Unusual ways to get a stubborn engine started

Most of you engine guys out there have a story I sure about how you got a worn out, or cold engine or otherwise reluctant engine start out of desperation. I'll go first. A mechanic working for Engine Systems in Rocky Mount, NC told me that on a heavily carboned up engine that had been in storage for several months; when they rolled it over all the loose carbon fell down on the valve seats keeping the valves open so there wasn't any compression. He took out his large brass hammer and pounded on the valve bridges to clear the carbon out and then the engine started and blew the rest of the crud all over the countryside. Probably could run that engine a couple of more years before they had to overhaul it.

Prior to getting sold, we had a locomotive on the GNRR that needed bungee on the lay shaft to idle ...

We have also had some very recalcitrant cold morning starts ... lots of crank, then lots and lots of smoke ...

and yes, usually, tons of crap flying out the stack ... When this happens on the southbound engine on the Blue Ridge Scenic, it's usually not a good time to be standing outside the ticket office.

There's a great story on the web of a guy who worked in an engine shop ... when a wrecked loco came in for engine work after the body work, they had to start it up after sitting through a cold north-midwest winter ... they cranked and primed and cranked again, and still nothing ... finally they put some gasoline in there and cranked away ... the gas burned (well, exploded), but the motor turned, and eventually, it got going enough that it was able to fitfully turn on its own ... after that it was just a matter of warming itself up. The story's description of the stuff flying out of the stacks was amazing.

Over the years in Huntington, we have started a many units by taking a Rubber Mallet and beat each the Exhaust Valve about 7 or 8 times. It works almost every time.

A EMD service rep actually started a cold engine by balling up newspaper, putting some in the airbox near the flywheel end, setting it afire and closing the hand hole cover then cranking the engine. Don't forget to hold the layshaft to a little more than required for idle. The extra fuel can if its cold enough prevent the engine from firing by absorbing the heat of compression.

Rick, I have never lit a fire in the Airbox myself, but I have heard of this being done before.

You could start up another thread for the opposite... how to stop a stubborn engine that won't. I've had a GE FDL that was burning its lube oil... had to empty a few fire extinguishers into the intake filters to starve it for air... finally died.

And an EMD a while back that wouldn't stop unless you disconnected the EMDEC power supply... the stop buttons all failed to shut it down..

CN Sparky that is a very interesting topic you just mentioned. Over the years, I have had several EMD's that the EFCO's would not shut down the engine, but I have never had an EMDEC unit before keep running when I have pushed an EFCO. Good point, I will log that in my memory bank about disconnecting the EMDEC's.

CN Sparky wrote:You could start up another thread for the opposite... how to stop a stubborn engine that won't. I've had a GE FDL that was burning its lube oil... had to empty a few fire extinguishers into the intake filters to starve it for air... finally died.

And an EMD a while back that wouldn't stop unless you disconnected the EMDEC power supply... the stop buttons all failed to shut it down..

I think I'll take you up on that and start a discussion in "General Discussion". On EMD's I thought you could just grab the layshaft handle and stop it that way or hit the over speed trip handle. Marine engines have a hole drilled in the handle and usually rig a cable out side the engine room so the engine can be stopped in case there is a fire in the engine room or the enineer is in a hurry.

That only works if there's a layshaft handle... EFI engines don't

While I don't think it was a stubborn engine, but rather, a moron in mechanical dept trying to start it, I had a Geep once that wouldn''t keep running. It was our last drill move of the day, and we were using road power to drill out hte cars, trapping the Geep on a stub ended track. We weren't gonna use it at all so it was no biggie.

But something came up and we had to go and make the move after we got back from a trip on the road. Mechanical is like "okay, we will go and start it and get it ready". So we pull into the yard, and I just see puffs of smoke coming out of it every 30 seconds or so. WTF?

So i walk over, and he goes, "I can't keep it running, it keeps stalling".

So im standing on the ground and he is on the side walkway. Cranks it, starts right up and then he is revving the snot out of it with the layshaft. It runs, and then stalls when he lets go of the layshaft. Go figure.

He goes, "see, I think you are gonna have to figure something else out, use the other power or something"

"Can I have a shot at it?" I say
"Sure, knock your socks off, im going inside" - he says

I crank it, start it up, DON'T rev the snot out of it, play with the shaft a litlte bit to keep it running, loosen my grip on the layshaft to feel what it wants to do, and then about 20 seconds later, it settles down into a nice idle. He comes running out....

"How did you do that? We've been having problems all week wiht that piece of junk!"
"Gee, I can't imagine why" I said "don't rev the snot out of it when its cold and just started and it will run" I said
"you think?", he answers back -

I just looked at him blankly..........then made our move with the "junk" engine....

Rick,
Having a lot of years on marine EMD's at this point in my life, I personally have never seen a cable to the layshaft handle for an emergency shutdown. What we do have (Western Rivers; can't speak for blue water or Great Lakes.) is a cable from the outside to the overspeed trip lever. These are usually built with the same kind of hardware that's used for the pulls on a stationary fire fighting system; i.e. 3/8" pipe with corner pullies and aircraft cable. Very desirable thing to have when it's time to "run away", which I've only had to do once in all these years.

Speaking of starting, I heard one from my boss a while back. Seems a rebuld crew (name and location omitted), decided to roll the engine they were working on with the starter rather than manually as they usually did. This critter was reassembled, but nobody had connected the layshafts to the governor. The predictable happened here, and evidently did great damage to the engine. Astonishingly, nobody was hurt...

RickRackstop wrote:A EMD service rep actually started a cold engine by balling up newspaper, putting some in the airbox near the flywheel end, setting it afire and closing the hand hole cover then cranking the engine. Don't forget to hold the layshaft to a little more than required for idle. The extra fuel can if its cold enough prevent the engine from firing by absorbing the heat of compression.

That's filed away for future reference(!). I've set a heat gun in the airbox on a 20-645 to start a cold one before. Let it sit for about a half an hour and then buttoned up the airbox for the successful starting attempt.

How about a cold start, can’t shut down story all in one? We had fifteen or twenty stored non dash SD45s that needed to be started for the first time in two years. We brought them into the round house (117 years old at the time) one or two at a time and went to work. Most had been PUG (Put Up Good) but one hadn’t. The turbo stack was left uncovered.
The General Foreman came out in his white shirt and showed us dummies how to start this one. He hooked to ½” air hoses to house air through modified air box covers. He had us ice pick four cans of starting fluid (two on each side of the engine) and put the covers back on.
The General Foreman hit the Prime switch and waited until the glass was clear then hit Start. The air box was so full of starting fluid and fresh air that it lit off. The explosion blew the welds apart on the governor end of the air box on both sides.
However, the engine did start. The turbo was completely full of rain water that blew out in great gushers of black rain that ruined his white shirt.
Once the rain water was out, he couldn’t get the engine to die because it was screaming on starting fluid. Fire belched out of the stack and caught the round house on fire and the race was on. The engine over speed tripped but still ran until all the starting fluid was used up.
Moral of the story. The boss did know how to start the engine. The boss also knew how to request an engine change out. And the boss did know how to get the round house put out.
True story, 1983, Galesburg, IL. The General Foreman has passed away so I can finally tell the story to the public.

Wow!

HAHAHAHA What a great story!

Another one from the "you just can't make this $#it up file"