Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

yesterday and today the wind was almost dead calm Lost yesterday due to having to do the wife wants to go to get groceries thing which could have waited another month or 2 by my estimation of the pantry, freezer and fridge but the boss is the boss.
so this morning started trying to get the back hoe started at around 9 am in 20's something temps. it wasn't having it. the old battery just didn't have enough reserve to get a good crank over speed. Out comes the 30/60/300 Schumacher. Charge a while then spin over a few seconds then charge a while again. repeat and repeat get frustrated go round up a couple electric heaters place one at injector pump the other on the opposite side of the block. Sun's out nice and bright the hours tick by the temps climbing but back hoe parked north side of building shaded from the sun. I refuse to use a starting aid on the old engine last thing I need is to turn it into a drug Addick. It either starts or it don't and I go do something else. So one final attempt flip charger up on the 300 amp setting give it a spin it starts and blows black smoke for several minutes while warming up. By now it is noon half the day gone wasted the rare calm wind.
Fly 4 purlin up weld them in place fly the remaining 6 up weld 2 more in place by now it is getting on past 4 PM all and all a productive day best so far on the roof project but now need to move the mobile scaffold. get everything moved out of the way and say the heck with it I'm supposed to have a new battery come tomorrow or Thursday and Bob may be able to stick around for a couple hours to help steer and move the scaffold Going to be too windy to risk welding tomorrow sparks started a couple of small grass fires today even in the almost calm wind but the Fire marshal wife took care of them with her shovel
4 more purlin, 4 more purlin I keep saying then I can sheet the whole north roof.

Did I say I only have 4 more purlin to put up on that side?
Oh yeah part of yesterday was used in welding in the last crapy brace between the trusses.
This officially uses up every last piece of the old trusses from the building I took down

[metric_taper]

Hope your New Years dinner has something special from the trip to town.
I bet there were a few expletives used to get the diesel running. But you beat the beast into coming alive. And you got a good day in. Can't wait to see the insulation and roof sheeting installed.
I learned with my first car (62 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon ~71) that oil viscosity was everything to getting it started when winter temps in North Dakota were -40F. As well a huge Cadillac battery. Mobil One just started being sold, and it was the missing ingredient to cold weather engine starts (5W-30 it was $2.90/qt, when regular oil was $0.65). Every auto also had engine block heaters, either one that installed in a freeze plug, or separate tank in the heater hose line, and there were dip stick heaters as well. I don't see that anymore, as synthetic oils seem to be the norm in all autos.
A new battery, darn things have gotten expensive. That should fix your tropical temp. engine start problem.

[Crusty]

I once talked with an old trucker who ran the Montana outback regularly during the worst of winter when it gets really cold. He told me that one of his secrets was to carry a heavy canvas tarp and a bag of charcoal. When it got so cold that his diesel gelled he spread the tarp over the left side tank and engine and then built a charcoal fire under the tarp off to the side to heat and reliquify his diesel and warm the oil in the pan so that he could get his truck to bust off. He also had electric as well as coolant recirc heaters installed on his truck to keep it liquid once it was running. It sounded really dangerous to me but he'd been doing it for years with no unplanned fires.

[metric_taper]

I once talked with an old trucker who ran the Montana outback regularly during the worst of winter when it gets really cold. He told me that one of his secrets was to carry a heavy canvas tarp and a bag of charcoal. When it got so cold that his diesel gelled he spread the tarp over the left side tank and engine and then built a charcoal fire under the tarp off to the side to heat and reliquify his diesel and warm the oil in the pan so that he could get his truck to bust off. He also had electric as well as coolant recirc heaters installed on his truck to keep it liquid once it was running. It sounded really dangerous to me but he'd been doing it for years with no unplanned fires.

I recall truckers using acetylene as an engine start helper. But that can end up bending a connecting rod, that is what I was told when watching this. So I have no idea how they metered that. Preheat igniters must not have been a standard diesel component back then.

[Frank S]

Hope your New Years dinner has something special from the trip to town.
I bet there were a few expletives used to get the diesel running. But you beat the beast into coming alive. And you got a good day in. Can't wait to see the insulation and roof sheeting installed.
I learned with my first car (62 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon ~71) that oil viscosity was everything to getting it started when winter temps in North Dakota were -40F. As well a huge Cadillac battery. Mobil One just started being sold, and it was the missing ingredient to cold weather engine starts (5W-30 it was $2.90/qt, when regular oil was $0.65). Every auto also had engine block heaters, either one that installed in a freeze plug, or separate tank in the heater hose line, and there were dip stick heaters as well. I don't see that anymore, as synthetic oils seem to be the norm in all autos.
A new battery, darn things have gotten expensive. That should fix your tropical temp. engine start problem.

If I would take the time to pull the injector pump and re build it, that would go a long way to curing the starting and low power problems with the old gal. The problem with these old minimatic pumps is with an off the shelf rebuild you might as well be shooting craps in Vegas trying to locate one that is a quality reman. To do it my self would mean the backhoe would be down for the length of time to order in replacements for any worn parts, the price of new NOS is not in budget. I know a pump guy in Florida who used to be good if he still does that sort of thing who used to be fairly reasonable. Maybe this coming summer when the need for the backhoe will be lessened hopefully I will be able to do the pump and injectors

[Crusty]

Nope they weren't. Before electronics you just had mechanical pumps which squirted fuel into the cylinders at the right time and the heat of compression caused it flash. If your fuel was already jello however it would never even get through the fuel filter ahead of the pump so you had to take measures to keep your fuel flowing. At the truck stops where it gets really cold there are #1 diesel (kerosene) pumps along side the #2 diesel pumps and truckers there mix their own magic proportions of #1 and #2 diesel in their tanks to hopefully keep it liquid.

[Frank S]

Talking about using acetylene as start aid for a diesel can be a very bad thing but it can be done the problem is the acetylene's explosive reaction to high pressures. Just a whiff OK but flood the breather and watch the head bolts stretch or a con rod pretzel like too much nitrous in a street racer.
Propane is not as bad but still dicey same with starting fluid the only engines that were actually designed to be started with ether was the old 2 stroke Detroit's they even had a port or a chamber where you could place ether balls an puncture them to get the engine to start ether balls looked a little like paint balls only larger. Drop one in slam the lid and spin the engine over if you didn't get white smoke , do it again soon it would start and eventually it would become so addicted to the stuff you advanced to using cans of starting fluid.
Once while I had my old Dodge welding rig I ran out of gas way down around Langtree, South of Ozona Tx. my welder was diesel and the truck was gas I laid the tip of my torch in the throat of the carb used a wire to spin the engine over then turned on the act. until it started I adjusted the flow until the engine was running around 2000 RPM closed the hood to the safety catch then drove the 45 miles to the nearest gas station, dodgy at best but better than walking in the middle of the night.
My dad was working on an old Autocar that had an air starter we had several inches of snow on the ground went out to start it up whirrll went the starter but no start rolled the air compressor out filled the start tank gave it another go still no go dad came out with a shop rag soaked in gasoline, shoved it in the breather and said start it boy. I gave it a whirll this time it caught and ran. My dad said a little bit of ethel will do it every time always remember that son.
Todays water gas doesn't work quite as well but I've found that the premix chain saw fuel you spent 20.00 a qt for works great pour a little on a rag and shove it in the breather tube the vapors will be enough to kick off an older engine that doesn't have an intake warmer if you have those it must be disconnected or risk exploding the intake don't ask me how I learned this.

[Frank S]

Nope they weren't. Before electronics you just had mechanical pumps which squirted fuel into the cylinders at the right time and the heat of compression caused it flash. If your fuel was already jello however it would never even get through the fuel filter ahead of the pump so you had to take measures to keep your fuel flowing. At the truck stops where it gets really cold there are #1 diesel (kerosene) pumps along side the #2 diesel pumps and truckers there mix their own magic proportions of #1 and #2 diesel in their tanks to hopefully keep it liquid.

My friend just returned from a Canada run his fuel turned to jello on him over night. poured some of that liquid heat in his tanks to get his fuel liquid again but the only way he could get the engine to start was to wave a propane torch on each of the unit pumps and the fuel line to them finally after a couple tanks or propane he and the call out mechanic got it started. Said he learned as valuable lesson either leave the engine running so the return fuel will help keep the diesel in the tanks warm or be low on fuel when you cross over into an area where they offer winter fuel at the pumps This ultra low Sulphur stuff they call diesel today is not supposed to be as bad as the older diesel but it will still thicken up when it gets cold enough.

[Crusty]

I'm familiar with that problem. I once had 275 gallons of jello to deal with in Denver when it dropped to -18ºF overnight and my truck stopped running at 5 am, despite fueling with "winter blend" diesel in Amarillo plus adding a jug of Power Service (the accepted standard fuel treatment) to it and a piece of cardboard on the front of my radiator to keep the engine hot while I was stopped. The fuel outside of the engine block still got so cold that it jelled anyway. I had to shut down for 3 days and get a motel room until it warmed up and I could get that Cummins busted off again. If I'd had recirc coolant fuel heaters it likely would have stayed liquid but they're expensive and there's hardly ever a need for them in the Lone Star. I don't think that fuel in Amarillo was 100% winter blend.

Another thing I learned - those plastic air lines that you see on trucks these days get fragile like glass at -18ºF and touching one is enough to make it snap off.

[Frank S]

Another thing I learned - those plastic air lines that you see on trucks these days get fragile like glass at -18ºF and touching one is enough to make it snap off.

You think?