Diesel Engine warmup

[jwilly3879]

When it is subzero we bring the little Honda generator a a salamander. Let ift blow on the side of the block for 15 or 20 minutes and it is just like summer. We also replaced the Delco starter with a gear reduction starter from Masco Marine and the difference is night and day.

[polemidis]

I wasn;t able to start it today :( It doesn't make sense. 10 days ago was fine (other thatn ste starter issue). I fixed the starter to a professional shop and it works fine.
I installed the block heater and I had it on for the whole day. The block was very warm at the touch. I also replaced the oil filter and filled oil up between level marks.
I connected 2 big batteries (900+ cranking amps), but.  I does not start :(

Its a lot better than the previous days, now its kind of fires for .5 sec but it does not really start.  White smoke is coming out of the exhaust (yes I have fuel).
What could be the case?
I saw online that I have to troubleshoot of these:

Lack of air intake or restricted air intake
Broken blower shaft     
Worn out blower shaft     
Defective fuel pump     
Defective starter     
Discharged battery     
High exhaust back pressure

I assume that the starter and the batteries are not an issue. How can I test the rest, and with which should I start? Having worked the machine 10days ago make me wonder ever more  ??? ??? ???

is there any shutoff safety switch somewhere? Another thing that I had noticed is that when it was cold the oil pressure was at 50psi, but after it got warm it fell down to 5-10. I do not know if that is relevant or not

[Maine logger88]

Did you change the fuel filters? I think I remember you mentioned it. And if you did did you fill them with fuel. Also those canister filters if that's what it has can be touchy to get sealed up right and can suck air. There's also no hand primer pump so you just need to fill the canisters full of fuel before they are put on. 5-10 pounds of oil pressure is normal for a warm Detroit at idle. It is also part of the reason it's not good to idle them for extended periods

[polemidis]

Did you change the fuel filters? I think I remember you mentioned it. And if you did did you fill them with fuel. Also those canister filters if that's what it has can be touchy to get sealed up right and can suck air. There's also no hand primer pump so you just need to fill the canisters full of fuel before they are put on. 5-10 pounds of oil pressure is normal for a warm Detroit at idle. It is also part of the reason it's not good to idle them for extended periods

I hadn't figured out how to remove them, so they were intact the whole day. By the end of the day after having no clues what was going on I removed the fuel filter that is after the fuel pump because I wanted to see if it was clogged. It looks fine and clean. I will buy another one tomorrow, soak it, and fill the container before I reinstall it. 
But that was not the problem. :(

[quilbilly]

We had a kill switch on the right hand side of the motor. Eyeball height or thereabouts. Little lever, killed fuel supply.

[Maine logger88]

Ok so that's not the issue. Is there any chance your emergency shutoff got tripped?

[Mike W]

A "way out in left field thought" as I didn't see any mention of this being covered over the last day or so, have you pulled the air intake and filter box to see if there is any obstruction?  My Kubota , tractor was running just fine and always starts in cold weather, had it running a couple days ago, no issues, went to start and no go at all.  Don't usually use any either, never had the need, but tried, still no go, went to pull the filter box to give it a shot direct into the intake and over the course of overnight or a day, a pack-rat had moved in and took residence as his own, not sure where he obtained all the debris that was in there, but it happened in the course of a day or so, doesn't take long for those critters to jamb things up tight.  Just a rambling thought!!

[snowstorm]

bolt in the bottom of the canasiter holds the filter. i used to replace the filter then fill it by removing one of the plugs. where are you in maine?

[polemidis]

Ok so that's not the issue. Is there any chance your emergency shutoff got tripped?

We had a kill switch on the right hand side of the motor. Eyeball height or thereabouts. Little lever, killed fuel supply.

Yes!. I think that was it! I will replace the fuel filter since I opened it anyway and I will try again. I am pretty sure that is it! You guys rock!!

bolt in the bottom of the canasiter holds the filter. i used to replace the filter then fill it by removing one of the plugs. where are you in maine?

I am in Winthrop.  I didn't understand what you say snowstorm :(. I removed the fuel filter be loosening the bolt on top of the canister not the bottom. I do not know what the bottom bolt does. Maybe to drain any water?


Btw, since you are not bored from my newbie questions yet : : :
a) On the panel, I have 2 levers that I can pull. One is the "emergency" shut off. But thats the only way to shut the machine off. Should it be another way too? 
b) The other lever goes to the top of the governor and connects to a spring. The other end of the spring mounts to the exhaust manifold. what it that doing? I can take a picture if I sound confusing.

[Al_Smith]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned or not. For various reasons some times the fuel injection  pump can loose a prime .It can't move fuel by pumping air.I'm not certain what the procedure is for priming a GMC 71 series is but that might be a starting place .

My dad had a motor home with a 300 HP Cummins that would loose a prime after sitting a couple of months .He was in his 80's at the time .To help him out I bled the system one injector at a time laying on top of that big engine while running that was under the bed in rear  .It got a tad warm before I finished .The engine was still under warranty and come to  find out it was caused by a faulty check valve and was under a recall .That fixed the problem .
Good heavens that big diesel must have been 5- 6 feet long and produced 1680 foot pounds of torque and run ,mercy .I drove it back from central Florida to Ohio and it walked up Jellico pass on  I-75 with ease at 85 MPH .

[Al_Smith]

One more point ,again I'm not familiar with a GMC diesel .However if the system uses a transfer pump and if that pump is not supplying fuel under pressure to the injector pump that will cause problems also .Found that out on an old D4 Caterpiller that is older than me .It was brand new in 1943 I was brand new in 1948 .

[Maine logger88]

If you pulled the emergency shutoff did you reset the blower flap? If not that's why it won't start. The cable that goes to the governor housing is the correct one to shut the machine off

[snowstorm]

that old 2 stroke uses a gear transfer pump should make 65 psi. but if it isnt full of fuel it will not pump. one trick is blow air into the tank till it picks it up. they dont have an injection pump use unit injectors and that is what makes the high pressure

[polemidis]

If you pulled the emergency shutoff did you reset the blower flap? If not that's why it won't start. The cable that goes to the governor housing is the correct one to shut the machine off

That was the issue! It works! I actually took it for a ride!!! Amazing!!!
I think have to put an extra set of ear protection in the cabin though.... These days that I was logging in the peace in the forest are behind me. hahaha

Articulation is sooo weird! It will take me a while to get used to. 

[polemidis]

More questions! 
Rpm at idle??
And how should I work the machine? Throttle to the floor????? I read some comments suggesting that...

What gauges are important to have? The only one that works is the oil pressure. Engine rpm? (fuel canister pressure maybe?)
The coolant temp gauge needs replacement is faulty. 

[Maine logger88]

Run it at what rpms you need Detroit's do like to rev and they run best wide open but they don't have to be. It is better not to lug them down not that you really can they will stall easily lol. only thing I try to do is not let them idle for long periods better to either set the hand throttle up a little if you have one or shut it off rather than let it idle more than 10 or 15 min. Mostly because Un burnt fuel will wash oil off cylinders but also cause Detroit's don't build much oil pressure at idle. Only gauges I'd worry about are oil pressure coolent temp and amp/voltmeter 

[KamHillbilly]

On the Detroit 3-53 there is a water jacket plate on the side of the block , I used Kats model 30301 very easy install as someone else mentioned make sure heating coil loop doesn't hit block in water jacket

[jd540b]

Btw, since you are not bored from my newbie questions yet : : :
a) On the panel, I have 2 levers that I can pull. One is the "emergency" shut off. But thats the only way to shut the machine off. Should it be another way too?
b) The other lever goes to the top of the governor and connects to a spring. The other end of the spring mounts to the exhaust manifold. what it that doing? I can take a picture if I sound confusing.


One is to shut  the machine off (kills fuel supply).
The other "emergency" is if the motor starts to run away-that one shuts a spring loaded flap in the blower and kills air supply. If you pulled that one it won't start until you manually reset it.

[jd540b]

Btw, since you are not bored from my newbie questions yet : : :
a) On the panel, I have 2 levers that I can pull. One is the "emergency" shut off. But thats the only way to shut the machine off. Should it be another way too?
b) The other lever goes to the top of the governor and connects to a spring. The other end of the spring mounts to the exhaust manifold. what it that doing? I can take a picture if I sound confusing.
[/quote]

One is to shut  the machine off (kills fuel supply).
The other "emergency" is if the motor starts to run away-that one shuts a spring loaded flap in the blower and kills air supply. If you pulled that one it won't start until you manually reset it.

[Al_Smith]

I reread the original post where it said slightly below 32 degrees temp .I should think that if it won't start it should at least be puffing white smoke .If not sounds to me it's not getting fuel or the air is shut off .Takes both .

[quilbilly]

Water temp gauge and oil pressure are definitely the most important, I second that. I blew a rebuilt motor that only had about 600 hours bc of a faulty water temp gauge.

[polemidis]

Today  I had the WEIRDEST problem.... I drove (should I say "piloted"???haha) the skidder up into my forest when suddenly it stalled. What, I restarted it, move a bit, stalled again. I tried with more throttle, the same. I was not having hard time, just stalled. Long story short, it stalled every time I turned the steering wheel towards right. Only right. Left turn was ok. What to do? I was not gonna let the machine up there, so I managed to do some quick short right-turn hits, and I was returning the steering wheel to neutral before it completely shut off. 
What, I had no clue. Nothing made sense. Until I inspect under the hood.. Any guesses????????????  The problem was that the cable that turns off the machine (the one that goes to the governor) was caught up to the lever that moves the directional valve!! Unbelievable...

Anyway, I  put a zip tie and tied it with some other wires. I will put a temp gauge asap.


I still wonder how you different you log with the skidder. Is anyone using it to push the trees to the direction he wants? It sounds so unsafe but I think someone told me that he utilizes the front blade to push trees that are leaning sideways, so that they all fall towards the same direction, which makes skidding faster. It just do not sound safe to me. Your thoughts guys?

[Southside]

I still wonder how you different you log with the skidder. Is anyone using it to push the trees to the direction he wants? It sounds so unsafe but I think someone told me that he utilizes the front blade to push trees that are leaning sideways

I am not going to say I have never done that, but you are correct - it is very unsafe.  So many things can go wrong there, stress in the tree, breaking the hinge with the tree vertical, machine moves, tree rolls and goes plain wrong.  Best to not go there.  

[mills]

"I still wonder how you different you log with the skidder. Is anyone using it to push the trees to the direction he wants? It sounds so unsafe but I think someone told me that he utilizes the front blade to push trees that are leaning sideways, so that they all fall towards the same direction, which makes skidding faster. It just do not sound safe to me. Your thoughts guys?"

Fairly common practice... but can be very dangerous if everyone involved doesn't know what exactly what everyone else is doing. Actually pulling with the winch is better if it can be done, but a lot of times you can't get the skidder in the right position to pull a tree. Pushing trees is not a practice that you can jump right in on, but something you can work up to as you get more experience. Main thing is to know your skidder. Learn what it's capable of, and what it's limits are. You have to understand which trees can be pushed, and which ones need to pulled with the winch. Hinge wood is very critical for pushed and pulled trees. Too little and you risk breaking the tree off at the stump, too much and the skidder can't overcome the resistance. Rotten and hollow trees don't get pushed or pulled. 

[Maine logger88]

I push trees with the skidder every day lol. but there are many precautions to take while doing so and done right is very safe. On trees with a dead top I always just cripple enough fiber so it will go with a saw and shove it with the skidder that way I'm not standing at the base of the trees trying to pound wedges with a dead top over my head. My skidders have never wore a tree that I have personally cut yet... but They have worn some trees that I went to push that others have cut back when I had a faller. Basically if your not comfortable with it don't do it but if you are it can make things easier