How are big rig Diesels so easy to start? - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

t walgamuth · #16 01-04-2006, 11:36 PM

weather increases resistance in electrical things. so if you have any weak links the lessened power of the battery will not be enough to start the car. you can baby it by with problems til it gets really hot or cold, then the weak link will bring it down.

i once had an old cummins 166 powered 66 reo cab over 18' stake truck that i bought when i was building my house. it had two batterys the size of a small dog house. no glows. it once sat for about six months. when i started it i just ground the starter for about a minute and a half. it just kept cranking and slowly went a little faster til it finally started. i thought for sure it wouldnt but it always did, no matter how long it sat.

i love diesels!

tom w

R Leo · #17 01-05-2006, 09:20 AM

A 'new' (to me) 240D has appeared in parking lot at my day job. After a week, I found out who owned it and we've chatted several times. This car had been sitting for about two years and fired right off after a glow and short crank.

No spark, no carburetor, no problems.

kmaysob · #18 01-05-2006, 09:26 AM

i belive some of the newer diesels advance or retard the timing to adjust for the temp.

Wasuchi · #19 01-05-2006, 12:49 PM

My International with a DT466 has no glowplugs or grid heater and it has started fine although the temp has barely been below freezing since I got it. Not a huge engine though, 7.6 liter. It does have three large batteries and a starter that's about 18" long and 6" diameter.

Hope I never have to change it!

Steve Gold · #20 01-05-2006, 05:12 PM

I Glow the SD for about 8 seconds when we had some frost on the cars, she fired right up first piston over compresstion and its running on all 5.

Steve

TheDon · #21 01-05-2006, 05:21 PM

gotta love the fact diesel doesnt turn to varnish.. i read a tom clancy novel and in it a war erupted between russia and some other country and it describes how the russians went to siberia and into a large cave where they had stashed a couple thousand brand new ww2 era tanks and a couple large tanks of diesel to fuel all the tanks for a good while.. every single tank cranked up . being tom clancy novel and the thought of using diesel ww2 tanks that have sat for 50 years crank over is still cool.. i bet they would

t walgamuth · #22 01-05-2006, 11:30 PM

russian tanks but the merican tanks used two cadillac flatheads in each one. the german tanks were diesel, at least some were.

dont know if the russian tanks were diesel. i suspect they were. they had a tank that weighed maybe 70 tons and was about the only thing that would knock out a tiger tank straight on.

our tanks had to catch a tiger going over a hill and shoot up under the motor in back cause our shells bounced off the main armor.

we won the war cause we made so many tanks... not cause they were much good.

oh yeah, the tiger was designed by ferdinand porsche. he was a good tank designer but not a nazi. he was so needed that he was about the only person who could not give the nazi salute to hitler and get away with it. he always just shook his hand. also he never wore the uniform of a (general?) not sure what rank, he always dressed like a private.

i would liked to have met him.

tom w

Hit Man X · #23 01-06-2006, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oilbrnr

Didn't they have heating grids?

I could swear the 5.9 in Dodge trucks currently uses those.

pawoSD · #24 01-06-2006, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hit Man X

I could swear the 5.9 in Dodge trucks currently uses those.

I just checked, and they do.

Hit Man X · #25 01-06-2006, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawoSD

I just checked, and they do.

Good, so I haven't lost my mind... yet.

mac2 · #26 01-06-2006, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

dont know if the russian tanks were diesel. i suspect they were. they had a tank that weighed maybe 70 tons and was about the only thing that would knock out a tiger tank straight on.

The T-34 was an excellent however very noisy tank. It had a V-12 diesel and was way faster than the german tigers. It was probably the best tank of the war, exceptionally durable and easy to field repair. Tigers on the other hand always had to be shop repaired.

The IS-2 the Russian heavy tank also had a V-12 diesel and a 122mm gun. Big & well armoured with a shell that could (theoretically) go through the front and come out the back of the Tiger It was hard to match. It was actually only 46 tons and was thusly lighter than the Tiger.

Now whether they had enough extra to put thousands away in a cave somewhere is another matter entirely.

t walgamuth · #27 01-06-2006, 09:03 AM

i suspect you are right. probably didnt have a lot left over.
'course, what is a lot. the russians had i think 125 divisions of army on the front with germany. we had way less than them. and people who practice revisionist history and criticize our leaders for "giving up" eastern europe dont realize the size of the russian force.

they didnt have nukes though. i suppose some think we should have nuked them even though they were our allies.

tom w

Hatterasguy · #28 01-06-2006, 10:56 AM

I like what General Patton wanted to do:

Lets allie with the rest of the Germans and drive the Russians back.

He knew the Russians couldn't be trusted.

I never heard of this IS-2 tank, did it appear towards the end of the war? The Panther was a better tank then the Tiger, our guys just feared them because the Tiger was leaps and bounds better then what we had.

I remember the Germans named the Sherman after their version of the Zippo lighter, because they would always light off after the first round.

mac2 · #29 01-06-2006, 08:11 PM

IS-2 came pretty late in the war and basically served in the Battle of Berlin in WWII. Soviet satellites got a lot of them and their derivitives during the cold war (esp. China). It eventually evolved into the T-10. No glow plugs either and in Russian weather.

About the same size as the panther but better armed.

EDIT: T Walgamuth, I forgot to mention this but no german tank had a diesel engine. For Germany gasoline was easier to come by and all of the diesel had to be saved for the u-boat fleet. German tanks usually had 600-800 Hp. gas engines. All of Germany's other vehicles were also gas so it was only natural to have the tanks drink from the same spigot. I love history.

barkford · #30 01-06-2006, 10:22 PM

Used to drive an International powered school bus. No glow plugs. Just hold that starter on until she turned over. Granted, you wouldn't want to be standing behind the bus during said event.
TDI - supposedly GPs are firing on new ones as soon as you open driver's door - thus the short wait before actually cranking. I think the new CDI is now also firing GPs as soon as drivers' door is open. In any case, the wait is short.