Hard starting is the Diesel legacy. It took many years, and a family
fortune, for Rudolph Diesel to develop his engine to a state of commercial
success - and you expect them to start immediately; get real!

Bob Swinney
"JohnM" wrote in message
...
RWL wrote:

The discussion about the ChangFa diesel & generator project got me
interested in the project too. I live in central PA, and the power is
as likely to go down in an ice storm in winter requiring a subfreezing
start.

How hard is it to get diesels started in cold weather? What do you do
differently to get them going?
How hard are diesels to start if they sit 3 or 4 months between short
test / maintenance runs?


How often do you have to change oil in a diesel compared to a gasoline
engine? The specs on the Kohler engine on my mower say to change
every 100 hours. What's the recommended interval on the ChangFa or
other diesels?

RWL


Diesels are good about starting after sitting for long periods, far better
than a motor with a carburetor.

My little Deutz diesel starts good without help down to freezing or so,
giving it hot air from a hair dryer it'll start down to about zeroF and if
I warm the heads up it'll start below that temp. Ether, used with some
discretion, is of considerable value in getting a cold diesel hitting on
all cylinders as soon as possible. Naturally, if you're using glow plugs
you don't want the ether..

In my experience there's a lot of difference between how different brands
(and some difference between different motors in each brand) start. With
the ChangFa, I guess all you can do is see what other folks have to say
and maybe buy one and find out yourself.

Maybe consider a used engine, sometimes they can be more of a known value.
Deutz, Perkins, Cummins, Yanmar, Mercedes, Rabbit diesel, there's a lot of
good little diesels in the world..

John