Easy starting diesel

Ih8Suvs · Post by **Ih8Suvs** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:24 am

It was 35 F here today when I decided to go for a little ride on my Yanclone powered Enfield. The bike was cold soaked. One kick and she was running. No preheat, just compression. This engine amazes me.

D_Mold · Post by **D_Mold** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:38 pm

Really? Wow! My bike is the worst starting vehicle I have ever seen in my entire life!. Do you have the 10 or 6hp. I've got the 6hp, and am wondering if thats the problem??? Even if its in a 22 degree celcius heated shop it won't start. The ONLY thing that will get this bloody thing to start is at least a 5 minute blast from a heat gun. Even then, it sometimes doesn't go. This morning it was only -10 and had to boost it with my truck. Took about 2 minutes of turning over plus the heat gun to start! I now carry a heat gun with me to school, and steal power from the Director's parking spot! If I shut it off without a near by plug-in, I'm walking home!

Your so lucky!!

Ih8Suvs · Post by **Ih8Suvs** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:10 am

My Engine is the 10 HP, 406 cc Launtop branded. Yeah I don't know what it is with this engine but it has always been very easy to start. When I first got the engine new I mounted it on a pallet to test run it, filled it with oil and fuel and called a friend to pull start it for me since I had hurt my back lifting some stuff the day before. Well he took quite a while to get to my place so I gave the rope a half hearted pull while I was waiting just to see how hard it was to pull over, and much to my surprise the darned thing took off, first pull new out of the box. Wild. The only time it takes more than one kick in the bike is when it is really cold. I started it once about 15 degrees F and it took 5 kicks that time, but it still started with no added heat. It must have wild compression.

andrewaust · Post by **andrewaust** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:51 pm

Hi Guy's

Reading your post D_Mold, it seems you have a real problem with the little 6hp engine. Maybe the engine isn't generating enough heat or swirl to ignite the fuel charge. I don't even think turning the engine over 10-20 times with the decompression lever down and throttle wound open would work! This will prime the engine with a rich mixture. I'm not all that keen to say trying hairspray, as you can do damage to the engine or yourself if not done right.

A compression and injector test may be a good idea - direct injected engines should start fairly easy.

My L100 clone 10hp is easy to start, it does makes you wonder if the 6hp engines may have a problem.

Cheers

Andrew

Post by **Stuart** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:27 pm

In the old days they'd get a bit of smouldering hemp rope and hang it by the intake when turning over. Apparently it worked well

Nanko · Post by **Nanko** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:05 pm

andrewaust wrote:

I don't even think turning the engine over 10-20 times with the decompression lever down and throttle wound open would work! This will prime the engine with a rich mixture.

Andrew

If this helps , its a sign of cilinder/pistonring wear.
The injected fuels acts as a seal , and decreases the TDC cilinder volume.
The result is temporary more compression

andrewaust · Post by **andrewaust** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:18 am

Yes good comment Nanko

It can be a sign of either piston ring wear, rings sticking from carbon fouling, broken piston ring etc. A compression check should remedy this.

One thing I found in small capacity vehicle engines, some are over fueling making way to much soot - carbon. When this carbon builds up it becomes a hard abrasive and you can guess the rest. Even regular oil changes won't help the top end if over fueling is the problem.

I've backed the fuel off on my engine - it still will blow some black smoke under heavy load, but most of the time it's burning clean.

Cummin's Diesels had an aerosol can on some of there engines that gave a squirt of starting aid "ether mix I guess - toooo many years ago" for cold starting. I seen this on the 555 and 903's which are getting rather long in the tooth now.

Hay Stuart! Good one with the hemp rope - now own up mate! What kind of hemp was it now

Yeah I know - I'm being cheeky

Cheers guy's

Ih8Suvs · Post by **Ih8Suvs** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:22 am

I would be very cautious of using ether on these small aluminum diesels. I have seen the results of this and it is not pretty. Better to find out and fix why it is not starting in the first place. I would suspect low compression for some reason. Maybe too thick of a head gasket, maybe the head was machined wrong, maybe the piston was machined wrong, maybe the rings aren't sealing well. Could be a lot of things. Point is it should start unassisted if everything is correct.

D_Mold · Post by **D_Mold** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:49 pm

Yeah, thats a good point. But I have two of these 6hp engines, and they both behave exactly the same. They appear to have good compression. I read on the main site that one guy had to disassemble his and get new rings. But if both of mine are the same, I think its just poor engineering. I've heard rumors at princess auto that very often people take the 6hp back for the 10 and get better results. I'm even burning a lot of fuel! I'd say about 50-60 mpg at best. I was hoping for about 150, seeing as its a small bike. When cold, it will smoke out an entire neighborhood. Is that normal??? Seems to me that rings could be the case.

oilburner · Post by **oilburner** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:00 am

I'd recheck the injection pump timing.

I had a 6hp Launtop and it started down to about -5C on the recoil pull start, usually on the first or second pull.. I started it a couple times below -5C, probably -10C, and had to briefly use a heat gun. I had a glow plug for it but never installed it.

A couple years ago, a local fire department was given a water pump with the 6hp diesel. It was almost impossible to start (the reason it was free) and huge brawny men were reduced to tears and left on the ground gasping for breath, exhausted from cranking it (recoil start). They took the engine to a diesel mechanic and he couldn't figure out the problem. A friend of mine, familiar with the engines heard about the starting difficulty, and showed them how to start it with one pull. Turns out they weren't following the correct starting instructions as shown in the owners manual:

- Pull the engine over until you feel it coming up on compression.
- Engage the decompression lever.
- Give the pull cord a good yank and away it went.

My $.02

Ih8Suvs · Post by **Ih8Suvs** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:02 am

If you are only getting 50 -60 miles per gallon you have issues with that setup. The worst I have ever gotten with my 10 HP in an Enfield is 122 miles per US gallon and the best was 178. It routinely gets 145 -155. I run the living snot out of it. I do use a little Stanadyne cetane enhancer in the fuel. Just don't spill that stuff on paint if you use it!!

I have a friend here that put a 6hp no-name Yanmar clone on a piece of construction equipment that originally had a genuine Yanmar on it. The original Yanmar was destroyed after the owner used ether to try to start it when it was -25 F. The piston cracked instead. He has had starting issues with the chinese replacement. Maybe all yanclones are not created equal, as the original Yanmar 6 hp was easy to start at normal temps. I have a 4.2 hp genuine Yanmar also that is a one pull starter. so I don't think this design engine has inherent starting problems.

I would verify that the injector pump and nozzle were functioning correctly, that the start of delivery timing was correct, and that the engine had adequate compression. Pulling it over and feeling like it has compression is not an adequate check, you should really check it with a gauge and also check the clearance between the piston and head at TDC to determine the proper squish. I would also check to make sure the cam timing is correct. It may have been put together a tooth off although I don't know if it would run at all if it was. Do you have a repair manual for the engine. The manuals for the L series Yanmar engines are readily available. I think you are just going to have to verify everything. Keep us posted.

Tim

greg123 · Post by **greg123** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:46 pm

You have an issue! Check out your compression and injector spray, if you draw a blank take a look at the injection timing and advance it a little, retarded timing caused a lot of troubles starting.

Greg.

D_Mold wrote:Really? Wow! My bike is the worst starting vehicle I have ever seen in my entire life!. Do you have the 10 or 6hp. I've got the 6hp, and am wondering if thats the problem??? Even if its in a 22 degree celcius heated shop it won't start. The ONLY thing that will get this bloody thing to start is at least a 5 minute blast from a heat gun. Even then, it sometimes doesn't go. This morning it was only -10 and had to boost it with my truck. Took about 2 minutes of turning over plus the heat gun to start! I now carry a heat gun with me to school, and steal power from the Director's parking spot! If I shut it off without a near by plug-in, I'm walking home!

Your so lucky!!