I purchased this tractor last summer and it always required at least 10 seconds of glow plugs to start quickly, even if I'd recently shut it off. and giving it about half throttle helps it start quicker as well. Once it's running it runs flawlessly, it's just getting it running that's problematic. Now that it's cold, it's nearly impossible to start. The glow plugs work since they help it start in the summer.
We had a big snow storm coming last week so I attempted to move the tractor into my heated shop before the snow arrived. I plugged in the block heater the day before and it works (block was warm around the heater). It was about 45 deg outside when I attempted to start it and I'd give it 30 sec of glow plug, then it the starter for 15 seconds or so (varying throttle while it's cranking), then I'll give it another 20 seconds of glow plug and then crank it over again. It never once gave as much as a sputter like it wanted to start, it was just cranking with no evidence it was close to running. It also was not smoking at all out of the exhaust when cranking. In this instance, I did this until the battery was clearly getting low. Then I put a charger on it while I regrouped (Google possible ways to get it to start). After the battery was charged I tried to start it again and still had no luck. Then I got out a heat gun and heated up the intake manifold for a few minutes and then I directed the hot air directly into the air intake tube (a few inches away to keep from melting the tube) gave it 30 seconds of glow plug, and it immediately started within a few rotations.
Two day later after the snow was done I tried to start it in my shop (65 degrees) and I had to do this glow plug/crank for 15 seconds/glow plug/crank process 3 times before it started. I expected it to start quicker than this in the shop so now I'm concerned this issue is getting worse. I never shut it off during the 4 hours I used it to clear snow for fear of it not restarting.
So now I'm trying to figure out what's going on. I suspect it's possibly losing fuel prime but I'm no diesel mechanic so I'm sort of guessing here based on the symptoms. When it does finally start it will blow a puff of smoke and then clear up so I don't "think" it's an injector issue but I don't know for sure. Since it runs great otherwise I "think" the fuel pump and injector pump are fine but again, this is sort of a guess.
Any idea what else it could be, or how I can go about diagnosing this issue? Thanks for your time.
We had a big snow storm coming last week so I attempted to move the tractor into my heated shop before the snow arrived. I plugged in the block heater the day before and it works (block was warm around the heater). It was about 45 deg outside when I attempted to start it and I'd give it 30 sec of glow plug, then it the starter for 15 seconds or so (varying throttle while it's cranking), then I'll give it another 20 seconds of glow plug and then crank it over again. It never once gave as much as a sputter like it wanted to start, it was just cranking with no evidence it was close to running. It also was not smoking at all out of the exhaust when cranking. In this instance, I did this until the battery was clearly getting low. Then I put a charger on it while I regrouped (Google possible ways to get it to start). After the battery was charged I tried to start it again and still had no luck. Then I got out a heat gun and heated up the intake manifold for a few minutes and then I directed the hot air directly into the air intake tube (a few inches away to keep from melting the tube) gave it 30 seconds of glow plug, and it immediately started within a few rotations.
Two day later after the snow was done I tried to start it in my shop (65 degrees) and I had to do this glow plug/crank for 15 seconds/glow plug/crank process 3 times before it started. I expected it to start quicker than this in the shop so now I'm concerned this issue is getting worse. I never shut it off during the 4 hours I used it to clear snow for fear of it not restarting.
So now I'm trying to figure out what's going on. I suspect it's possibly losing fuel prime but I'm no diesel mechanic so I'm sort of guessing here based on the symptoms. When it does finally start it will blow a puff of smoke and then clear up so I don't "think" it's an injector issue but I don't know for sure. Since it runs great otherwise I "think" the fuel pump and injector pump are fine but again, this is sort of a guess.
Any idea what else it could be, or how I can go about diagnosing this issue? Thanks for your time.
