Hard starting 3 cylinder 4000 engine

mikewood869

Well-known Member
What temperature with the engine in without ether? We have a Ford 6610 that will start over 32° f. When cranking over, white smoke comes out. To start the tractor, it takes 2 squirts of ether or more to start. Once the tractor has warmed up, its turn key. The tractor might have some water in the lines (we got 6 gallons of watery fuel out, until it stopped coming out of the tank). We have the air cleaner line off to spray ether. The snow was from some weeks ago. I was able to clean out most of the snow after this photo was taken. We used the tractor last Friday to take off the backhoe. The picture is on its side. The only reason I like a gas engine is because the engine starts up in the cold. Start the gas 3000 when it was 15° last winter (2018).
mvphoto30600.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 17:16:21 01/27/19) If you can't park under a roof,at least throw a tarp over it to keep rain and snow off engine.
Forgot about not putting the air tube back in. The elbow was pointing up, but now the elbow is pointing down. The rubber elbow fought a little getting off. I thought the inside of the intake manifold was supposed to be cleaner. Been moving things around in the shed to fit the tractor.
 
(quoted from post at 17:32:35 01/27/19) That looks like a thermostart to me.

Do you use that or the enrichment button instead of ether?

If the tractor has one, I’m guessing that it doesn’t work. I can turn the key one click to the left. When I did click it to the left, I held it for 30 seconds. The tractor has been kept outside for at least 10 year that I know of. The picture if of the inside of the intake manifold.
 
(quoted from post at 17:45:09 01/27/19) Fuel enrichment?
I haven’t tried that yet. The tractor has a little less than 4 1/2 gallons (was clean, one month old fuel from the pump) of fuel with maybe a little water mix (don’t know if all the watery fuel was taken out). The fuel tank does have a little rust line going around the tank, so I bought a new fuel filter assembly (the John Deere one suck, but did have a thing for water, the new one doesn’t) which is installed.
 
That IS the thermostart. Functions: You have either a dedicated switch (after market field repair), a regular functioning ignition switch with a switch
position to the left of OFF, or a 5 position ignition switch whereby once you leave OFF, the dash oil-alt lights illuminate and stay illuminated as you roll the
switch toward START the lights go OUT. This is the TS position.

It takes about 30 seconds for the heater in the TS device to glow orange hot. This heat releases a spring controlled valve that opens allowing diesel
droplets to fall on the hot spring causing them to ignite. After 30 seconds give or take roll the ignition switch on over to START and as the engine rolls it
sucks these "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis) into the combustion chamber and you get ignition.....hopefully.

You can view the whole procedure from the position where you took the picture. If it isn't doing as I said, something is missing....12v or diesel or something
in the TS switch itself is broken. Switch is readily available here or most anywhere Ford parts are sold and it's a common to many models item.
 
(quoted from post at 04:30:49 01/28/19) That IS the thermostart. Functions: You have either a dedicated switch (after market field repair), a regular functioning ignition switch with a switch
position to the left of OFF, or a 5 position ignition switch whereby once you leave OFF, the dash oil-alt lights illuminate and stay illuminated as you roll the
switch toward START the lights go OUT. This is the TS position.

It takes about 30 seconds for the heater in the TS device to glow orange hot. This heat releases a spring controlled valve that opens allowing diesel
droplets to fall on the hot spring causing them to ignite. After 30 seconds give or take roll the ignition switch on over to START and as the engine rolls it
sucks these "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis) into the combustion chamber and you get ignition.....hopefully.

You can view the whole procedure from the position where you took the picture. If it isn't doing as I said, something is missing....12v or diesel or something
in the TS switch itself is broken. Switch is readily available here or most anywhere Ford parts are sold and it's a common to many models item.
All I see is smoke coming from the air intake when holding the key to the left. Then cranked the engine to start and nothing.
 
Smoke says the electrical part of the system is apparently working....aka watts means heat meaning something is getting hot. You need to get closer to
what you are looking at and determine if the coil glows orange hot and determine if diesel is released from the tube connected to it. What you see smoking
could be diesel or could be oil from your oil bath air cleaner accumulating in the intake manifold, if you have such...rather than the dry air type filter.

The diesel line to it could be plugged, can be verified by removing the tube from the rear of the TS and running the engine at idle looking for diesel coming
out of the tube. If you have diesel available, then it's whether or not the TS passes it properly, or is clogged itself, or the coil isn't getting hot
enough......they aren't all that expensive....wouldn't hurt to just replace it and be done with it......check for the diesel as I said and when the key is in the TS
position , check the wire for 12v.
 
The tractor has the paper air filter in the nose and as far as I know, the tractor ran for the last 8 years without a air filter. I will check tomorrow.
 
"as far as I know, the tractor ran for the last 8 years without a air filter. "

BINGO. You just nailed your problem. Get a diesel (400-600 psig) compression tester and run a compression check. Gonna bet you won't get anywhere
near 400. Bought my 3000 (many years ago) in April in Texas and the seller needed ether to get it to start...daaaaaaaa.....my first diesel and I had the
learning curve....many "other things" and expenses later I finally realized that i needed an overhaul as I had low compression.......you wouldn't believe what
the top end looked like....totally shot....reason? Wink! Tractor had 5k hours roughly and my guess is that the PO's employees, which seemed to be a
materials handling outfit...lots of yard work, lots of dust, got tired of trying to start it and just pulled the hose off to have access to shoot it with ether, and
just left it off, going on their merry way.
 

They came from the factory with a huge freaking battery for a reason. Don’t be afraid to crank on it. Manual talks about cranking on it for 25 seconds at a time.

Being that the starter is always cold, and I have a new 4DLT HD battery, I lean towards cranking longer rather than jumping to SF right away.

Sounds similiar to mine. Either was a factory option.
You have a manifold heater, I’d get it working.
 
There should be no reason to have to squirt either directly into the air intake. When I use it, I squirt mine on the sheet metal where the air cleaner lid is. It pulls in just enough SF to start it up.
 
(quoted from post at 14:31:58 02/01/19) There should be no reason to have to squirt either directly into the air intake. When I use it, I squirt mine on the sheet metal where the air cleaner lid is. It pulls in just enough SF to start it up.

Found the line going to the intake manifold (still need to see were it goes), I'm guessing that it either clogged or the line is disconnected. The tractor starts up better in the warmer weather (at least 50 f here). At the moment, were trying to get the loader off the tractor (the tractor is a 4500).
 
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but starting fluid should not be used with the Thermostart system. Apparently bad things happen.
 
(quoted from post at 08:33:50 02/06/19) Don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but starting fluid should not be used with the Thermostart system. Apparently bad things happen.

Boom
 

It is 36 here and block is probably colder. I cranked on my diesel 3cyl for 1 min 45 sec..several cranking sessions. It did not start.
I sprayed the smallest amount of starting fluid on the hood near the intake and it fired right up. Smoked like it was loaded up.

I know this engine is worn. I recently poured a bottle of Engine Restore in there to see if I couldn’t bump the compression up a little. I know it sounds crazy, but I watched a long term test on a 3 cylinder ford diesel. Results were impressive. We will see if it helps with cold starts after I’ve put some hours on it.
 
(quoted from post at 15:38:00 02/06/19) Has only one notch to the left

Then it is most likely not the original key switch. All bets are off. You will have to trace the wires and check voltages with the key in various positions.
 

Could be some jury rigged wires somewhere that were used to activate the heater. Not uncommon on farm equipment. An extra button maybe?
 

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