I dont believe intake grid heaters are a true cold starting aid. They are not at all as effective as a glow plug. Some people delete them from their Cummins 5.9 engines, Ford had them on some years of the 7.3 PS and others did not have it. They are there to cut down on smoke/ emissions on cold starts. I really doubt it would make much difference if one tried on an old Cat (relatively) low compression diesel.

Also kittylover, as we know Pouce Coupe has winters more severe than what 95% of the people on this forum experience. Bottom line is you need to have your pony in good shape, probably electric start on the pony and decent compression on your main if you expect to be mobile.

There is a guy that rigged up I think a Kohler twin on his D4 7U on YouTube. Interesting idea. Of course the unfortunate part of that design is that it does not share coolant to the main.

One thing I've thought about is routing the pony exhaust INTO the intake of the main rather than just through it. How much benifit would blowing hot pony exhaust into the cylinders have? Obviously one would need to shut that off and get fresh air in to start but maybe just as a warmer it may be beneficial?

"Mangoman" wrote:

Also kittylover, as we know Pouce Coupe has winters more severe than what 95% of the people on this forum experience. Bottom line is you need to have your pony in good shape, probably electric start on the pony and decent compression on your main if you expect to be mobile.

There is a guy that rigged up I think a Kohler twin on his D4 7U on YouTube. Interesting idea. Of course the unfortunate part of that design is that it does not share coolant to the main.

One thing I've thought about is routing the pony exhaust INTO the intake of the main rather than just through it. How much benifit would blowing hot pony exhaust into the cylinders have? Obviously one would need to shut that off and get fresh air in to start but maybe just as a warmer it may be beneficial?

-yes correct, my winters are more severe than 99% people experience...

-i like the Kohler idea...that's what i was thinking/ going....why does pony have to be liquid cooled though?

-using the pony exhaust as a heat source....ya...i like it...why not use that:clap2:

I got the idea of installing a Thermostart for my D69U (converted to electric start) right here on this forum.

Ordered a couple from a farm equipment dealership, they are/were used on quite a few different brands of Ag tractor engines.
I specified a 1970's Case tractor engine for ordering, but they fit other brands too.

I drilled a hole in the side of the D318 intake manifold, right below where the filtered air comes in, brazed in a nut
the Thermostart threads into the nut.

By coincidence; I was working on my 2004 Cat 420D backhoe and discovered that what I always thought was a glow plug type
set up in the intake manifold was actually a Thermostart (Perkins engine)

"Mangoman" wrote:

I dont believe intake grid heaters are a true cold starting aid. They are not at all as effective as a glow plug. Some people delete them from their Cummins 5.9 engines, Ford had them on some years of the 7.3 PS and others did not have it. They are there to cut down on smoke/ emissions on cold starts. I really doubt it would make much difference if one tried on an old Cat (relatively) low compression diesel.

a flame start or thermo start doesn't need a large current draw to operate.

"MetalmanD69U" wrote:

I got the idea of installing a Thermostart for my D69U (converted to electric start) right here on this forum.

Ordered a couple from a farm equipment dealership, they are/were used on quite a few different brands of Ag tractor engines.
I specified a 1970's Case tractor engine for ordering, but they fit other brands too.

I drilled a hole in the side of the D318 intake manifold, right below where the filtered air comes in, brazed in a nut
the Thermostart threads into the nut.

By coincidence; I was working on my 2004 Cat 420D backhoe and discovered that what I always thought was a glow plug type
set up in the intake manifold was actually a Thermostart (Perkins engine)

what did you use for a fuel supply on the thermostart???

"bursitis" wrote:

if you need cold start in an old cat or any diesel without glow plugs all you need is a flame start. new holland tractors use them and so does some of the older ford backhoe and my case skid steer has one on a cummins 4bt. they work flawlessly and are cheap. available as 12 or 24 volt.

Those do work good.

"Rome wrote:

Those do work good.

yes they use them in russia. it gets cold there.

"gauntjoh" wrote:

Some of the early Cat Diesels e.g. the Diesel 50 ducted the pony exhaust directly into the inlet manifold of the diesel and thence through the cylinders of the diesel for easier starting.
This practice was soon discontinued as it caused corrosion of the diesel cylinders and was replaced with the system where the pony exhaust heated the diesel intake air by routing the pony exhaust through a separate tube inside the diesel intake manifold.

So, it's probably not a good idea.

Yes condensation and other nastys could be an issue. I didnt know the early Cat diesels did that. Interesting.

I worked on a Perkins diesel welder once that had one of these diesel fired intake heaters. I cant vouch for their effectiveness but sounds like a few people are pretty keen on them.

The benifit of the liquid cooled pony is that the pony's heat can circulated to the main with a shared coolant system as Cat uses. This would be lost if one installed a Honda/ Kohler etc..