Parking lot full of neighbors at Flagstaff WalMart
We made great time getting out of bed, making breakfast, eating, cleaning up, and preparing the coach for travel. Congratulating each other, we crowed about the great time we'd make today and the great many miles we would travel.
Turns out, monster diesel engines designed in 1938 don't like to start when cold.
Sure, I knew about the block heater and how to plug it in to the generator or at a campground, and how long to run it...and was planning to do that if we ever found ourselves camping in Minnesota in the winter!
I didn't know this needed to be done if the temperature was going to touch the high-30s for an hour overnight. If we'd known that, we'd have stayed at a campground last night and plugged in the block heater instead of trying to dry camp in a WM parking lot.
Since the engine compartment door opens so completely and the engine is so big - so much metal exposed to the sun - the engine usually can absorb a lot of heat just from direct sunshine. Even though the sun was shining brightly and the overall temperature was moving into the 40s, a cold wind was continuing to cool the engine faster than the sun was warming it.
This engine had always started immediately - another major improvement over our previous RV. Theoretically, this engine will start in 1/2 rotation when warm. Can't verify that through personal experience, though it does start pretty much instantly. This morning, we'd crank the starter for 4-5 seconds at a time, and we could tell it simply wasn't going to start.
Called the seller - he revealed the engine really likes to be plugged in for any temperatures below 50 degrees. If our generator was working, we could have used it to power the block heater while we relaxed for an hour, and then the engine would have started right up. So the seller said, "just use ether." I had read about this online, though a lot of people seemed to be against it, and I didn't really know what it entailed. It seemed that these buses originally had little cups where ether capsules were inserted for cold weather starting, though I don't think ours has any cups like that. When I replied I've never seen ether capsules on the shelf in WalMart, the seller revealed he simply meant starter fluid spray - the same as you use for your car.
So I bought a can of starting fluid in WM for $2.77, and we tried again to start the engine. I gave a small burst of starting fluid into the air intake while Lone turned over the starter. It didn't take, though the engine seemed to consider the idea. On the second try, I gave it a big beefy copious spray, and the engine started instantly.
Later, I read in the engine manual that this was just the way it was back in the day: the bus operator should go load an ether capsule if the temperature is below 40, and two capsules if the temperature is below 0.
So now we know...that knowledge cost us about two hours of time.
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