"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.

Here is a 12v grid heater I adapted to the forklift, replacing the insufficient plug style. I know it works for this application because you can't start without it. I energize it for 60 seconds. So far it's been cheaper than a complete overhaul.

There is a hole on the bottom of the pony heat exchange tube. I wonder if it is sized about the same as one of those Thermostarts so that a person could cut some threads in the hole. Maybe it could be used as a heat source even if it doesn't go directly into the air intake.

I am not really sure where I would put a hole in the intake for a Thermostart. The only spot seems to be between the air cleaner and where the air cleaner connects to the pony tube.

"BigAgCat" wrote:

There is a hole on the bottom of the pony heat exchange tube. I wonder if it is sized about the same as one of those Thermostarts so that a person could cut some threads in the hole. Maybe it could be used as a heat source even if it doesn't go directly into the air intake.

I am not really sure where I would put a hole in the intake for a Thermostart. The only spot seems to be between the air cleaner and where the air cleaner connects to the pony tube.

i don't think it would work like that. the flame needs to be sucked into the cylinder to ignite the fuel.

Yes, even though it’s probably more than most glowplug or grid heater systems, there’s still not a lot of heat available from this little fire unless you use it long enough to burn the paint off the manifold. Since it’s in a small area, I think it needs to be in the intake, and preferably where several cylinders will draw the hot air, ie not at the far end of a long manifold. More like a grid heater than a glowplug except each cylinder gets its own glowplug which makes up for that.

"ccjersey" wrote:

Yes, even though it’s probably more than most glowplug or grid heater systems, there’s still not a lot of heat available from this little fire unless you use it long enough to burn the paint off the manifold. Since it’s in a small area, I think it needs to be in the intake, and preferably where several cylinders will draw the hot air, ie not at the far end of a long manifold. More like a grid heater than a glowplug except each cylinder gets its own glowplug which makes up for that.

I think the first intake port on the manifold is just behind the pony exhaust pipe on my D6 5R. The second and third port (I think the middle section counts as two ports.) is about 12 inches from the first, and the last port is about 12 inches from the middle just after where the pony exhaust connects to the heat exchange tube. So, really, to get the flame in all the cylinders, it would have to be at the tube where the air cleaner connects to the heat exchange tube. I am just guessing on the length in inches, but the heat exchange tube goes nearly the full length of the diesel, and these straight six diesel engines are pretty long.

the flame doesn't have to get into each cylinder but the more the merrier. i guess you could install two if you thought it was needed.

Original Cat manifold heaters (now extinct) were continuous fire into the air intake pipe ahead of the manifold using the magneto as an ignition source.

"Old wrote:

Original Cat manifold heaters (now extinct) were continuous fire into the air intake pipe ahead of the manifold using the magneto as an ignition source.

i had one of those on an old cummins years ago. it had a gasoline tank and a little pump to pressurize like a coleman lantern. you would pump it up and light the thing up then crank the engine with the decompressed to get it running. it worked fine.

i suspect you could use a propane torch just as well????