Carb and why I hate gas engines

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amos
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Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by amos » Sat Jan 06, 2018 6:02 am

Working on a fork truck gas engine. Idles like a sewing machine. Throttle up slowly and all is good. But: under load everything goes to heck. Try to throttle from idle to load and coughs,sputters,backfires through carb,no power etc.
Checked gas changed plugs,installed electronic ignition,adjust timing and then started messing with fuel air mixture.
Finally found fuel air needle valve worn and not having positive control.
Old diesels I love: give me fuel,air,and compression and something is going to happen. Gas engines: hate 'em.
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

hydrogeo
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by hydrogeo » Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:42 am

I dunno, gas motors have some pluses. I hadn't started my 40c since Thanksgiving. Its been below zero for two weeks straight. It fired right up yesterday no fuss, and runs like a top. I didnt even need to jump it.

My '17 Duramax gelled New Years day, and my old Dodge 12v wont even think of starting unless its been plugged in for 24hrs. If any of you southern folk havent experience gelled diesel systems, you dont know what your missing, lol.

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CuttingEdge
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by CuttingEdge » Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:58 am

When it gets below 0 degrees (f) it is a big question mark as to whether a diesel engine will start or not. heck it is even a bigger question mark on whether it even SHOULD be started! (LOL)

I prefer diesel engines myself because as Amos says; fuel...air...compression; something is going to happen, but I don't have any experience working on industrial gas engines at all. I was too young to work on our old gas job John Deere 1010.

As for jellied up fuel: 911 is a diesel engine's best friend.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

Ray III
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by Ray III » Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:28 pm

My father spent the entire day trying to start his diesel tractor to plow snow.

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amos
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by amos » Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:53 pm

:lol: If we see zero or below here in east Texas Hell hath done froze over...When I go up north in my Ram with the Cummins about all I do is treat fuel with Cetane additive and trust my glow plugs. On this one never been below 14 degrees F. 2014 with same engine I did experience 7 degrees in Nebraska once. Started without having to plug it in.
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

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CuttingEdge
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by CuttingEdge » Sun Jan 07, 2018 5:12 am

Cold starting engines can be perplexing; why certain engines start in really cold temperatures while some do not has always escaped me.

I have owned a lot of equipment, and operated even more,and while an engine on the screen will fire right up and go, the loader that fills that screen may not. Some comes down to engine types, as whether it is a skidder, truck, bulldozer or locomotive; 2 strokes seem to handle the cold weather better than 4 strokes in terms of starting. Now that 2 strokes have gone the way of the Do-Do Bird in everything from snowmobiles to skidders, we are pretty much left with 4 strokes.

But even then, a person might have the same brand of engine...say John Deere's, and one will start harder than another.

My Kubota Tractor...that always starts even without its engine block heater...just glow plugs and it fires. Yesterday I had to start that at -8 below 0 degrees (f) to pull a snowmobile trail groomer out of a snowdrift. But my original goal was to use my skidder, even using a whole can of either, it would not start. I knew better than to even try to start my bulldozer...not at -8 below 0 degrees (f)
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

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amos
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by amos » Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:00 am

eight below: can't even fathom that. Was 60 here(high) yesterday in east Texas. Nice sunny day.Is supposed to get more seasonal(highs in the 40's) this coming week.
Something I've noticed when it is in the 20's and I'm doing a cold start I will see white "smoke" coming from exhaust when engine is trying to start. It isn't smoke but is actually unburned fuel and air mixture coming from cylinders. I would think that in the unGodly cold up north one would see the same and if you don't it could be a fuel feed issue(gelled maybe?).
Also saw a trick on youTube where they make a torch with a stick and fuel soaked rags and light it and place at air intake to heat combustion air. Seems to work on the videos.
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

dtoots1
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by dtoots1 » Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:09 am

am a bit fortunate here....we have a repair shop in town that repairs starters, carbs, alt, water pumps etc.....as opposed to ma deere shops....i took my jd440 carb to ma deeres...rebuilt almost $200.....same carb to jd40s (wheeled) to repair shop (rebuilt) $70..just so happened my repair shop tech was out for 2 weeks when i needed jd440 carb repaired. (just enough difference (backwards) in hookup that i could not use the jd40 carb on jd440)..

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amos
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by amos » Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:41 am

Morning dtoots1,
Lots of shops here that SAY they can do this and that but they tend to guess and cost big bucks while guessing. I do dang near all of my own trouble shooting and repairs unless I feel confident in a specialized shop. We have a machine shop here and the man in charge is a head repair guru: trust him and he does all of my heads.
Fork truck I'm working on is at my factory and a spare to other fork truck and I had 2 different fork truck mechanics work on it till I got tired of signing the checks and started trouble shooting myself. Owner of the shop was there when I found the bad needle valve and had that "look" on his face when I pointed that problem out to him. But, I've been working on production equipment and had to call for assistance and tech saw what I had overlooked in my trouble shooting. Sometimes it just takes another pair of eyes to see the obvious.
My corporate web-site is www.boisdarccoils,com and if you want you can go there and see what I do to make money for equipment parts :D
Been in the heat transfer game since i was just a child at another coil shop. Manufacturing,installation,repair,engineering,design,operation,corporate governance: pretty much done it all during 46 years of my life except for 7 years when I was in the USN and fighting bad guys."Childhood" stopped at 11 for me.
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

dtoots1
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by dtoots1 » Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:54 am

and a fine good morning to you Amos and all others,
we have a bit of warmer here 32 and snowing so will get the ole wheel tractor out and plow driveway and few neighbors out.

i mostly use the shop on the carbs/starters...carb kits around $50 bucks and they charge me $70 yup its certainly worth that to me...cause i do not have the little parts available when needed..and am able to get em started without a big fight. One starter cost me only $5 to repair, they took it apart and replaced the starter button on it , where the copper contacts had worn out...that was on the '54 wheeled tractor above..jd40s.

Tis only a little hole in the wall shop but they have a gang of 6 or 8 workers and always are busy and so far every one of my jobs have been very satisfactory...so want to keep them in business.

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amos
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by amos » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:47 am

Morning dtoots1,
Those little shops are a God send: owner usually older and has forgotten more than most will ever learn. Needed a 1 wire alternator of a 6V tractor I was converting to 12V and had to walk the kid at a parts store through what it was and what to look for:without a make,model,and year number to plug into computer he was lost.
Kids are genius on little hand held computers: I can barely turn one on. But when it comes to practical application I'm pretty darn handy to have around.
On the projects I fixed and flipped I made a pretty good pile of coin. 90% of the repairs were fixing either bad previous attempts at repair or correcting problems caused by lack of basic maintenance.
Yesterday at my pays the bills job I spent 30 minutes talking to an "engineer" about a system with major issues caused by excessive air flow and velocity of same.Kid had a degree in engineering but no field experience and couldn't grasp the problem.On paper the system should function but it isn't and for the past 18 months they've attempted "repairs" without looking at the air issue.Last July I had same discussion with 2 other engineers and so far owner has paid 3 engineering firms and a lawyer is now involved. I haven't charged them a nickle and all keep coming back to me to pick my brain but will not implement my recommendations.
All is good as they are now ready for me to build coils that will work and for me to design a correction for air flow issue.
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

dtoots1
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by dtoots1 » Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:26 am

Good Morning to you to Amos and others,
Just exactly on the little shops!! They are going like the dinosaurs. I see most of the guys are in 40s 50s and 60s just wondering who out there is oldest working and operating these things.
All thru life was alway youngest..started school at 4 graduated at 17 at 18 opportunity to be bank supervisor --but was passed over as in the 60s was not considered kosher to have younger supervising older.. got out of that and went into transportation industry and in the 80s and home office picking my brains (by phone cause could not find someone to do my job if not there) to set up computer programs to increase revenues. During the year of y2k (when 60) i learned computer programming so i could develop a transportation pricing program perfected the program and discussed it with them...but by then they were too deep into this so called discounting program and still losing monies today....by the way all of the NEW improved pricing comes from guess who (((college grads with no experience whatsoever)) i was in transportation for 50 years.

Anyhow what i started to talk about was it sure is DIFFERENT being somewhat older in any group. And it sure is interesting hearing/reading about others lives and adventures!!! We sure learn a lot here.

take care!

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amos
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Re: Carb and why I hate gas engines

Post by amos » Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:15 am

dtoots1:
Transport comes to mind too: when I was fixing/flipping travel trailers the dealership where I got some of the parts asked what I was doing and I told them I was hauling in travel trailers from all over the country to fix and flip. "You haul trailers?" they asked. Repeated myself about hauling them in from all over the country...
Anyway they asked if they could add me to their transport list and I said sure. BAD IDEA!
Some who called realized that the truck I have($68,000.00) tow set-up,insurance,MY TIME,fuel and other assorted expenses all add up and I charge accordingly with a $250.00 minimum up to 125 miles.40 miles? Don't care it's still 250.00.
But countless people wanted me to transport their trailers at $0.40 OR LESS a loaded mile. My absolute minimum is $2.00 a loaded mile unless I cross the continental divide and it jumps to $2.50 a loaded mile.
One wingnut had a 5th wheel they wanted me to transport it 60 miles to the dealer for inspection,wait till inspection was complete,then transport it back 60 miles back to their driveway. About 5-7 hours of my time depending on dealer turn around. Told them $300.00 and said they would pay $50.00.Needless to say my response was "nope" .
You would be amazed at how many people buy a large bumper pull or worse a 5th wheel thinking a little 1/2 ton with a 6 banger will pull it.It's not the weight: you're pulling a giant box down the road and wind resistance adds considerably to the actual pull force required.
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

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