[Vwdiesel] Glow plug Saga ---( Hagar remembers )

[H . Hagar.]

I you get past the smell you got it LICKED !   ----- I grew up on a small island 
called Amager   ---and 1940 to 1945  the Germans developed Kastrup airport
Copenhagen airport  to be the biggest airbase in Europa.     I lived right next door.

Now I find it interesting that the school teachers would risk all those kids going
for a class outing to Saltholm in 1942.   Saltholm  (notice SALT?).  >From the Airbase
across the waters is SWEDEN   ---- clearly visible on a clear day.  Now Sweden was
still FREE ( neutral ) .     ---that was where we smuggled all the Jews and what not.

So here we are on a fantastic scanderhoovian summersday going for a class
outing  to Saltholm by cattle barge. Saltholm is between Sweden and Denmark.

What does that have to do with GLOWPLUGS ?   you may ask ?.

Read on .

I had red hair and freckles  and all kids like that are sensitive to jokes. Like ANNE
of green gables "  Carrothead  "   ? yes I was sensitive.

The engine on the barge was a single cylinder big diesel.   100 RPM stuff ?  ---
so when the Skipper was trying to get the diesel going early in the morning ?
yep I was in his hair  just like Dennis the menise would be.

I asked him what kind of Diesel it was ---he was holding a big gasoline blowtorch on
part of the cylinderhead ---he looked up at me and said "GLOWHEAD" ----I left him
alone after that.   ----It was many years later that I discovered  that yes indeed--
that is what it was.  He was NOT joking about my red hair.    So yes I am highly 
experienced when it comes to glowplugs.

After the blowtorch ?  what came next ?   ---the gunpowder fuse ---yup   it looked
like a cigarette and it srewed in a holder in the cylinderhead -----Pyrotechnic
glow ? bet your ass --and it worked.   NATO stuff.   Genset for a RADAR station.

Why all this bullshit ?    Mark Shepherd would say ?   ---why not use spark plugs ?
yes indeed . And there are diesels using just that.   IMHO   nothing works better for
starting a Diesel than sparkplugs.

But my Bunny Bondo  and I ?  ---we will stay with Glowplugs .   BOSCH   second generation
nothing else will do.

Why use the fuselink ?  as a shunt ?   it is the only place where there is a big 
voltage drop.    To do it really well ? install a REAL shunt and a moving coil meter.

On the fuse ? ---use only digital meters.  ---And if fuse blows ---just switch meter to
say 20 volt scale  ---- and say aha aha   fuse is blown the meter shows 12 volts.

The BOSCH glowplugs are not 12 volt plugs. They are 11 volt plugs for  good
reasons.----

Fast or Slow ?   ---my guess is that , that refers to diesel warmup not the plugs.
I put the plugs side by side Fast and Slow ---and I saw no real difference in glow time.

BUT the NEW plug system stayes on during warmup of engine ---the OLD plug system turns off the
minute you hit the starter switch.

Sandy Cameron was that a FORD  starter relay that I used for glowplugs on the
1982 Rabbit ?    Nothing works better than a manual glowplug control.

Go to a BOBCAT 743  guy and see for yourself.    Start the diesel and turn the key
to the left and heat the plugs till diesel runs smooth. That is what  VW calls 
"AFTERGLOW" .  period. And it works.

Enter GM 5.7 V8 diesel gang ?   bunch of IDIOTS:   IMHO.    Mistake number one?
A cylinderhead with exhaust valves side by side ? stupid.

Then they had to make the Olds V8 start on a cold morning ?   fast glowplug a la
GM stupidity.    Lets use a 6 volt plug --that will be fast on a 12 volt system ?

So they did.     IDIOTS.

So how do you really start a diesel at 42 below ?   ----experience and a lot of praying
on your knees.  At 42 below you need blockheaters and lots of battery power and skinny synthetic lube oil.  ---- even a gasser is hard to start at 42 below.

So how did those yankees make the Alaska highway ? in winter.   Simple they never shut down
the diesels.

I often wondered how those Krauts started the JUMO 205 in the winter of 1942 ---
but start they did.    I was there and when the Siberian express rolled in 
in 1942 1943 starting anything was a task.  I near froze to death. for lack of blankets.

The worst experience ?  --eating blue frozen potatoes.----Give me a big bowl of
oatmeal anytime.


Here I am survivor class one A.    ---and Bunny Bondo  will start.

Remember this place is  X %  education  X % FUN  X % saving money .

For Rabbit owners I know of NO better place. ---PERIOD.

Thank you Loren and James Hansen and Val Christian    and  Doyt   and    oh boy I am
getting in to shit ---   how not to ignore someone ---Roger Brown and  all
 ---ok sufficient to say I read  ALL threads , the best I can.   And I have a sponge type
memory   --I soak up every little piece of information and evaluate it --- and the outcome ?
a diesel that works.
And I brag no end locally about the 78 miles on a gallon Imp on a 20 year old
Rabbit ---that is as good as a New LUPO ? --ah maybe not  they probably use US gallons.

Was it not RUDOLF   with the glowplug nose ?.

Hagar.