Does anyone know if a grid heater, glow plugs, or some other sort of "start assist" can be added to an older Case 480c tractor?

There's a Case 480c for sale, and I don't know much about the tractor except it's an 80's model, according to the seller.

 

If it is a 4BT 3.9 I don't know why you would want to.

But yea, you could rig up a 5.9 B grid heater and solenoids with a push button.

 

It's a 188D motor, rated at 55hp. Could a grid heater be added to this motor?

 

Sorry, get me out of the Cummins world and I am about as useless as our current crop of Politicians......

Does it have a removable manifold plate? If so, you could take it off and have it machined to accept a B style GH.

Post a picture of the intake area.

 

[QUOTE=patdaly;2643764]Sorry, get me out of the Cummins world and I am about as useless as our current crop of Politicians......[QUOTE]



I'll get a picture (or pictures) from the seller showing the manifod area. Thanks for the help. If I can get some sort of heating element to asist in with cold starts, I might buy this tractor. Do you know anything about the 480c? Looks like it was only built for a few years. Is that a bad thing?

 

Alot of ag/industrial machines have a cold start assist that screws into the intake manifold and has a little fuel resovoir above it that is part of the the return line system. When you heat it up with 12v, the coil in starts to glow red and the heat from that opens a valve and lets the fuel drip into and on the red hot element. Its not uncommon to here a little whoo when the fuel ignites. Probably not the best setup, but its better than nothing and will usually mean the difference between starting or not.

 

Interesting. What is this system called? Thanks for the info.

 

Here's one I managed to find on ebay

 

MY JD 4020 has a coolant heater on it. Plug it in and it warms the coolant which warms the block and helps it to start in cold weather. Aftermarket ones that can be plumbed into the coolant lines shouldn't be too expensive. I've started without glow plugs on some below zero days once it has been plugged in a few hours.

 

The one on my 4020 looks a lot like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Unive...Q5fAccessories

 

Gentlemen, thank you for all the info. I think this is what I need. I want to be able to start the tractor in the winter without having to plug it in the night before. I’ll try to post some pics of the intake when I get them. I hope this piece is compatible and will work.

 

I tried one of these on my car, but I could never get the water to flow through when the car was running. I can only assume "operator error", because the opening did not have any obvious obstructions, and the heating element inside got very hot.

Thanks for the link and help though.

 

UPDATE: The seller advised me the head would need to be drilled and glow plugs added. Does this sound reasonable??? If so, I'm getting the tractor in a few days. I'll add a block-heater and keep it in my garage until I can have the glow plug system added next summer.

 

Chris, if you buy it just do a coolant heater. It don't get cold enough around here to warrant installing glow plugs plust the block heater is WAY cheaper

 

I thought about that, but I don't want to have to "plug" the motor in for several hours before I use it. At least when I don't plug in my truck, my only issue is no heater for the 1st 15 miles or so haha.

Will a block heater/coolant heater get the motor warm enough to actually start in cold weather (Edgewood)?

Until recently, I thought all diesels had glow plugs/grid heaters.