Any advice for getting a 2.5 'nana going on a cold morning?

[jimllshiftit]

My otherwise reliable 190 simply does not like these cold mornings.

Having read through some posts on the subject I have made a few changes which have improved it but this morning it let me down once again.

Over the last few weeks I have replaced battery, renewed, remade or replaced all the connections from the battery to the alternator and starter motor including the earths on the bell housing and behind the OS headlight. Vaselined over the connections once fitted and I fitted a new alternator. All those have helped get the van going on colder mornings but not, it seems, on really cold mornings.

This afternoon I am going out to replace the oil with new 5w 30 semi' as I think it may have 10w 30 in at the moment. Some people seem to think this is not an issue but others think it makes a world of difference. Ive also got a new starter motor to bolt on so lets see what improvement that makes.

Also, what we all seem to know and love about our smileys is their simplicity, but the down side to their ancient school of engineering is that most of them do not have glow plugs. In order to make life as comfortable as possible can anyone recommend any mods to bring a smileys starting system kicking and screaming into the 21st century? I see in the States and in Canada it is possible to buy electric blankets for your battery and simple electric engine block heaters in the sump plug but I dont see anything similar for sale in the UK. Our vans were never great on cold mornings even when they were new so has anyone got any suggestions? Bringing the battery into to house at night works but I was getting a bit fed up of refitting it, blurry eyed, in the cold and dark at 5am every morning! Surely there is a way to improve matters.

[angusp]

Look in section marked 'frequently asked questions'. There is a good 10 page read on this!

[jimllshiftit]

I thought someone must have covered this subject before but apart from a few threads about cleaning earths nothing much came up when I was googling it.

Cheers for pointing it out, will take it to bed with me tonight - along with my battery!

[V184]

Injection pumps probably at fault

[gotgcoalman]

Timing not spot on.
Fuel filter not perfect.
Fuel system air ingress.
Wiring (earth points) not perfect.
Lazy starter.
Less than perfect battery.
the list could be infinate with more causes and a combination of possible causes.

Usually if your're getting a good fuel suply and turn it over fast enough a Di will fire in
the coldest of conditions.

a squirt of wd40 or similar(not easy start) gets a Di away in cold weather.

Other than that you're looking at lift pump/injector pump and engine compression (piston rings)

[F111ORY]

Hi, You state you have "Replaced or remade all the connections" Does this mean you have fitted new battery cables or just the ends ?

No body seem to realise the importance of the battery cables, even what may look like sound cables when tested in the correct way can show excessive voltage drop. My own vehicles with Di engines start all weathers and only have one battery fitted!

Watch this and perform the voltage drop test on both of your battery cables. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKZr5wU-CO8

[Ray Austin]

When we had a mark 5 come to the colder weather it would not start all we did get a hot air gun and undo the pipe to the inlet manifold put some heat in and it would fire up straight away.

Maybe could have looked to see if there were other issues with it why it would not start but scrapped it the following spring.

Rust.

[MinorMatt]

You could always fit a flame plug

[Aardvark]

Just for the Hell of it, I just Googled the phrase
"effect of cold weather on lead acid batteries". It seems that the cranking power of a battery that is healthy and sound at say 20deg. C can drop by as much as 50% at freezing (0 deg. C). So assuming all the issues mentioned above have been covered we still need to somehow stop our battery from dropping to ambiant freezing temperatures to get the best cranking speed out of it. Anybody got any practical ideas how to do it?

[gotgcoalman]

Insulate it or connect a smart charger on a night.

[F111ORY]

Crank the engine for 15 seconds and then leave it to rest for a minute. The power expended will cause the battery to warm up and then it will produce more power. After a minutes wait try starting the engine!

[Jim Archer]

Are the starter cables getting warm when you crank it?

Did you acid dip or flux the cables when remaking the terminals? This sorted my old Mk5 - and stopped it rooting alternators.

Jim

[jimllshiftit]

Delayed response, got the van going fine and then went out to catch up with all the work id missed out on while it was "resting".......

The battery cables are the same cables, just the ends cut off, tinned the copper and soldered to new ring terminals.
Tappets were found to be quite loose so they have been reset.
Oil was changed to 5w-30 and I put a new fuel and oil filter on for good measure.
Then, being as id replaced the battery and alternator I thought "sod it" and put a new starter motor on it too.

Now at -2c this morning I barely have to look at the key and it will fire up.

[ricc]

mine went in the garage last week to have a diff change, im not into crawling round under it in january weather, whilst there they changed the engine oil, probably fair to say an oil change was a tad overdue, impression is it is cranking over faster on a cold morning.

[blackbird100]

Hi had this problem with loads of trannies..ford fitted a smaller type starter to the banna..the solution that works is to source an older starter from earlier models..much bigger larger output..easy to recognise by its fat windings..but same fitting..Hey presto. problem solved..