Posted by Willy-N on Monday, January 03, 2005 at 10:20PM :
In Reply to: Diesel question.... posted by Jonas on Monday, January 03, 2005 at 9:58PM :
The purpose of a glow plug is to heat up the air that is drawn into the precombustion chamber to assist starting, especially in cold weather. Glow plugs are common on precombustion chamber engines, but not on direct injection diesels because they use shaped piston crowns that produce a very effective turbulence to the air in the cylinder. Direct injection engines also have less immediate heat loss to the surrounding cylinder area than in a precombustion engine and generally have a higher injection spray-in pressure. My Cat 3208 does not have glow plugs but like to be heated some when it gets around 30 degs for easy starting of it. Mark H.
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