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My Westerbeke M60 is hard to start all of a sudden, but once it starts, it runs and re-starts great. I know that engine likes to be heated (about 60 seconds for this engine) and I am wondering if my glow plugs all of a sudden are not getting the job done. Ambient temperature is between 55 and 75 degrees. When I put a meter on the battery side of the heater button I am getting 12.8 volts. When I go down to the first glow plug I am only getting 7.5 volts at the engine. Is this normal, or do I have something going on between here and there?
Thanks for any guidance.
Charlie -
Hi Charlie
Could be a high resistance connection between the battery and the glow plugs. Suggest you clean up all the connections, including the relay and see if you get better voltage.
You can check the glow plugs by disconnecting them and checking each of them with an ohm meter. Should all be about the same resistance. Open circuit means that one is fried.
A full minute of preheat sounds like a lot ot me, but I have no direct experience with a W-60. Engines get harder to cold start if compression is low, or the starter is not spinning the engine fast enough.
Quent -
Glow plugs pull a lot of current. If your wiring to the glow plugs isn’t heavy enough, you get power loss in the wires. There’s supposed to be a solenoid switch on the engine. When you push the preheater button, this closes the solenoid switch which supplies power directly from the battery with a wire connected to the back of the alternator or starter.
Glow plugs are service items. They must be replaced occasionally. You can unplug the cable from the glow-plug and check for continuity. There should be almost zero ohms.
As I recall, the W-60 becomes difficult to start when the injectors get dirty or worn. The injectors should be rebuilt about every 600-800 hrs.
Regards
Rich
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When the glow plug relay closes it draws a lot of current so there’s a lot of arcing that goes on. I would suggest that you cleaned the contacts on that relay. Over the years they become corroded and pitted and make a very high resistance circuit.
AlanSent from my iPhone
On Apr 14, 2014, at 6:34 AM, “quent” wrote:
Hi Charlie
Could be a high resistance connection between the battery and the glow plugs. Suggest you clean up all the connections, including the relay and see if you get better voltage.
You can check the glow plugs by disconnecting them and checking each of them with an ohm meter. Should all be about the same resistance. Open circuit means that one is fried.
A full minute of preheat sounds like a lot ot me, but I have no direct experience with a W-60. Engines get harder to cold start if compression is low, or the starter is not spinning the engine fast enough.
Quent_______________________________________________
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Hey guys; thanks for the help. I have solved the cranking problem. Fortunately it wasn’t a glow plug or fuel problem like I suspected from the symptoms. It was a faulty Kill-Switch cable that was bending when it was pushed back in and would not properly re-set the butterfly valve on the injector pump. Therefore the engine would turn over but not crank. All fixed!!
Fortunately, by trying some of the other fixes that were suggested I also found and fixed a fuel-air leak on my return line, and was able to find a good deal on some new/old Westerbeake parts that included some new injectors and glow-plugs that will be nice to have in the spares kit for that rainy day. Speaking of rainy day, we just had from 14 to 20 inches of rain in Gulf Shores/Pensacola. That makes for really high tides and muddy water.
Thanks again, everybody.
charlie
sv/ OneEighty
#54 -
Thanks for sharing the solution with us. I will add that to my
diagnostics library…Pete
On 4/30/2014 5:43 PM, cstewart wrote:
Hey guys; thanks for the help. I have solved the cranking problem. Fortunately it wasn’t a glow plug or fuel problem like I suspected from the symptoms. It was a faulty Kill-Switch cable that was bending when it was pushed back in and would not properly re-set the butterfly valve on the injector pump. Therefore the engine would turn over but not crank. All fixed!!
Fortunately, by trying some of the other fixes that were suggested I also found and fixed a fuel-air leak on my return line, and was able to find a good deal on some new/old Westerbeake parts that included some new injectors and glow-plugs that will be nice to have in the spares kit for that rainy day. Speaking of rainy day, we just had from 14 to 20 inches of rain in Gulf Shores/Pensacola. That makes for really high tides and muddy water.
Thanks again, everybody.
charlie
sv/ OneEighty
#54
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