Great footage, we had the same problem with 078 two weeks later she stuck leg out of bed, that's the problem running down locos and expecting them to just start every day, refurb programme is making a big difference, thanks for sharing.
I got called for a work train sitting on a siding I found a shut down U-25B a Ge Uboat, when I arrived a cold spell had arrived temperature was 20 degrees and I was concerned the automatic drain would have opened and drained the cooling system. Back in the 70's we didn't use antifreeze in the locomotive's like they do today. Fortunately it hadn't drained but wouldn't fir up and I was in danger of killing the batteries so I called the maintenance of way truck to drive up to the engine, ares are hood units not full car body locomotive's like the UK uses. Once the truck arrived I asked for a rock fork wrapped several rags around the tines and lit them up after soaking them in diesel fuel held the flames next to the air intake system and cranked her over and she fired up on around 5 or so cylinders and sat there running like anything but smoothly for over 15 minutes until finally she had warmed up enough to run on all 16 cylinders. The smoke was so bad a local resident called out the fire department and the fire chief wanted me to shut her down and I told him after she warms up she be fine. The fire chief showed up when she was still running only 3 minutes after I started her. By the time she started running smoothly. It took just over 45 minutes to reach full operating temperature and stop smoking. The cab heat felt real good as it was old school water heater using excess heat from the cooling system. Not fun when you go to start a cold diesel locomotive when it's really cold and she turns out to be balky as all hell. This was back in the Penn Central era when PC was bankrupt and it was rare to get good batteries on a locomotive. The work train foreman told me they usually had to stop a westbound freight in order to jump start the engine.
Leave it warm up is best, nothing to gain by shutting it down again.Will give the batteries a hammering if that was done. She was got running in one hour from a charge up flat batts to run. It was not piston slap, it was injection knock.Not good but left with no other option on a stone cold engine.
Usually 20 seconds, this loco had a few problems with C B's tripping and the oil priming pump CB constantly tripping. Loco was stone cold after not being run fo a few days. Only running on two or three cylinders to start with untill the others work up and decided to join the others .Engine does not have heater plugs.The engine on this loco is not in the best of health anyway. The fault indication panel lit up like a Christmas tree,iyou win a prize if all are lit LOL
LOL Just like an old Cat tractor. I think a pre heat in the coolant system is the best option as fitted to the Class 52's.Saves on excessive engine wear on cold starts. Or just run up the engine every day and not leave it for three days in minus 6 degrees like this one .was subjected to
The best thing to do in this case is to rev up the engine. The non -firing cylinders are suffering terribly of the totally wet cilinder walls, and the few that did fire are working at a very high fuelling to keep the engine at the set speed. The cilinders start firing once the required end compression temperature is reached. Rather than waiting for the engine to warm up it is better to rev the engine up, the boost pressure increases the end compression temperature and will make them alive, also releasing the other cylinders of the very high fuelling hence the terrible knocking sound.
Injecting more fuel into, the non firing cylinders will make it worse. And could cause it to throw a rod. That has happened elsewhere. These engines are big. The whole issue could have been solved if it was started daily to keep the coolant temp at least warm and the block warm. It had flat batteries, it had electrical issues with the oil priming cb tripping due to moisture. This loco had high engine hours , hence used as a pilot engine only. You can't rev up an engine if you have only three of the eight cylinders firing, it wont pick up revs. The pistons are 30 cm in diameter
It made me cry working on it. Got called to it on a Sunday afternoon, a 300 mile round trip to get it going because no one thought about running it once a day to keep the engine warm . My blowlamp run out of gas trying to warm up inlet air lol. It a big 8 cylinder Mirrlees
According to the Wikipedia of this loco's engine and this bore stroke and displacement calculator www.mk5cortinaestate.co.uk/calculator2.php that's a 145 litre engine..
the loco only start with one cylinder,,,the detonation,is because the diesel cycle os not ideal,,the fuel explodes in the chamber,as an Otto Cycle,,not ignite gradually,,,when the engine warms,,more cylinders come to fire,,and this high noise attenuates.This attempts and the engine warm ,needs at least ten minutes. the disadventage os this issue is the energy lost by the batteries and the electric starter.
Starting to understand why these locos are so problematic ! Extremely sensitive computer controlled systems but on engine start up all the electrics bomb 😂
MineCraftJunky28 Thank you. I had issues with my phone that day and it would not film in landscape mode. Unfortuneatly I can not film it again so this will have to do.
