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 Post subject: How I Fixed Hard Cold Start Issue with my W50
PostPosted: 18 Dec 2014 10:44 
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Skipper

Joined: 21 Oct 2006 15:36
Posts: 268
I've owned my boat for 10 years and my W50 had been relatively hard to start on the first start of the day, even in the Summer since I've owned it. It wasn't real bad but I always thought it was harder than it should be. It was annoying but I lived with. Once started, the engine ran fine and would easily start that same day without the glow plugs being energized. A few years back, I had the injectors rebuilt. The engine ran a little more smoothly, but had no appreciable effect on starting.

This last Summer the engine became much harder to start when cold. So this Fall I decided to see if I could figure out why. My first thought was that I had one or more bad glow plugs, so I pulled all 4 and tested them. They were fine. Each quickly glowed 'white hot' when powered. However, when I was removing the plugs, I did notice that the nut on the #2 cylinder glow plug was not as tight as the others. The glow plugs are wired in series ( aft to front), so if #2 was loose and making bad contact, that plug would be effected as well as the plug for the #1 cylinder. When I put the plugs back in and properly tightened all 4 electrical connections, I tried starting the engine. Good news. It started much better so I concluded that I was trying to start the engine all Summer with only the #4 and #3 glow plugs energized.

So if you have starting issues, I would recommend the first easy check to do is clean the glow plug connectors and make sure the connector nuts are properly tightened. At the same time, you can check each glow plug with an ohm meter while the plugs are installed. With the wire disconnected, measure the resistance from the threaded connector to ground. I understand that a properly functioning glow plug should have less than 1 ohm resistance. I didn't do this. I took mine out but that probably wasn't necessary.

But I didn't stop here. I recalled that on a previous boat I owned it had a newer Westerbeke engine and that engine had a solenoid that powered the glow plugs. I suspected that this arrangement may be helpful for our boats since the glow plug circuits relatively long runs (just like the alternator to ammeter runs on the charging circuit). Specifically, there is a very long run of 10 gage wire from the glow plug push button on the control panel to the glow plugs (yellow wire). The button receives power from an equally long 8 gage red wire from the common power post on the starter solenoid. This power is also shared with the starter solenoid button. To make things worse, these wires have a 'trailer tail light' type connector in the circuits that was put in to connect the control panel to the engine - a very probable high resistance connection. So getting to the point, I concluded that my glow plugs were probably not getting the proper voltage due to voltage drop in the circuit and adding a solenoid like the newer engines could only help. So I added a solenoid to the glow plug circuit and It works great. As a real test, two days ago I went to my boat (it's on the hard). It had been below freezing for 2 days. I hit the glow plug for about 15 seconds, and the engine immediately started, better than even the best of times in the Summer. Before the modification, I'm not even sure the engine would have started at all but if it did it would have taken a lot of cranking. I couldn't be more pleased. Instant starting even in the cold, with significantly less wear and tear on the starter.

Modification details:

The solenoid I bought was: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064MX7US/ref ... 60_TE_dp_1

I mounted it on the stbd bulkhead above the starter solenoid directly above the removable panel.

I wired it as follows:

1. A red 10 gage wire from common positive power source on starter solenoid to 1 of the 2 high current terminals on the solenoid.

2. Locate the three wire connector on the harness to the control panel. It will have three (3) wires: a yellow 10 gage, a white 10 gage and a red 8 gage wire. The yellow 10 gage wire is the wire that goes from the control panel to the glow plugs. Cut yellow wires on both side of the connector so the connector is
out of the circuit.

3. Connect the control panel side yellow wire to either of the small terminal connection on the solenoid. These small terminals activate the solenoid. You'll have to splice about a foot or two of additional wire to make the connection.

4. Connect the other small solenoid terminal connection to ground at a location of your choosing.

5. Connect the remaining yellow wire going to the glow plug to the other high current terminal on the solenoid. That wire was barely long enough so I replaced it with a new, longer 10 gage yellow wire.

6. Tidy it up with electrical tape, tie wraps, etc. to your choosing.

It's a very cheap, easy, and very effective modification.....on my boat anyway.

_________________
Jim Voelxen
Odyssey #191
Home Port: Osterville, MA


 
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