Diesel Guys help

[Mick]

As I am new to diesel I love my new Ranger mk11 but have fallen into the baffling worldwide web of he said she said do you need to warm up the new age diesel engines or just turn key and go?
I have asked Ford when I picked up my new truck and they say turn key and go as the new modern diesel engines dont use a glow plug to heat up before starting.
I have read my owners book it has a diagram of the glow plug coil and it says that it will only come on when its extremely cold I know the owners manual cover all models but when I turn the key on I haven't seen the lamp on the dash any were.
As for the web I have mixed information as no you don't need to warm up before driving and I have read
And I have also read you do as I don't want to kill it so any one really know what to do ???
Apologies in advance for the long story but I would value experience form diesel experts.

 

[JaycoQ]

I have a mk1 and the glow plug lights up for a second or 2 max. I always wait for it to go out. Habit I guess.

 

[Mick]

I have a mk1 and the glow plug lights up for a second or 2 max. I always wait for it to go out. Habit I guess.

I dont see one on my dash don't even know if it has one but I have been turning the key on and wait for a second until the Ad Blue goes out

 

[Jags73]

@Mick did some googling on the 3.2 & it's a direct injection combustion camber, so no glow plugs are required, pre-combustion chambers need glow plugs.
I still run & warm up any diesel before putting under load or towing, probably more so with higher turbo pressures on smaller cubes.
Most of these light modern diesels now have alloy heads & are prone to cracking earlier in their life over the cast iron deals, so I wouldn't hit the power until warmed up.
I have a chip on the Cruiser & only turn it on when fully warmed up, the chip is only used for towing.

 

[Mick]

Thanks for this information I do let warm up before pulling the expanda but I wasnt shore on what to do on short trips to the shops and work

 

[Jags73]

Thanks for this information I do let warm up before pulling the expanda but I wasnt shore on what to do on short trips to the shops and work

Short trips to the shops, just jump in, start & idle of down the road, no problems with no warm up

 

[Drover]

Turn key on, wait till dash lights go out and fire up, with petrol or diesel let it run for a min or 2 to make sure the oil gets moving everywhere then go for it, don't go peddle to the metal until temp gets up, more important is to let the turbo cool down when stopping, if your just tootling around town then you can shut down pretty well straight away but if you have been fanging along, towing or running up a big hill let the engine run for a minute or so to let the turbo cool down a bit.................if really hot give it 4 mins.................this is because the turbo is usually oil cooled and if you shut down straight away, no oil gets to turbo and it does not like it, it's always better to let the engine run for a little bit anyway can't hurt and you get into a habit which may extend the engine life................................a turbo timer will alleviate this but on some engines the computer causes problems, places like Diesel Care do a good job.

 

[Mick]

Thanks Drover this is the stuff I need t hear why don't the Dealers tell you this stuff.
Oh I have found were the glow plug light on the dash I believe you need to let the engine sit until,the light goes out when it's on

 

[benmat]

I have a Mk2 Ranger and see the light most mornings. It is in the bottom right hand corner of the dash. Can't find a pic online and too cold to go out side now, but it is just to the right of the seat belt reminder
After a few seconds it always goes out. Don't see if much during the day, but does appear in the evening leaving work. Not sure if it is an issue with the Ranger, but if I forgot to wait for it to go out in my Prado, it would cough and take a few extra turns to start.

 

[Drover]

Nowadays the glow plug light is only on for seconds and I think that is mostly while everything boots up, these new baby turbo diesels systems with our usual temps won't glow at all except when it does get low single digit cold.
As I said turn key, let the systems boot up, some need an electric fuel pump to run up, the ECU needs to check it's sensors this all takes a second or so then good to go, just jumping in and hitting start straight away means that the ECU hasn't ticked all the boxes so like a computer somethings may not boot up.
This is the basic start up for most engines nowadays, the badge doesn't matter.

 

[Jags73]

I have a Mk2 Ranger and see the light most mornings. It is in the bottom right hand corner of the dash. Can't find a pic online and too cold to go out side now, but it is just to the right of the seat belt reminder. After a few seconds it always goes out. Don't see if much during the day, but does appear in the evening leaving work. Not sure if it is an issue with the Ranger, but if I forgot to wait for it to go out in my Prado, it would cough and take a few extra turns to start.

There 2 types of diesel combustion cambers, direct injection & precombustion, precombustion need glow plugs & will run rough, blow smoke for a few seconds if the glow plugs are not used long enough. The reason the glow plugs are needed is because of the heat lost through the precombustion during start up, as these engines are compression ignition with the timed injection
The Prado has precombustion cambers, so hence the rough start & idling for a couple of seconds.

Left image has the precombustion camber with glow plug under the injector

The right image is my preference, more power & simpler, same as your 100 series @Bluey

@Drover is correct in taking ya time before starting a diesel, especially with the smog laws, adblue ect. the ECUs need to take in all the parameters during start up.

 

[Drover]

Oh the old days of hoping you had enough power in the battery to cook the glow plugs and start the engine on those cold mornings, invariably the truck wouldn't start first time and that was it, get the battery cart..................the old glow coil was good to light a smoke if you ran out of matches on a job.

 

[Jags73]

Oh the old days of hoping you had enough power in the battery to cook the glow plugs and start the engine on those cold mornings, invariably the truck wouldn't start first time and that was it, get the battery cart..................the old glow coil was good to light a smoke if you ran out of matches on a job.

Yep, even the direct injection motors were messy to start, never liked aero start, but used correctly got them going.
Could even take longer if you had to fire up the Lance Bulldog tractor, they were fun getting them run forward, not backwards after start up

 

[Sammy D]

Yes we still have a tractor that enjoys glowing, on a frosty morning if you forget to glow it even if it is for just a quick turn of the key it won't have enough grunt after glowing to start. Not to mention our oooold hilux, it loves a good 5-10 seconds of glowing when it is cold. The new hilux (actually it must be near on 10 years old now)starts reasonably quick but when it is cold it has that horrible knock in it, when we first got it we took it back thinking it was haddit but apparently it's the way they are meant to be and after all these years it is still going so must be ok.

 

[Drover]

Oh yeah !!!!!! bringing back some memories now, aero start to get the fuel tankers going in minus 6 and boy did they rattle, clank and belch fuel an smoke out the stack, sort of like coaxing a wet fire to start, once it was going you would go have a coffee as by the time you had finished the engine was running smooth, the cab was starting to warm up and the hydraulics might be ready to work.

Now air start was scary, 2 hits if your lucky then stuffed no air.

Old tractor we had started it on kero first then went to the main fuel can't remember if it was diesel or petrol.?????????

 

[Jags73]

Oh yeah !!!!!! bringing back some memories now, aero start to get the fuel tankers going in minus 6 and boy did they rattle, clank and belch fuel an smoke out the stack, sort of like coaxing a wet fire to start, once it was going you would go have a coffee as by the time you had finished the engine was running smooth, the cab was starting to warm up and the hydraulics might be ready to work.

Now air start was scary, 2 hits if your lucky then stuffed no air.

Old tractor we had started it on kero first then went to the main fuel can't remember if it was diesel or petrol.?????????

Had a WD9 International that started on petrol with decompression lever, warm up & changed to Diesel.
Then there was the Cat 12E grader with the donkey engine as a starter

 

[chartrock]

Ahh, nostalgia. I never had a lot to do with diesel, serving my time at Garden Island mainly on steam engines. There were two tugs attached to GI, a steam up and downer named "Wattle" ( we reckoned it was because the skipper used to always wonder "wattle I do?) and a diesel tug named "Bronzewing" (@Drover may remember them). Marine Apprentices had to spend a month on each.

The diesel skipper was a bit of a showoff and used to head straight at the wharf, then ring down for full astern while applying rudder and so stop beside the wharf. This manoeuvre was banned after an apprentice missed the start with the air start system and the tug bounced off the wharf. The apprentice will not be named.

 

[Drover]

"Bronzewing " more memories there.......fog, drizzle and it was target towing, looking, looking thru my sights and it wasn't the target I saw it was a Tug boat steaming along, didn't make my switches so everyone was happy.......now chugging around with the Sydney Maritime Museum mob.

The old full pelt for the wharf, spin the wheel and full astern, great manouver if you pull it off.

 

[Mick]

I have a Mk2 Ranger and see the light most mornings. It is in the bottom right hand corner of the dash. Can't find a pic online and too cold to go out side now, but it is just to the right of the seat belt reminder
After a few seconds it always goes out. Don't see if much during the day, but does appear in the evening leaving work. Not sure if it is an issue with the Ranger, but if I forgot to wait for it to go out in my Prado, it would cough and take a few extra turns to start.

Thank I have looked and seen the glow plug light as attached

 

[Mick]

Wow gus thanks for all the info and even looks like a little trip down memory lane for some bet still interesting stories too
So any way talking to an old Romain guy at work and he was telling me of old memories of how they kept a small fire under the tractor in winter to keep the diesel warm so they could ploue the fields.
Anyway one other thing I would like to know is do,these new diesels need how long after a long drive with the expanda in tow to cooldown as I think they are oil cooling and if I turn it off after a long drive it will not be good.
Do I need a turbo timer likee the old 80's commodore