Glow plugs

My claim to fame is designing the turbo pipes for the cummins qsk45,60 & 78 engines.
They were pretty chunky!

With regards to running them until they break, I was working with the engineers in the test lab, one of the engines started to surge... So we shut it down by killing the fuel supply.... Or rather that was the theory, instead it sucked up its own oil and burnt that until it went bang in a very large and expensive way.... It was nothing to do with the turbo pipe design! Lol

One of the good things about push button start is you dont manually wait for the glow plugs, it waits automatically and then starts, so press the button and start putting your seat belt on, by the time its clicked into place the engine is running!

Yes, my boat engines are small compared with big marine engines, but they are much larger than a car engine. For the 380 hp each produces, they are physically much bigger and heavier than an equivalent power car engine. Maybe that extra size allows for a stronger cylinder block and thus sufficiently high compression to self ignite without glow plugs. (There is no other fuel or air pre-heating either). They are also significantly more expensive than an average car engine, so probably impractically heavy and expensive for car use.

They are also 'common rail' - is that also what modern automotive diesels (such as Evoque) are?

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(07-02-2012 11:36pm)PhilSkill Wrote:  One of the good things about push button start is you dont manually wait for the glow plugs, it waits automatically and then starts, so press the button and start putting your seat belt on, by the time its clicked into place the engine is running!

Yes, I can imagine that would make it easier. My first boat had switches you had to hold down while you counted to 20, and there was no positive indication of whether it was ready to crank.