Chinese Tractor Owners Association

dittio, I have a Jinma 285  with glow plugs and added a kat inline water heater and at 19 degrees  f. fires up first time  where before  it may have taken 2 or 3 cranks.

I don't use a block heater. I hold the comp release open and turn the engine over until the oil pressure comes up. When that happens you have also put some fuel into the cylinders. Then I hold the glow plugs on for from 15 to 30 seconds depending on how cold it is then with the comp release open I turn the engine over for about 2 seconds and then close the comp release and most the time it will start.

If it don't I repeat the process from where I held the glow plugs on and it usually fires right up. 

   For the last 3 years I would not have agreed with Phillip. I was wrong! Don't simply trust a total current reading as indication that your glow plugs are ALL working. I have 3 new glow plugs that combined draw only 20A and my NT254 will now start down at least as cold as 10 degrees, haven't had anything colder than that to test it in yet, with 15 to 30 seconds on the glow plugs and no block heater. My tractor came to me new in 2008 with 2 dead plugs and one drawing about 25A so I never seperated them from each other and actually tested each one until just a week ago. I had resigned myself to the conclusion that the glow plugs were about useless, in my case though I only had one that was working. I have used a block heater for the last 3 years and even came up with a modification to quickly attach a hair dryer or heat gun. What Phillip says is true though, if those glow plugs are working as they are suppose to, they will usually always fire up pretty quickly.