extra fuel until it is needed.

However, my experience seems to indicate the opposite. I have been in two situations, with bad glow plugs, where the engine would only start if I left my foot completely off the pedal. It very slowly started its typical chugging before completely firing. Then, over the course of 15 seconds or so, it crawled up to an idle where you would then be confident of releasing the key.

Prior attempts of giving it 1/3 pedal all resulted in failure. Continuous cranking without any fire.

All of these situations have proved moot when the glow plugs are functioning properly. The 617 has always started within 1 second down to about 5°F., the lowest temperature that I have tried it.

i have been starting mine this year without using the block heater down to about 0 deg F ambient. the best success is a combination of marshall booth's recomendations but not giving any pedal at all until all 5 cylinders are firing. then i go to about 1/3 pedal until the engine is running smoothly (actually i try just to keep on 1000 rpms for about 2 minutes which does the trick..)

happy cold weather dieseling

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1984 300D Turbo - 231k....totalled 11/30/07 RIP

I have be starting my 602 when its been 13F here in Oxford NC not pluged in(cold for here had 1F one night pluged in) with no problem starting with a failed Glow plug. However I got a bad tank of fuel in Durham and it barely started at 25F and after it did start it would not run above 2000 rpm. I added Slick Diesel and had it running smooth in 15 mins. I never would have thought it would work that fast. So was it the fuel or somthing else? I know I have run three tanks from another starion no problem. I always understood it had to be colder that 5 to Jell. My guess there was a lot of H20 in it.

I second Power Service, great stuff. It seems to work well, is cheap, and available everywhere.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Hey, y'all. I just got back. Went to autozone at 5pm. Got a gallon of powerservice. Put in the reccomended amount and topped of the tank with 7gals. of fresh diesel. I had an evening meeting and the car sat cold for 5 hours. She cranked right up the first time and I came on home.

It was definitely a fuel issue. No more Kerosene for me.

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1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

that fuel quality has turned to snot over the last year.
Seems we are better off running WVO or SVO for quality today.

I wonder how those new-fangled CDI engines will hold out with this junk?

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1987 300SDL (324000)

1986 Porsche 951 (944 Turbo) (166000)

1978 Porsche 924 (99000)

1996 Nissan Pathfinder R50 (201000)

Amen.
I've drove along and watched it go downhill over time...

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

cheap diesel can start to gell at 35 deg f. After 1.5 million miles in a semi truck I've had more than my fair share of bad fuel experiences ,mostly from southern fuel stations. in those big truck tanks, you can dip in and see the gelled fuel. many times it took dumping a bunch of unleaded in , about 5 gal per tank to get it going again.
Best additive for anti gel is Howes I've used that stuff in 80 deg below zero and kept running fine ( you know it's cold when snow is blowing in past the door seals and you have a pile of snow on the floor with the heater going full blast :-)
I cant count the number of times I've been stuck crawling up mountains in first gear ( or just plain dead in the water ) because of fuel gelling with other popular additives.

----------Robert

You been drinking too much tonight??

What possible good is a thread about fuel gelling?

Been outside lately??

How about you assist with something useful and help me track down my problem with the SDL's a/c??

The compressor drops out after four minutes. It's not the Klima.

300 SDL A/C electronic controls

during summer.
Fixing a car in the rain or snow is not fun...

in the spring and fall
Fiixing a car in 90°F. heat is not fun.

personally i never touch to gas pedal until the engine is running..
recently my mum wanted to borrow my 87 300d and she sat in it and adjusted the seat and started pumping the gas pedal to see if the seat was far enough forward, i told her not to and then when she went to start it it didnt sound like it was going to start but after 6-7 secs of cranking did, i never touch to pedal and it always starts within about 1 second