Tow/bump starting diesel?

The mechanic did say something about the high compression.

There was plenty of power in the battery, it was a glow plug problem, or I would have jump started it.

So ignoring the high diesel compression that may (probably not) damage the motor, would it have started with a tow but no glow plugs?

I do know that if I was out bush I would have tried.

Bruno,
My 1HZ is 23.5:1 compression ratio so it does take some turning over and is the reason I select 3rd gear to start. In 1st gear you wouldn't budge it. Fantastic engine braking though. On smaller diesels with crank handle starting an unloading lever is used on the valves so you could rotate the engine and get some speed up, then push the lever over to start it.
If ithe weather is too cold it will not have enough heat in the compressed air to ignite the inlected fuel. A bit of aerostart sprayed into the air filter can be used sparingly. Now that can cause a bit of bearing damage if overdone. Diesel Engines that are required to start in a cold area would have crankcase heaters fitted to avoid starting problems.
I still wouldn't worry about push or tow strarting a diesel.

Cheers,
Bill

hi we had an inter a554 tractor withglow plugs
a few times when the glowplugs were faulty
we;d put it in 4th gear give it a small squirt of ether and tow it
it would start with a cloud of smoke blouching from within and run a bit rough for about a minute
the other inter was direct start and we quiet often parked it on the steep dam bank at night and would roll start it next day in high gear no problems

as long as there"s enough battery power to open the fuel seneniod i can;t see why any diesel would"nt tow start in 4th or 5th gear some text book trained mechanics dont believe a lot of things can be done

all due respects to them some of them have never worked outside a computorized workshop enviroment
cheers

Thanks muchly for your replies

It had me scratching my head, but not wanting to kill a motor, especially someone else's, I thought this would be a good place to ask.

Cheer,
Bruno

Doen't even need to be ether based. Most aerosols will work.

Doug,
You win no one can top that:-))

Cheers,
Bill

Bill
Yes the old Troopy was gruntin', front hubs locked, low range reverse, and the Detroit lockers were working wonderful.

.

Hey, I've also tow started a semi trailer (albeit the trailer was empty!)

Bloody heavy I must say & traction was an issue on the truck parking spot (loose gravel!)

Anyway the truckie flagged me down at a truck stop & luckily he knew what he was doing, got it going on about the 4th attempt after waiting long enough for me to get up some speed - otherwise when he let the clutch out we just stopped with all 4 wheels still spinning!

The smell of burning MT's was definitely in the air.

90 series Diesel Prado Auto on BFG MT's.

He was impressed with the power of the Prado, I initially didn't use low range, just H4, but then tried L2 & found that a little easier on the car. It wasn't really ever straining, I just needed to supply enough throttle to feed enough momentum into the truck. Interesting the wife & kids enjoyed it!

Cheers

Correction used H4 1st gear then L4 2nd (2nd gear start) :) Cheers

Hey Doug why did you bother locking the hubs for a small tow like that?.
More seriously why reverse?
I guess once the momentum is high enough the inertia will do the job, was that a D9 or bigger on the back.
I once got accused of cruelty to dumb animals towing a truck&trailer loaded with cattle to rescue after a mechanical brake down with the old petrol FJ45.
That reminds me as we have a bit of a flood here again.
Got a call years ago from the local transport, their rig had been stopped by a tourist bus and could not get passed, the river was rising quite fast so gave the old girl a spray with CRC and went down and pulled the Jap bus with 30 panicking passengers out to home, silly bugger had tried driving through with a vehicle that had the air intake behind the front bumper, hydrauliced it of course, got the tourists home then got another call, the stock truck was having problems.
As the river was rising fast thought at least I would pick the driver up, ended up backing down the road with the doors open so we wouldn't float, got there found he had he cut a corner a little and put the trailer into the water table, the water level was well up past the knees to the uncomfortable stage, but as I still had the drag chain chucked on the back we hooked up and with a bit of luck got him out.
He carried on his way.
We had the tourists for the night.

Reverse , 2 good D-shackles on the ARB bullbar and i could see whats going on.

.